Go back to the valley to farm

Chapter 266 Smoked Bacon

Chapter 260 Seven Smoked Bacon
The time from Shentang to Ding is very short, only enough to judge once, so eyesight and experience are very important.

Grandma yelled, "My dear grandson, it's time to cook."

The two began to hold a large ladle each, and scooped the boiled sesame sugar out of the pot and put it into the large basin next to it.

Grandma sprinkled some shredded ginger and orange zest on the little sugar syrup left in the pot, and scooped it up after it cooled down. It was called "sugar rice crust", which smelled like caramel and a little bit of spicy ginger. The taste and the coolness of the orange peel, not only tastes good, but also a good medicine for children's cough.

Tang Guoba Li Junge didn’t dare to eat more, otherwise a group of snacks at home would come back and find that there was no Tang Guoba, and they would make a fuss.

The sesame sugar in the basin is waxy yellow, sweet and fragrant.

The temperature is still high now, and the candy will have to wait for a while, just in time to make peanut candy, sesame candy and rice cracker candy
At this time, the wooden frame for making tofu comes in handy.There are still some small differences in the craftsmanship of several kinds of sugar. For example, sesame candy is thin slices, and honey-soaked osmanthus is sprinkled on the rice cake candy. Put the sugar in and press it into cubes, then cool to a certain extent, take it out and cut it into small cubes.

After these things are done, it's time to pull the sugar.

This is the way to make a living for a fool, and it can only be achieved with great strength, and only Li Junge can do it.

Twist the sesame candy and hang it on a wooden stick standing on the millstone, hold a rolling stick in your hand, and push back hard, and the sesame candy will be stretched.

Put the sesame sugar back, pull it again, and repeat it several times, and the sesame sugar will soon become stronger.

After working hard, it has to be pulled and twisted. Repeatedly, the air inside the waxy sesame candy becomes more and more complicated, and the color becomes lighter and lighter.

By the time Li Junge pulled the sesame candy from yellow to white, he was already sweating profusely, and white steam started to come out from the top of his head.

Grandma has already brought out the dustpan sprinkled with flour, and it's time to knock the sugar next.

Stretch the still warm white sesame sugar into thumb-thick candy sticks and let it stand for about [-] minutes. After the candy sticks harden, beat them into four to five centimeter sections with a wooden stick, and wrap them in flour.

At this time, my parents also got up, and they all came to help knock the sesame candy.

It's not a big pot of raw sugar, but a big pot of finished products comes out.

Li Junge picked up a piece, chewed it in his mouth, and said with a smile: "Hahaha, it still tastes like when I was a baby!"

My mother smiled and said, "It means you still have the leisure time. There are so many sweets and pastries in the county, so you have to make them yourself!"

Li Junge said with a smile: "This is different. In the future, there may be specialized sugar makers in the village. This craft will definitely be popular with tourists."

……

"23, bake the stove", today is the new year, and the whole family starts to clean up thoroughly early in the morning.

Clean all over the house, especially the kitchen, beams, and corners. This is called "sweeping dust".

The dust passes through the old, sweeps away the old, and welcomes the new arrival, which is also the meaning of removing the old and bringing forth the new.

At noon and at night, they eat dry rice and meat, especially pork tongue.

Eating glutinous rice with the Miao family means the same thing, dry goods can plug the mouse hole, and the mice will not steal the food next year.

Uh, well, there are actually eight funny dogs here. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a mouse at home, and it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a mouse in the countryside. It’s weird to think...

The custom of pig's tongue is fun, the tongue is connected to the plug, and the tongue means to plug the hole of the mouse.

Understanding can be understood in this way, but it cannot be expressed in the mouth. Tongue in Shuzhou is the same sound as eclipse, which means fading and loss, so it cannot be said.

If you have to say it, you must say "Turn the head", because the tongue is very flexible in the mouth, and it can be called "Turn the head".

Turning around to make money, earning a head is a good reputation, and the ancestors really broke their hearts to avoid taboos.

There is another joke about this. It is said that the pig butcher sells meat in a butcher shop, and his own child comes over to take a look: "Wow! What a big tongue!"

Didn't say anything, pulled it over and gave it a slap, slap, slap, and then seriously educated: "This thing should be called making money! Making money! Remember!"

As a result, the baby came again the next day, and swept the chopping board with his eyes, but someone bought his tongue, so he said, "Wow! I didn't make any money today!"

This means that it is not wrong to kill someone.

……

Back to the gossip, let's talk about drilling stoves.

Drilling the stove to bake it is the job of the Kitchen God. It is said that tonight the Kitchen God will drill into the heaven through the hole of the stove to report to the Jade Emperor about the family's situation for a year.

Not taking the usual path, the Kitchen God is so willful!
Therefore, housework should be sufficient no matter what, and the stove must be cleaned up after dinner, and all sundries such as kitchen knives and chopping boards must be put away and cannot be left on the stove.

Next, the statue of the Stove God beside the stove was respectfully removed, and a new one was pasted on to show that the Stove God had changed into clean clothes, so that he could go to heaven in a bright and beautiful manner.

This matter made the childhood Li Junge very entangled.Even if the gods can be big or small, but there is a nursery rhyme that says "seven don't grow pine, eight don't grow pine, a cat drills into a stove to dry it, and when it's pulled out, it doesn't grow ashes".Even if he had changed into new clothes, would the Kitchen God still be able to see him when he was in front of the Jade Emperor?

