How the Sausage Gets Made (pt 2)

Writers: Yvonne
Date Posted: 30th May 2024

Characters: Oselle
Description: Darret demonstrates his sausage making device.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 1, day 13 of Turn 12

The steam powered meat grinder was set up in the furthest corner of the kitchen and scheduled for a test after the dinner rush and clean up. The candle in the corner was nearing its base. Oselle stood with her arms crossed, staring at the thing-- and Darret, who was squawking and flapping around his contraption like an overexcited wherry.

"All you do is add the water here, like so--" he said, pouring a glass of water into a funnel that drained... somewhere. "--and then you'll transfer hot coal-- black rock is best-- from the fire into the firebox, here." Darret undid a latch to reveal a gaping hole in the contraption, then looked expectantly at Oselle.

She frowned, then nodded at the assistant cook tasked with helping her test the device. There was no way that she'd let the head cook watch the demonstration-- if it blew them up, who would prepare breakfast for the dragonriders? Leron scuttled over to the fire and returned with a small shovel of live embers, which he carefully dumped into the firebox under Darret's direction.

"The water will heat up in the firetubes and become steam, which is vented here." Darrett tapped a flue that angled sharply to the floor. "Make sure nobody sticks their foot in it. The steam will move the turbines, which will move the grinding plate."

"And when will this miraculous event happen?" Oselle ignored the obvious safety hazard of hot steam angled at the floor. Surely that was something one of the Weyr technicians could fix. If she even approved this stupid machine.

"Just a few moments. You're probably worrying about cleaning it." Darret grinned, revealing that missing back tooth again. "Well, don't. The feeding horn and grinding plate are easy enough to take off. Just open this latch here--" he demonstrated, "--and they unscrew as easy as anything. See? Same goes for every piece that touches meat."

The Headwoman winced as he stuck his fingers in the hole and somehow finangled the grinding sheet out. It was a familiar enough contraption; a flat metal sheet with holes that the meat would get squished through with the aid of a wooden spoon expressly for that purpose.

Darret put the grinder plate and horn back on and closed the latch. The device was starting to make a faint whistling sound. "Ah! Hear that? Almost ready!"

Leron's eyes grew wide. "I do hear it!"

"It's a gorgeous sound, isn't it?!" Darret gestured at the large bowl of meat on the counter. They'd been shooing firelizards off it for the last candlemark, and even as Darret pointed at it a little green nuisance popped out of /between/ and made a dive for the bowl.

Leron flapped a towel at her as the firelizard fled back /between/. "Shoo!"

Oselle pinched the bridge of her nose. Sharding things. "Can we start now?"

"Of course! Leron, would you do us the honour?" Darret swept a bow, exposing another two fingers of wrist as he did so.

Oselle wondered if she should let him into the clothing stores to find a shirt that would fit him properly. She decided that she would if the device worked, but if they got blown up by his little steam engine then he deserved to creep home wrapped in tatters and shame.

Leron tucked the towel into his apron, then peered into the horn. "The grinder is actually going pretty fast..."

"That's the beauty of it! Twice the result with half the work!" Darret said.

"Here we go." Leron dumped the contents of the bowl into the grinder, then started pushing the meat down with the wooden spoon. Less than a heartbeat later a pink sludge started oozing from the nozzle at the end. Leron stopped his work to grab a sample, which he rubbed between his forefinger and thumb. "This is... actually really smooth, Headwoman."

She wrinkled her nose. "It looks more like a paste than sausage filling."

"This could be really interesting to work with. I wonder if we could put it into moulds... we could make little meat shapes for the next Hatching. I bet this would mix really nicely for pies, too." Leron hmmed a little longer, then wiped the sample on his apron and pushed the rest of the meat through the grinder.

Oselle knew a lost cause when she saw one. As soon as the head chef heard back from Leron, Darret would be barred from taking the flaming thing with him when he left the Weyr. The device still made her nervous but if they only used it late at night when no one else was in the kitchen, then hopefully only the cook working it would be blown to bits.

"Well, what do you think?" Darret asked.

"We'll take it!" Leron said quickly.

Oselle suppressed a sigh. She _hated_ being interrupted. "We will keep the one device, Darret. _With_ the manual. And you will work with Leron here over the next two days of your visit to train him, and anyone else of his choosing, on how to operate and clean this thing."

"I hate to talk about marks, but..." Darret grinned again. "Perhaps we could meet tomorrow evening over a bottle of wine to discuss the sale?"

"Perhaps tomorrow morning over klah," Oselle said firmly. She then turned to Leron. "I would like a sausage for breakfast tomorrow so I can see how this thing performs. The machine will need to be cool and cleaned up before the breakfast shift tomorrow. Understand?"

"Yes, Headwoman." Leron poked his finger into the pink meaty slime, already entranced and only half paying attention. "Cook's going to be so excited... this was no work at all to make."

She left Darret and Leron to their own devices and headed for bed. The last thing she heard before she left the kitchens was, "I wonder if I could make a meat dish that looks like fruit?"

Oselle sighed and made a note to pay _very_ close attention to the next Hatching menu.

Last updated on the June 1st 2024

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How the Sausage Gets Made (pt 2)