Chapter 193: Delicious Dairy (2)

When Kragami sent RIno a barrel of vinegar along with three barrels of beer to Town Zera, Rio did not know if he would ever finish using the vinegar. Now, he knew exactly how he was going to use them.

Although it was potato vinegar, Rino had a feeling it would still do the job of changing the goat milk into goat cheese. He had the salt ready and the huge clay pot on the temperature regulating stove.

Cheesemaking was a delicate process, and Rino called Zes over with some of the genesis fairies. As this was Rino's first time putting his cheesemaking knowledge to practical use, many things could still go wrong.

The cheese tub he ordered to be custom made almost two weeks ago proved to be the right decision. Now, he looked at the markings at the side of the pot as Zes helped to pour the barrel of goat's milk. Rino was looking at a proportion of one part vinegar and four parts milk.

With one barrel of goat's milk in the cheese tub, Rino activated the fire rune on the stove on medium intensity.

He could not tell the milk's temperature, but from the enthusiastic sharing of his chef in the previous world, Rino knew that milk boiled very quickly. He wanted to avoid that all cost and told Zes to stir the milk slowly without stopping in the cheese tub as he watched with hawk vision.

As soon as the first bubble escaped the white liquid surface, Rino lowered the intensity of the heat to low. He continued monitoring it and adjusted the fire output accordingly, explaining the importance of heat control to the genesis fairies on duty.

"Slowly stir in the vinegar, don't stop stirring the pot. You should start seeing solids form and keep the heat on low always. Warm the milk, but don't let it boil."

The fairies did as Rino commanded, and Zes kept stirring the pot as the vinegar drizzled into the pot until the total amount of liquid inside reached the pot's marking at the side. Rino commanded them to stop when it reached the marking and told Zes to continue stirring it for a few more minutes as Rino deactivated the fire rune on the stove beneath.

Everyone held their breaths as Rino inspected the pot. The cheese bits looked good, and Rino had a feeling this was a success. Now, all they had to do was strain it using cotton cloths and shape it into something easy to slice.

A new barrel was rolled over as the genesis fairies tied the cotton cloths over the top of the barrel. Once all the cheese bits were separated from the soured milk, Rino was determined to squeeze them dry by twisting the cotton cloth. The rest of the liquid was disposed of and poured into the field as extra water. Rino only wanted these cheese bits and set them into a large mixing bowl, sprinkling a generous handful of salt while mixing the bits.

The genesis fairies took a sneak taste of the mixed cheese bits while Rino looked for a suitable paper wrapper for the cheese cube he was going to make. It was delicious, and Zes gave in to temptation, stealing a small piece for a taste when Rino caught him red-handed.

Instead of getting angry, Rino smirked.

"Is it good?"

Nodding, Zes and the genesis fairies blushed. Rino laughed and convinced them that more delicious food will come in the future.

"We still need to resolve the in-breeding problem if we don't want strange cheese and milk," he told them.

Sheila and Kamiya were working on finding new animals around the vicinity, and Rino had no problems waiting for them to find new animals. Zes still had plenty of nanny goats to milk, so there would be more cheese. The only real problem was their dead-end with the grindstone research. Without it, they could not make the flour that was needed to bake a pizza.

Rino already had a schematic for a mana operated oven now that he knew how to design temperature regulating fire runes. The spell was slightly more complex, but it wasn't anything Rino couldn't manage. 

The oven wasn't very different from a furnace that he also included in his river stone cottage design. That was going to be his personal blacksmithing workshop. Rino looked forward to the automatic water wheel system to help him with grinding, churning, smithing and more.

Now that Rino had his cheese wheel and butter boxes, he encouraged Zes to make more for Town Zera's consumption. To motivate them, Rino let them in on a secret that cheese went really well when stuffed into minced meat patties that they could fry over a hot stone plate.

Rino mounted on Mutt with his goodies as they set off for Cypress County with the delicious dairy products. He couldn't wait to see how he could complete the newest side quest while he was there.

The gods did not specify what kind of statue they wanted, and Rino had the perfect location for such a statue worthy of offering. The location was too perfect, and the model was nothing short of perfection. Rino only wondered what the model would say when they returned to see it.

Rino reached Cypress County in an hour and was welcomed by Kragami and a very scared fairy hiding in his teacher's robes.

"Good to see you again, teacher and Rina."

The fairy squeaked and apologised profusely, but Kragami shushed her.

"You were faster than I thought you would be. Come, this is no place to talk. The milk the delivery rabbits sent yesterday goes surprisingly well with the bitter roasted coffee seeds and strong tea flavours from roasted leaves. I think many people will start loving this."

Rino chuckled. If his teacher thought that milk was a great discovery, he might have a heart attack to know just how heavenly it is. Dairy products that could be made from milk alone were more precious than the drink itself.

As Kragami poured his students some coffee and tea, Rina dared not meet Rino's eyes. The lich did not break the silence to entertain the topic first. He enjoyed watching Rina's suffering and amused himself with her discomfort until Kragami set the clay cups down.

"Stop bullying her. You were away. Who would have known mana-water grown grass would cause rapid growth in the animals you captured?"

Rina quickly took refuge behind the necromancer's sleeve and nodded furiously.

"I stopped after the first five goats grew, but the hogs took a lot of effort to contain! You can ask Sheila and Zes if you don't believe me. Quasimodo helped too, and he was even injured. The fence we built was already broken and the fields ruined. I spent a long time reinforcing everything before we finally got the situation under control."

Rino did not blame her. The summary Rina gave him was chaotic enough. He did not need to go into details about the traumatic experience his farmers suffered because of it. However, he wouldn't let her go without explaining why she thought sneaking in breeding grass into the grazing field was a good idea.

When Kragami heard that Rina snuck some breeding grass into the grazing field, he raised a brow, and Rina blushed.

"I-I just thought that it would be nice to have a constant supply of milk all year round. Besides, the only animals who should be eating that grass are the goats. The rabbits and quails are upstairs. They wouldn't be affected. Who would have thought that the pygmy hogs ate grass as well. I thought they only ate potatoes."

Indeed, he didn't know that pygmy hogs ate grass as well. He thought they only ate root plants and corn. It was a new discovery that nobody was expecting.

"The milk supply, you will have. Just don't do things like this again without first informing me. In-breeding is a scary thing. That's why I came today. It's not just to chat with Rina but to propose a few things."

All ears, Kragami and Rina leaned in to listen to the things Rino wanted to introduce. When Rino told them about the statue he wanted to build in every region, they agreed. Rino need not travel to and fro so frequently, and they need not worry about storage issues for surplus harvests with the offering stations.

"This," Rino said before he left. "Is something Zes and the fairies made today with me. It's something that we made out of milk. Let me know if you like it. Be careful with the butter. It needs to be close to the magic array for the rune in the box to constantly keep it chill. Butter melts easily, but it is a good replacement for animal fat. You can use it to give the mashed potatoes a better flavour and add in chunks of meat."

Although Rina and Kragami did not know what butter and cheese were, they were thrilled to know that these new dairy products were very versatile in use. Cooking with them would be a game-changer, and the excitement only elevated when Rino dropped the design for an oven on the table, requesting for them to build one with a better temperature control system.

Leaving his teacher and junior sister to work on the culinary advancements, Rino teleported to the clay mine. It was time to test his artistic skills.