CHAPTER 60: CHAPTER 60: ADVANCE, CRAB ROE BUNS

Wang Fan acted a bit like a tycoon, but not overwhelmingly so.

Mainly because he initially found that there weren’t many hairy crabs left, the owner gave all the remaining stock to Wang Fan, totaling only about 200.

But even for these 200 or so, Wang Fan spent nearly 1,500 yuan, and this was after the owner gave him a 10% discount for buying the lot.

or so hairy crabs look like a lot, but it’s actually just over 70 pounds.

These crabs weren’t oxygen-deprived; they were lively, waving their big claws.

The meat yield from crabs is at most 40%, so in total, only about 28 pounds could be used for stuffing.

Wang Fan’s usual habit is to make 40 steamed buns per pound of stuffing, and with other ingredients counted in, at most it would make around 1,500 crab roe buns.

Looking at the pile of crabs in front of him, Wang Fan rubbed his chin and started to think.

Since he finally decided to splurge this time, he should just focus on making crab roe buns; making anything else might cause flavors to mix.

As for pricing, he definitely couldn’t match other places that sell 6 buns for 160 yuan; those places have high fame and expensive rent, setting such a price would be too exploitative.

But the cost of this is indeed quite high, pricing it too low would incur significant losses.

Altogether, it cost 1,500 yuan, which breaks down to essentially buying 28 pounds of meat for 1,500 yuan, less than 54 yuan per pound...

I’ve got it!

Wang Fan’s eyes lit up, and he made a direct decision.

yuan per bun, but they will be made larger than normal, about half the size bigger than the usual small steamed buns.

This way there is some profit to be made, and it can still be considered good value for money, after all, he’s using genuine ingredients.

After buying the crab roe buns, Wang Fan went and bought 10 old hens and a big bag of pork skins; the broth made from these two is the key to making the crab roe buns juicy.

Wang Fan knew that he could use Hextech to save costs at this step, for example by buying gelatin sheets, soaking them in water and adding chicken essence concentrated broth, which would completely save the cost of the old hens, allowing him to earn more money.

But now Wang Fan felt that the most enjoyable part was the process of making food, rather than earning more and more money, which was secondary value and should not take precedence over crafting food.

After buying some green onion, ginger, garlic, and other seasonings, Wang Fan drove home.

He had no idea how to handle crabs.

In his past life, these little things were considered luxury items; not only had he never eaten crab roe buns, but he hadn’t had hairy crabs many times either.

Luckily, although he didn’t know how to eat them, he knew how to steam them.

After cleaning the hairy crabs, he placed them belly-up in the steamer, put a few slices of ginger on each crab, sprinkled a bit of Hua Diao wine evenly, and then turned on the heat.

With the support of "Listening to the Wind and Discriminating the Flavor," whenever a batch of crabs was done steaming, he would immediately remove the steaming layer.

The hairy crabs in the steamer had all turned a bright red, with some even having the roe seeping out.

It wasn’t until he saw these few hairy crabs that Wang Fan understood why the system recipe specifically instructed to steam crabs laying down.

In front of his large steamer, 200 crabs were steamed in just half an hour, and all the hairy crabs were placed into the ingredient preservation box, this bug-like tool.

Wang Fan then kneaded the dough and let it rise, and set the broth to boil on low heat for a slow simmer, with the heat so low and enough water in the pot that there was no risk of it burning, even if it simmered for seven or eight hours.

As the water in the broth pot gradually boiled, Wang Fan skimmed off the foam and fished out the pork skins.

Taking out a kitchen knife, Wang Fan used his "relentless iron hand" to give the pork skins a thorough massage.

Pork skins generally have some leftover fat, and Wang Fan’s massage was to scrape off all this fat.

After scraping off the fat, the pork skins were put back into the pot, and Wang Fan lay on his bed for a little nap.

About two hours later, Wang Fan opened his eyes.

Lifting the lid of the broth pot, the rich and delicious aroma wafted out with a large burst of steam.

The old hens were boiled beyond recognition, and the pork skins had become especially soft and sticky; the bright yellow broth looked particularly enticing.

After fishing out the old hens and pork skins, Wang Fan removed the meat from the old hens to combine with the pork skins he took out from the broth.

These are good ingredients that shouldn’t be wasted; making pork skin jelly with them would be excellent.

Wang Fan sprinkled a handful of salt into the broth pot, covered it, and then moved it to the yard.

At outdoor temperatures of a few degrees below zero, chilling the broth to solidify is more efficient than using a refrigerator.

With all the preparations complete, Wang Fan let out a long sigh of relief, opened his bed, and dived under the covers, delighting in how comfortable it was to take a nap.

...

"Ding, the idle system has been activated."

The system was always punctual.

Upon hearing the prompt in his mind, Wang Fan’s consciousness awoke as well; this was the mental cue he gave himself before sleep so as not to miss the system’s impressive actions.

Idle Wang Fan opened the ingredient preservation box and brought out a still steaming hairy crab.

With nimble fingers, he held the crab and with a gentle flick, the crab cover was lifted open with a "crack," exposing the full crab roe to Wang Fan’s eyes.

After removing the crab’s reproductive system and heart, he pressed down on the crab’s head with his thumb, and a complete piece of crab roe was pressed out by idle Wang Fan.

Then he pinched the crab’s teeth and gently tore it, pinched one centimeter down, and tore again; the teeth and crab’s stomach were removed.

The entire process was swift and accurate, leaving Wang Fan’s consciousness greatly impressed.

I really have a long way to go!

The body part of the crab was quickly dealt with by idle Wang Fan, with the unmeaty legs, the crab’s gills, and lungs swiftly removed.

With a few snaps, some hefty crab legs were detached and set aside.

Taking out scissors, he cut the crab legs into two and used a thinner crab leg to gently push under the thicker part, extracting a whole crab meat leg.

Disassembling an entire crab took just about twenty seconds.

Wang Fan’s consciousness carefully inspected the removed crab shell, and after looking, couldn’t help but express admiration, "With this level of cleanliness, even dogs would shake their heads."

Truly not a bit of usable stuff was left.

After idle Wang Fan finished disassembling one crab, he moved on to the second, followed by the third, and fourth...

Even at idle Wang Fan’s speed, it took nearly two hours to disassemble over 200 crabs.

The crab roe and crab meat were all placed into a bowl, filling the entire house with a fresh and delicious aroma.

Idle Wang Fan got up and went outside to bring in the broth pot.

Opening the lid, the broth had already set into light gray jelly.

When placed on the cutting board, the jelly jiggled continuously, showing off its bouncy and elastic texture.

Taking out a kitchen knife, idle Wang Fan swiftly cut the jelly into small cubes, then put them into the bowl with crab roe and crab meat, maintaining a one-to-one ratio.

Idle Wang Fan only added a touch of salt to the filling, nothing else; after all, high-quality ingredients often only require simple seasoning.