Chapter 1128: with translation of chapter title

"Yeah." Xie Yiren said, "Supposedly there are a lot of fake beef and fake steak."

"Hmm." Su Yun nodded, "Marinate pork with beef paste and it becomes steak. The steak at mass-market steak restaurants is sometimes too tender, to the point you can't taste the beef, or else it's marinated with enough black pepper and other flavors to mask the spoilage—that's roughly the idea."

Feng Xu Hui felt a chill run down his spine.

"Another is pieced-together beef. This is also common: buy ground beef, then use special food glue to stick several pieces together, and you have a steak. I've seen the promotional material for that glue—basically just boil it, you can't tear it apart by hand. Like the New Zealand strip loin or ribeye sold for around 148 for ten pieces on some treasure site, they're basically all like that."

Feng Xu Hui was stunned…… Last year during Double 11, I actually bought some steak, probably because I had no appetite to eat it.

He didn't want to talk about this topic anymore; given Su Yun's expertise, if she said something even more disgusting, I guess I'd never want to eat… never want to see steak again. Even all meat would lose its appeal; seeing it would make me think of black-market workshops.

"Why must steak be eaten half-cooked?" Feng Xu Hui asked.

"Little Feng, do you always eat it well-done?" Su Yun asked with a smile. Zheng Ren stared ahead, lost in thought. If he saw Su Yun's expression, he'd know what she was thinking.

"Yeah, raw you can't chew it." Feng Xu Hui replied offhand, not understanding Su Yun that deeply.

He thought that medium-rare steak was just imitating foreigners, a kind of slavish admiration of foreign things. But he didn't dare say that in the car, lest he offend many people.

"The flavor of steak largely comes from fat. To be honest, you really need to eat it medium-rare."

"Huh?"

"Cattle either eat grass or grain. Grass-fed beef is tougher……" Su Yun hesitated, then smiled: "Let me put it this way: the more expensive steaks come from grain-fed cattle. Riben Kobe beef, that Tajima cattle, used to graze and drink dew. Now they also feed them rice straw, corn, and wheat."

"Drink dew?"

"In the past, but now they drink pure water. When I was doing an Experiment I wanted to use Tajima cattle, but that side is strictly controlled, I couldn't get purebred Tajima cattle." Su Yun sounded regretful, "But anyway, what are we working on? Can't we stump them?"

Feng Xu Hui thought, "Aren't you in clinical work? How could you still be connected to Riben Kobe Tajima cattle?"

"Did you get the Tajima cattle's stem cells?" Zheng Ren asked, surprised, turning his head.

"No, it's strictly controlled, I can't get any. I got fresh Tajima beef, preparing to culture stem cells." Su Yun said proudly.

Zheng Ren frowned, can ordinary cells be reverse-cultured into stem cells?

"Too bad, my former Boss said the project was fundamentally impossible, so he shut it down." Su Yun said regretfully.

"Any ideas?" Zheng Ren immediately thought of the True Eye, but just thinking about it made his head hurt.

"Give it a try; if we can culture it and produce cloned Tajima cattle, then it'll be Kobe begging not to cry." Su Yun said with a smile.

"Other conditions don't match either; I guess the beef quality would be worse." Zheng Ren finally started thinking about the steak, and Su Yun smiled slightly.

"Why?" Feng Xu Hui didn't understand at all.

"The grading standard for steak is based on the fat distribution in the ribeye; the more fat, the higher the grade. Raising Kobe Tajima cattle requires at least 28 months—how much grain would they need to eat?" Zheng Ren said solemnly: "Small-scale breeding might be possible, but it absolutely cannot be rolled out nationwide. Once that happens, international grain prices would rise."

"……" Feng Xu Hui never imagined that eating a steak could be linked to international grain prices.

"Fat that slowly marbles like marble makes the steak the most delicious. Just thinking about it makes it smell good." Su Yun said.

"Mm-hmm." Xiao Yi Ren nodded repeatedly, "The melting point of beef fat is between 42 and 50 degrees Celsius, so in a well-done steak the fat turns to liquid and loses its soul."

"Right! Xiao Yi Ren is right!" Su Yun immediately said, "What's good about a soulless steak?"

"Overcooking also makes the beef fibers contract too much, squeezing out the juices, ultimately making this steak dry, tough, and tasteless." Zheng Ren added.

"Yo ho, Boss, you who eat instant noodles every day, when you talk about steak you spout a whole set of theories." Su Yun said contemptuously.

"Never eaten beef, never seen a cow run? What's written in books, you remember after one look. I've already imagined in my mind what the finished product would taste like; whether I eat it or not is no longer important." Zheng Ren said earnestly, spouting nonsense.

Feng Xu Hui was completely bewildered.

Reading a book once and remembering it is understandable. But does mentally outlining and simulating eating a steak count as having eaten it? Chief Zheng's mental world is truly rich……

"Actually, the usual 'doneness' levels are wrong. Three-done is medium-rare, five-done is medium, seven-done is medium-well; that's the more common usage." Su Yun said.

"That doesn't matter, it's just a way of speaking. How much is 'a little' in a recipe?" Zheng Ren finally regained some energy.

"This isn't about fearing nitpickers standing up to spit at me." Su Yun also didn't care, saying offhand, "Actually, money is most important. Bring a credit card, go to a Michelin restaurant in Manhattan, tell him I, the young master, want a 2π-done steak; if he can't make it, see how I'll rebut him."

2π…… Feng Xu Hui was speechless. He could roughly recall π to ten decimal places, but times two left him puzzled.

"Fresh steak is delicious." Xiao Yi Ren said, unconsciously the car speed had reached the limit, and Zheng Ren could feel her heart racing with excitement.

"No matter what you eat, it must be fresh." Su Yun nodded, agreeing with Xiao Yi Ren, "For example, to tell whether a fish served in a restaurant is freshly caught or frozen, there's a simplest method: eat the fish eye."

If the fish eye tastes like tofu residue, soft and lacking texture, then it's definitely been frozen.

If the fish eye is tasty and juicy, then it's definitely a live fish within 24 hours. It's said that in the 1920s, the aristocratic young ladies of Modu's noble families, when dining out for social engagements, would only eat this one chopstick of fish.

"That's affected. I don't believe that after Modu fell, they still ate like that." Zheng Ren scoffed.

"Boss, you're a total nitpicker." Su Yun sighed, "You're so good at raising objections, does your Yi Ren know?"

When mentioning your Yi Ren, Xie Yiren's face suddenly flushed. But she didn't stay silent; she earnestly nodded and said, "Zheng Ren is right."

Su Yun spread her hands, speechless.