Starting from Robinson Crusoe-Chapter 130 - 51: Rendering Oil (Part 2)

After three days, the oil on the surface of the seal meat had solidified, and a lot of moisture had evaporated, making it look slightly shrunken.

Sniffing it, it still didn't smell bad.

Chen Zhou carefully peeled off the fur from the meat, then shaved off the lean meat beneath the layer of fat, washed the whole block of fat clean, and cut it into small pieces to put into the pot.

As he placed the chunks of fat into the pot, he added two cups of cold boiled water to it.

Using a gas stove to render lard allows for better control of the heat, usually without needing to add water, which would speed up the rendering process.

But Chen Zhou's firewood stove couldn't quickly adjust the flame, so he had to sacrifice some speed to prevent the oil from getting burnt or turning black, which would not be pleasing.

The dry wood burned fiercely, and the water in the iron pot quickly boiled.

Using a long-handled iron spoon, he constantly stirred the pieces of fat in the water, occasionally pressing them firmly against the bottom of the pot to speed up the oil release.

When the water in the pot had evaporated, leaving only the fat chunks and light yellow seal oil, Chen Zhou scooped a spoonful of salt into the oil and stirred it well.

Adding salt can extend the shelf life of the oil, making it store better—at least that's the case with lard.

After simmering for a while longer, estimating the time was right, Chen Zhou poured the hot oil from the pot into the glass containers he had prepared earlier.

Then he continued cutting meat, starting the next round of rendering.

...

The weather was clear, and Chen Zhou, staying by the bonfire, was sweating profusely, so he took off his shirt, going bare-chested, letting the gentle mountain breeze cool him down.

Yet, as the temperature rose, even the wind was warm, and instead of cooling him, it only made him feel hotter.

While using a wide-brimmed hat as a fan to cool himself, he kept watching the seal oil being rendered in the iron pot. Every ten minutes or so, Chen Zhou had to gulp down half a cup of cold boiled water, otherwise, he couldn't take it.

The rendering process consumed a lot of fuel, and in less than two hours, all the firewood stored in the cave was used up.

After pouring out the rendered oil, Chen Zhou went down the slope to chop more firewood.

Busy and bustling, after a whole day of work, the two large glass containers were filled, and there was still some oil left, which Chen Zhou poured into an empty wine bottle.

Only a few of Robinson's jam jars remained in the cave, and once those glass jars were filled, he would have to pour the seal oil into the wine barrel.

However, the wine barrel was too large, and with its sealed interior, it was difficult to sterilize, which would inevitably affect the storage of the seal oil.

The only way to solve this problem would be to fire usable clay pots as soon as possible.

There was plenty of white clay on the mountain left for wall-building, and Chen Zhou planned to use it to make a few clay pots to test. If that didn't work, there was still that box of colorful edible clay; he was sure he could find some material suitable for pottery making.

Moreover, he had some pottery-making experience shared by an older brother on a forum; flipping through his notes could save more years of effort than Robinson's research.

...

By evening, the seal oil first poured into the glass containers had already cooled down.

The surface of the oil was very clean, exhibiting a golden and noble luster. Chen Zhou found an oil lamp that had run out of lamp oil, and filled it with some seal oil.

Once the lamp wick was fully soaked in seal oil, he ignited the oil lamp.

Using seal oil as lamp oil turned out to be even brighter than the previous lamp oil, with minimal black smoke emission; the light was steady, and the quality was excellent.

Chen Zhou didn't know that, in ancient times, seal oil and whale oil were often added to the Everlasting Lamp, affordable only to royals and wealthy merchants.

Compared to other natural animal oils, seal oil has a much longer burning time and can produce more heat.

In the cold Arctic, traditional Inuit, besides using seal oil lamps for lighting, would also use seal oil for heating.

Aside from its impressive lighting and heating functions, in modern times, seal oil is still considered an expensive health product, priced several times higher than deep-sea fish oil.

According to vendors, seal oil doesn't contain cholesterol and is rich in unsaturated fatty acids and vitamin E. Long-term consumption is said to help prevent cardiovascular diseases and is suitable for people with diabetes and skin diseases.

Of course, whether the actual effects live up to the promotional claims is uncertain.

Whew~

Blowing out the oil lamp, Chen Zhou felt extremely satisfied with the seal oil's performance.

Now that he had both oil and meat, he was increasingly eager to try frying some meat in seal oil to taste.

Too bad he didn't have a suitable frying pan, so this idea couldn't be put into practice for the time being.

...

A peaceful night passed.

The date was now January 31st, and Chen Zhou continued rendering oil.

But before starting the rendering, he prepared a sufficiently large wine barrel.

This barrel was originally used to store rum, most of which the sailors had drunk. It took quite some effort for him to pry open the barrel lid and pour out the remaining liquor.

Then he wiped away the residual wine stains from the inner wall with cloth soaked in hot water, washed it clean before sealing it again with heated fish swim bladder glue.

This large wine barrel had a greater capacity than the combined volume of those two glass containers, easily holding fifty pounds of liquor, more than enough to accommodate the seal oil to be rendered in the next few days.

But the seal oil was just too abundant.

With over three hundred pounds of subcutaneous fat, after removing the hide and some debris from the small seal, at least two hundred and fifty pounds would remain.

Using a lower oil extraction rate of 60%, this fat could render at least about 150 pounds of seal oil.

There was only one large wine barrel like that, and the rest contained was still quite full of liquor.

To ask Chen Zhou to choose between giving up either the wine or the seal oil was truly a tough decision.

Wine is valuable, and so is seal oil — he couldn't bear discarding either.

To find a suitable container, Chen Zhou racked his brains.

Flipping through his notebook from when he transported supplies, he searched through various cluttered resources in hopes of finding an overlooked container.