The Last Kitchen, Part 9 of 26. Gerzsi and friends are made up; the gear is real and independently tested. This post contains affiliate links (disclosure).
Previously: On the cold ridge, a simple gas stove and Gerzsi’s tail as a windscreen kept the crew warm, and Chef Tamás explained why water boils cooler up high. When the drones’ batteries died, Gerzsi found a bite mark on the tower that matched his own chipped tooth. Missed it? Read Part 8 · All parts
Gerzsi didn’t tell anybody about the bite mark. He told himself it was a coincidence. Lots of beavers have chipped teeth. Probably.
They came down off the ridge and went straight to the Old Mill, where Rufus had seen the ring drop something. Mo the muskrat was waiting on the wheel, spectacles on his nose, flour on his apron, and a dripping silver box in his paws.
“Fished it out at dawn,” Mo said. “Can’t open it. Sealed with some kind of tough wax. Need a sharp blade.”
Every knife in the mill was dull. Every electric sharpener on the river was blinking OBEY. Mo just snorted and took a long white rod off a nail on the wall.
“Ceramic honing rod,” he said. “No cord. No opinion.”
He drew the knife down the rod, light as a feather, first one side, then the other. Five strokes a side. “You’re not felling a tree,” he told Gerzsi, who was watching with his mouth open.
Chef Tamás explained while Mo worked. “A knife edge is very thin. When you use it, the edge doesn’t wear off so much as it bends over, tiny bit by tiny bit, like a row of grass after you walk on it. Honing stands the grass back up. Sharpening grinds away metal to make a new edge. At work I hone before every shift and sharpen about once a month. Most people sharpen when they only need to hone.”
Mo tested the knife on a tomato. It slid through without pressing. Then he ran it once around the edge of the silver box, and the seal split with a soft pop.
Inside was a single recipe card, worn soft at the edges, with a grease stain in one corner. A recipe for beef pörkölt. The handwriting was small and tidy and leaned slightly to the right.
Chef Tamás went very still. It was his handwriting.
At the bottom of the card was a date. It was thirty years in the future.
Next: Part 10, tomorrow. There’s a spy in the kitchen.
🛒 Gear from this part
A honing rod and a simple sharpener. Mo’s white ceramic rod is America’s Test Kitchen’s Best Buy honing rod. Our knife-care guide has it, plus the pull-through sharpeners testers liked, and a head chef’s routine for using them.
Can’t wait for tomorrow’s part?
Gerzsi can’t either. While Chef Tamás’s stock bubbles for four hours, he puts on a sci-fi audiobook and listens with both ears flat against the pot lid (he says it helps). If you’re new to Audible, the free trial is an easy way to start one for the slow-cooking hours.
Free trial for eligible new members; Amazon sets the terms on the sign-up page. Affiliate link: Gerzsi may earn a commission.
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