Hundreds of seeds spilled out over the counter before me. I’d ended up gathering heaps of the fruit, despite not actually knowing if my oil-making plan would work.
This is gonna hurt if I do fail... Well, life’s a challenge! So—oil. Er, how do they make oil again? I think they press it... So I need to grind them down really small and squeeze them, basically? I’ll give it a go, I guess... Okay, wash ’em nicely, get rid of the pulp. And then crush them. Crush them... Why are they so hard?! Oh yeah, magic! Bam.
The seeds were pulverized in an instant.
Perfect.
Next came pressing the crushed seeds. I scooped a bunch of them into a piece of cloth and wrung it tightly. The cloth became mildly damp, but that was all.
Hmm. Maybe I need more force.
I fetched some of the gold-colored ore and got to work. First, I shaped a small, hollow frame, with a raised hole in the top and a solid cylinder that fit inside said hole perfectly. I also (painstakingly) made a fine mesh sheet out of the metal, attaching it over the base of the hole. Finally, I made a bowl to sit underneath the frame, and my oil press was complete. Hopefully, all I’d have to do was put the pulverized seeds into the hole, and push them—and the cylinder—down with a bit of magic to reach the pressure needed. Oil would drip through the mesh into the bowl below, and I’d be one step closer to my deep-fried dreams.
I scattered a handful of seeds over the mesh and pushed the cylinder down with magic, gradually increasing the pressure. Drip by drip, the bowl began to fill. Thanks to my ever-handy magic, the action wasn’t too tiring, but the mesh sheet did snap after just a few minutes.
Too much pressure? Well, it broke, but it still worked until then. Just gotta figure out the finer details.
I inspected the bowl. The liquid inside was a light pink—not a color I was familiar with when it came to oil. It smelled faintly sweet but not unpleasantly so.
Good start. Lemme give it a taste.
It was oily. Slightly less so than the oils I was used to but similar enough.
I think... I think this might work. Gotta actually try it to make sure. How, though? Guess I need a frying pan?
For caution’s sake, I decided to start by heating up a rock with magic and placing the semi-full bowl on top of it to heat up in turn. I let it come to a simmer before removing it from the heat and waiting for it to cool. The color, scent, and taste didn’t change in the slightest, so I judged the initial experiment a success.
Step two was bringing the oil-like liquid to a full boil. Some oils, as far as I remembered, could combust even at low temperatures. Thankfully, no fires broke out—hopefully the same would stay true once I started cooking.
Shion padded up beside me, looking curious. Using my usual charades, I asked him if the oil was edible. He looked even more confused.
Guess he probably doesn’t recognize it... Not surprising, really. Well, I think it’s fine. Success!
I repaired and reinforced the oil press and began mass production. The oil press broke five more times in the process, but an hour or two later, I’d wrung every last drop of oil out of the seeds.
I made heaps of oil, but the press isn’t working too well... I’ll have to make some more substantial changes later. It needs to be a lot stronger.
And now, the final test. I fried an unbattered slice of the eggplant-like thing in a shallow bowl of oil. A dash of fish sauce, and...
It’s... It’s perfect!
I’d been a little worried about the sweet smell of the oil, but it hadn’t transferred to the pseudo eggplant at all. It was, for all intents and purposes, perfectly normal fried food.
Chai and his new friends seemed to especially like the pumpkinesque vegetable I fried up next, while Spider Boss seemed intent on swallowing a large slice of fried eggplant whole.
Be careful, okay? Don’t burn your tongue!
When I checked on the large jar of oil the next day, it had separated into two layers, so I transferred the top layer into a separate jar. The top layer tasted—and felt—oilier than the bottom one now, which was even sweeter in comparison.
This’ll be great for stir-frying. Score! I got two different types of oil for one.
I rummaged through everything I had on me when I was flung into this world. I’m sure it was in my bag somewhere... Yes! Awesome.
In my hand was a small magnet.
Now that I had oil, I wanted a frying pan—and not just any frying pan. I wanted a proper, iron frying pan. I’d been racking my brain to come up with a way to find an iron frying pan when I’d suddenly remembered a few things.
One, iron was found in ore veins, like any other metal.
Two, those ore veins were—as far as I recalled—magnetic.
Three, I’d had a small magnet stashed in the bottom of my shoulder bag.
Tomorrow, I’m gonna try sticking this on every rock and boulder in sight. There’s gotta be some iron ore somewhere! ...Right?