When Cain and the maids left the magnificent mansion, they discovered it was just a bit after dawn. That was almost perfect as Mabel has just woken the maids to start cooking while she baked bread.
Cain brought a chair and sat beside Mabel to watch her wrestle the dough. There was something strange about watching her work.
The way her arms moved seemed extremely smooth and calculated, those were the moves she repeated for years.
“What’s that?” Cain asked as he pointed toward a small jar that didn’t smell particularly good.
Mabel smiled as grabbed the jar and wafted some of the smell toward Cain with her hand. “Yeast, I put to ferment yesterday. This smell is what I was going for.” She then pointed toward the counter which had another four jars. “All of those are a failure, even though it’s just yeast, water, flour, and a pinch of sugar if I can afford it.”
Sugar was a luxury to have, it was rare and pricey. Not all people had access to it. Yet can see a full bag of it just sitting a few feet behind Mabel hidden with some hay.
Well with him being an alive bag of money then why not? That bag was probably worth a couple of gold coins and only bought with the threat of his rage if it didn’t arrive at the agreed time.
Mabel then started a new dough as she left the first rest. She grabbed a few handfuls of wheat flour and filtered it. “Need to make sure it’s clean first. All the big lumps will just ruin it.” Mabel started explaining as she saw Cain stare at her like an owl with problems..
She then took a big wooden bowl and added warm water, the jar content, and some even more yeast. She then shoved her hand into the water and started stirring it until everything looked more like a uniform mixture.
Added the flour she just filtered, what a single hand could lift from another brown type of flower, and a big pinch of salt.
“What is that?” Cain tasted the brown flower and it seemed to have a strange taste.
“The whole wheat, I do grind them at home with my grinder,” Mabel replied as she started mixing everything with her hand. No ladle or anything, those hands are what she needed to mix the whole thing.
As the dough started to take shape, Mabel took her hand out of the bowl and cleaned it in warm water. After fixing her posture she grabbed a bottle of olive oil and poured a few drops into her hands. “It adds a hint of flavor as well makes it easier to work with.” She said as she started mixing again.
Stretching the dough and then crushing it together, “People say make food with love and it will taste better, I say that love is just how much effort you put in. If you were baking for someone you love, you will take more time wrestling the dough, preparing the yeast, and taking the right measurements.”
“So are you baking with love then?” Cain asked.
“No my son, I bake with love to baking. When most people try to replicate my bread they fail, that’s because they were making it with no passion. Those who wanted just results can never see the beauty of the road they are traversing.” Mabel said.
“But won’t doing the same thing always yield the same result?” Cain mixed some salt and water to get salt water.
“My hand isn’t as big as you are, and neither are the maids, our pinch of salt might differ. Where we got the salt will differ, the quality of water and its temperature. If your hand was clean or sweaty. What did you mix in will also matter as wood might leave a weird taste.” Mabel explained, “No matter how skilled you are, you can’t replicate all of that perfectly.”
‘She is right, this isn’t magic to be able to exactly copy spells. Not even the magic I learned from Sylph will ever be as refined as her, the same with blade dance, trying to replicate Eilistraee’s power will never succeed without her body.’ Cain thought. Even though all Mabel does is bake bread, she has reached a deep understanding of one of the world’s principles.
Mabel then left the loose dough to rest and grabbed the one she worked on earlier. She then started twisting and folding it.
“This will give it more strength, the more the better.” She said with a smile.
After beating the dough, she laid it to rest and grabbed another dough she had prepared before dawn. Since today was a feast, she has made batches over batches.
“All of this dough?” Cain looked around the kitchen to notice a lot of similar dough resting.
“You alone might eat a whole batch,” She started to laugh.
At that moment Zaleria walked into the kitchen, “Is it time already?”
“Yes, just do as we planned,” Mabel replied with a smile.
Zaleria walked toward the stone-cold oven and put her hands inside. The thing quickly turned red hot as the flames escaped her hands.
“What are you doing? At least put some wood before.” Cain said staring at her.
“Let her be, I wanted to try baking on the flames of a dragon. I wonder if it will make a difference.” Mabel smiled.
After she was done wrestling the dough, she started baking by opening the oven. The first thing to catch her eyes was the shape of the flames, unlike the wood fire, a dragon’s fire twisted and flashed with a deep crimson light. The smell was also a bit different, it had a noticeable hint of brimstone.
Mabel took some chopped olive and covered the bread with it, when she got five loafs ready she threw them all in the oven by hand.
Occasionally sprinkling some water on them so the crust won’t dry out. Mabel quickly ended with some unique-looking bread.
Before anyone could have time to appreciate them, Cain was already sinking his teeth in one while it was piping hot. It was the usual legendary bread he loved but with an extra Smokey flavor that leave a weak hit of brimstone in his mouth.
“How is it?” Mabel looked at him giving the bread a weird stare.
“I dare say it’s better than what you usually make, did this Smokey flavor come from Zaleria’s flames?”
“I don’t know, you’re the only one who tasted it yet.” Mabel tore a bite from the loaf Cain was carrying and tasted it.
She smiled, “I bet this will pair well with gogaron meat you had.”
“Gorgon not gogaron, but you’re right. This is a new high of bread, using dragons as oven fuel might be the future of bakery.” Cain said with a big grin staring at Zaleria.
“Don’t look at me like that!” Zaleria quickly yelled as she saw Cain’s eyes glowing.
“Listen…” Mabel called Cain, “What if we used Sofia’s flames? I bet it will taste different than Zaleria’s. Now imagine someone else trying to replicate this bread with just the respite, they will fail as they lack a willing dragon.”
“You’re right, it’s impossible to replicate this,” Cain replied.
Mabel then turned toward the maids working in the background, “Come have a taste, this batch was intended to be eaten anyway.”
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