readytorunbook Chapter 239: Killing Pigs and Frozen Meat
Chapter 239: Killing Pigs and Frozen Meat
ooh ooh-
A burst of rapid screams rang out, followed by the barking of two little ones. After a short while, the pig's screaming stopped abruptly, but the dog's barking continued.
Xia Qingyue was not afraid of the scene of slaughtering pigs. She was busy boiling water inside and could not find time to go out and see. She waited until the water in the pot boiled and there were two buckets of water, so she took them out.
She carried the water out through the small side door, picked up the bamboo hat in the corner and put it on.
She is not being pretentious. When snow falls on your head and melts, the cold air enters your body, which is bad for your health.
Walking down the stairs, the light snow fell silently on the bamboo hat on my head. It was white and small, and soon a thin layer of snow particles accumulated on the edge of the hat.
Glancing over to the slaughterhouse, she saw the pigs being gutted, revealing white and red inside.
There was a bloody hole below the pig's throat, and a little blood was flowing down its body. There was a large wooden basin under the iron table over there, and most of the basin was filled with a little bit of coagulated blood.
A strong, pungent smell of blood wafted through the cold air.
Amidst the hissing sounds, Han Zhibai held a long knife with two handles in both hands. The blade was slightly tilted, and he pushed it back and forth to scrape off the hair on the pig. The whole pig was emitting heat.
As she got closer, she could also smell the peculiar stench of pigs, which made her feel a little uncomfortable. She opened her mouth and breathed, and clouds of white steam floated out.
"The hot water is coming."
Han Zhibai did not stop his movements. He looked up at her. His hat moved slightly, and the thick snow on the edge fell off. "Okay, Qingyue, you go in and take a rest. I'll take care of the rest."
She still remembered the time when she encountered a wild boar in the forest last year. Han Zhibai handled the wild boar with superb knife skills. Her skills in this area were obviously rubbish. Every profession has its own expertise, so she should leave it to professionals.
"Okay, when you're done, bring in the pig's innards, a pig's trotter, and the pig's head. I'll use them to make a pot of stew."
She went into the house and grabbed some dried hawthorn, angelica dahurica and tsaoko from the medicine cabinet. She also took out some star anise, cinnamon and dried chilies from the kitchen, and cut some green onions and ginger for later use.
She also thought about what to eat for lunch and washed and prepared the side dishes.
When the work was almost done, Han Zhibai came in carrying two large buckets of cleaned pig offal, pig trotters and pig heads.
He said, "I have left the small intestines out separately. I will make some spicy sausages later when I have time."
Xia Qingyue thought of the Cantonese sausages from her previous life. She quite liked them. They were delicious whether fried dry or in hot pot. "I thought of another kind of sausage with a different filling. Do you want to make some and try it?"
"of course can."
She squatted down and looked through the cleanly washed pig intestines in the wooden barrel. She could smell a strange odor and asked, "How did you wash them so cleanly?"
"I added white flour and salt and rubbed it like washing clothes."
"Ah? White flour can be washed with wood ash. Oh, I was so busy just now that I forgot to remind you!" she said regretfully.
Han Zhibai suddenly realized that he could use wood ash to wash. He smiled and said, "It's okay. I remember. I will use wood ash to wash next time."
She nodded and said, "Yes, I'll start braising the meat. It'll take a while. I'll call you when it's time for lunch."
Han Zhibai turned around and went out to cut up the pork. He used several knives flexibly to cut different parts of the pig's body into pieces of appropriate size and neatly arranged them aside.
After the pig was slaughtered, the two little ones lost interest and ran back to the kitchen to eat breakfast, then slipped into their nest in the main room and fell asleep.
It took some time to cut up the whole pig. The meat to be made into bacon and sausages was picked out into two wooden basins. The meat to be eaten in the next two days was the front leg meat, the slightly lean pork belly, and the pork fat.
In the center under the eaves there are two piles of round bamboo tubes neatly stacked like a hill. They are yellow all over, as thick as some people's thighs, and their thickness and length are about the same.
They were containers that were used in previous years to store frozen pork in deep pits. There were large bold black characters written on the surface of each tube, corresponding to different parts of the pig, or whether it was fat or lean.
Han Zhibai picked up a bamboo tube, held it with one hand and opened it with the other hand. It was broken in half and the bamboo nodes inside had been removed. He picked up a piece of meat and put it into half of the bamboo tube, which was just the right size. He then covered it with the other half and finally wrapped it with a rope that was neither too thick nor too thin several times and tied a slipknot.
He packed one after another, and gradually, there were more and more bamboo tubes in the wooden barrel on his back.
It was enough for one trip, so he carried it to the backyard.
The deep pit was dug on the east side of the thatched shed where Xiao Hei lived, which was behind the poultry house. The eaves there were long, covering the pit to prevent snow from falling and covering it. However, the wind was strong and the snow could not be avoided from drifting over in the wind.
After digging the pit a few days ago, Han Zhibai built several wooden walls around it with thick wooden boards so that the snow could not drift in.
Yesterday evening when he was shoveling snow, he knocked open the pit and placed a thick wooden stick between the wooden door that opened and closed above the pit. After a night, the gaps in the wooden door were filled with transparent ice crystals.
Gritting his teeth, he grasped the thick wooden stick with both hands and pried it upwards with force. After a while, the ice crystals began to shatter and the cracks expanded rapidly.
With a dull bang, the wooden door was pried open. He went down the short wooden ladder and stacked the bamboo tubes one by one.
Repeat this process until all the pork is put into bamboo tubes and frozen in the pit.
In the front yard, the small side door of the kitchen was closed with a tiny gap, and bursts of fragrance wafted out from inside, attracting Han Zhibai, who was busy outside, to look over frequently, and his stomach began to growl.
in the kitchen.
The pot of stewing meat was placed on the front stove. She opened the lid and the aroma of the braised meat filled the air. The heat had almost dissipated and the reddish-brown soup in the pot was bubbling. The meat cooked in it was colored and became bright red with an even color.
"Not bad, not bad. It will be ready after a while." She scooped some soup with a wooden spoon to taste it. She felt that it lacked a little salt, so she added a little, then used all her strength to carry it to the back stove.
The iron pan is placed on the front stove ready for cooking.
There was also a small stove with sweet potato rice cooked in a pot, which was almost done.
Three quarters past noon.
After lunch was ready, she went out to call Han Zhibai to come back for dinner. He was finishing up outside. He had washed the iron table and placed it at an angle under the eaves to drain. The area where the pig was slaughtered was rinsed clean, without a single pig hair or strange smell.
She went to the kitchen in advance to prepare water for Han Zhibai to wash his hands. She added some tea seed powder and soapberry powder into half a basin of warm water and stirred it into foam.
He changed the water three times before he washed his hands.
"Eat quickly, or the food will get cold."
She took his hand and walked towards the main room.
The table in the main hall was filled with steaming hot dishes, many of which Han Zhibai had seen for the first time and had never eaten before.
The two of them sat down, and she picked up a piece of food with her chopsticks and put it on his plate, introducing it:
"This is a braised meat platter. It includes pork intestines, pig heads, pig ears, and pig trotters. This is pickled pepper pork liver, as well as salted pork liver and twice-cooked pork."
There are also two other dishes: stir-fried pork with kimchi and garlic sprouts and pork blood and cabbage soup.
"I finally got some fresh pork, and I couldn't resist and made some more. Eat it while it's hot, eat more."