……

It is also necessary to light incense candles on the stove, burn paper money, and place tributes.

The meaning is that the family will reimburse the travel expenses for this trip, and ask him to say more good things in front of the Jade Emperor, and report good things to him.

The sesame candy made the day before must be placed on the table, so that the Kitchen God’s mouth will be sweet, and if he wants to say something unpleasant, he will not be able to say anything even if his mouth is stuck in sugar.

After this big deal is done, everyone can go to sleep and rest.

When it's the 27th of the twelfth lunar month, it's time to smoke bacon and sausages.

The production of Sichuan bacon is actually not complicated, and I don't know why it failed to spread to the north.In fact, it is to wash the pork, let it dry naturally overnight, stir-fry Sichuan salt, pepper, kaempferen, star anise and other spice powders together, and then use a brush to dip in wine and fragrant salt to brush the surface of the meat.

This is to sterilize the meat, avoiding the presence of harmful microorganisms during curing.

Then grab the hot and even salt with your hands and apply it evenly on the meat, and rub it vigorously, especially where there are bones, you must increase the amount of salt.

Put the meat layer by layer in the tank, such as bones, large thick legs, etc., are generally placed at the bottom of the tank, and let the melted salt water fully soak them and marinate them.

After marinating for three or four days, turn it over and add a little salt. Generally, the meat can be lifted in about seven to ten days.

Take the meat out and put it in boiling water to wash and scald for 2 to [-] minutes, wash off the excess salt water on the surface, and dry the water.

Then it can be hung on the beam above the stove, and the smoke from the usual firewood can be slowly smoked into bacon.

The sausages are hung under the eaves after being brewed, dried in the air for one to two weeks, and then hung above the stove for smoking.

But if you follow this method, you won't be able to eat tasty bacon until before the Ching Ming Festival.

Of course you can eat it before, but the name can only be called salt meat, because it lacks the smoky taste.

Li Junge's family is a bit special. Grandma is the oldest elder in the family except for the fourth grandfather. Many relatives from the city come to visit during the holidays. The best gifts when leaving are farm-style smoked bacon and sausages.

Therefore, it is not possible to wait for the stove to smoke slowly. It must be smoked before the Spring Festival.

This requires professional equipment.

Waking up early in the morning, Li Junge and his father worked together to nail a smoke shed on the roof with thin boards.

The smoke shed is like a huge box, with four branches and three branches closed at the top, leaving a quarter for smoke.

One of the four vertical sides is fitted with a loose leaf, which can be opened, and a relatively wide opening is left at the bottom, which is used for refueling.

The other three sides are not in the bottom, leaving a small gap of seven or eight centimeters high for air intake.

Long nails are set inside for hanging meat and sausages.

Then use the back basket to carry the bacon sausage up one by one, and tie the hemp rope to hang it layer by layer.

After the four sides are fully hung, the meat rope is threaded with steel bars, and the meat is hung inside like a clothes rail, so that more smoke can be smoked at a time.

But don't get too close to the middle, the middle fire temperature is high, if you don't pay attention to the bacon, it will become a barbecue.

After setting up the smoking shed, Matou flew up and looked at the shed curiously.

Si Xingzhun's technical team has already been on vacation, and will not be back until after the seventh day of the lunar new year, so the hemp head has also been relaxed these days.

Seeing that Li Junge was having trouble with his father in his former residence, he hurried over to check the situation.

Li Junge bombarded it: "It will be smoky for a while, what are you doing here? Do you want to be a roast chicken? Hurry up!"

Dad looked at Matou with a smile on his face: "Our family's Matou may be able to bear it. He can herd wild geese and shoot TV. From time to time, he can even catch a pheasant and a rabbit to give us a tooth sacrifice. He is more patient than you!"

This is a typical situation where one's own grandchildren are not parented. Li Junge rolled his eyes and didn't bother to care about the two of them.

Continue to work, and the next step is to carry a few baskets of fresh cypress branches, peanut shells, sawn noodles, chaff shells, and some fine firewood to prepare for the fire.

Start a small fire with thin firewood in the middle of the shed, and then add fresh cypress branches. After the fireworks start, cover the peanut shells, and then cover the sawn face and shells, and the smoke will immediately billow.

Seeing the battle, Matou immediately flew away in fright. He thought it would be good, but it turned out to be a monster that can breathe out smoke!

Li Junge laughed loudly: "I still think you are really Monkey King! You are not afraid of the alchemy furnace of Taishang Laojun!"

Dad was amused and laughed, and followed.

Li Junge turned the basket over and sat on it, took out a book of historical records, and watched the fire while reading.

Two days passed like this, and the fire was turned off all night in the middle. When the shed was opened the next night, a smell of smoky bacon rushed to my face.

The bacon turned into strips of hard meat, all covered with black ash. When the nails were scratched, the lean meat was glowing red, and the fat meat had shiny edges.

Mom and Dad started to take off the meat and carried it downstairs. Li Junge also went downstairs with a basket on his back, climbed up the stove in the kitchen, and hung the meat strips, ribs, hips, pork liver, pig head and sausage one by one.

Grandma looked at the door with a smile: "This is called the Chinese New Year! If you don't kill pigs or smoke meat during the Chinese New Year, you can't live a happy New Year!"

(End of this chapter)