On the large plates, slices of beef were cut into translucent pieces, tripe was cut into evenly sized decorative cuts, and beef intestines, lungs, and stomach were all about half a finger's length. Clumps of beef blood had tiny, fresh air pockets on them, and the bowls of vegetables and mushrooms next to the various cuts of beef looked incredibly fresh.

Next to these dishes, there was a large bowl of fried butter, glistening and fragrant.

Su Hua only needed one glance to know that Su Bai must have put a lot of thought into it.

Seeing that she was about to roll up her sleeves to start making the broth, Su Hua quickly pulled her to sit down on a chair in front of the stove and gave her a thumbs up. "Mother, I only told you once this morning, and you've prepared all these dishes so well. If you ask me, there's no one more capable than you in all the surrounding villages!"

As for frying the butter base, leave that to my daughter. I'll just sit here and watch the fire for you.

Su Bai was beaming with joy at the praise, though a hint of stubbornness remained on her lips. "You little rascal, you must have been eating honey lately. You're getting better and better at sweet-talking people."

"I'm not kidding, it's the absolute truth." Su Hua smiled, her hands still moving.

The key to this beef tallow hot pot broth is its numbing, spicy, fresh, and fragrant flavors.

The fourteen spices previously used to make mala tang (a type of spicy hot pot) include bay leaves, angelica root, cardamom, galangal, star anise, fennel, and cinnamon, which are also important ingredients for making hot pot base.

Su Hua first took out a small bowl, put one qian (a unit of weight) of each of the seven spices into it, and then added a small spoonful of wine to bring out the aroma. Since there was no white wine here, she used the apricot wine that the Qin family had given her earlier. The apricot wine was not strong and had a light apricot fragrance. Even Su Hua, who could only drink one cup, could drink a few cups.

While the spices are fermenting, put a ladle of water in a pot, add half a pound of dried red chilies, and simmer for about half a cup of tea's time after the water boils, until the dried red chilies are soft and thoroughly cooked. Then, remove them, drain the water, and chop them into chili flakes.

Heat a pot again, add three large spoonfuls of the previously rendered butter, and simmer over low heat until it starts to bubble. Then add scallions and cilantro and fry until fragrant. Next, add minced ginger, garlic, chili flakes, and a handful of Sichuan peppercorns, and stir-fry carefully.

Outside the kitchen, the big white tiger and the big white dog, who had been following closely behind Su Hua, stared at the closed kitchen door for a long time. Then, the two of them exchanged a knowing glance and followed the aroma to the kitchen window.

The kitchen window was much higher than the main house window. The big white tiger stood on tiptoe and looked at the mother and daughter in the window. Then, it stretched out its front paws and gently put them on the window frame, firmly gripping it. Its whole big head was pushed into the window frame.

The big white dog on the ground clung to its older sister's long legs and climbed onto her neck in a flash.

It even puffed out its neck and whispered into the house.

"Meow—"

The three siblings, Su Dalang and Su Xiao, who had been following behind the two children, also came running over. However, they wisely did not go to the window to look at what was happening inside the house. Instead, they stood quietly in the blind spot, sometimes staring wide-eyed at the two white tigers, and sometimes sniffing the increasingly rich aroma with their little noses.

As for the old warnings that tigers eat people, they had long forgotten them. All they knew was that the two tigers in their house not only didn't eat people, but also brought them meat to eat, and the meat they brought was especially delicious!

Hearing the meows and the sounds of slurping saliva, Su Hua looked up and saw two white and three black round heads appearing and disappearing by the window.

Her lips twitched as she watched.

Goodness, her whole family, from humans to animals, are real foodies!

At this moment, the chili flakes in the pot had already rendered into red oil. Su Hua reluctantly looked away, put the fermented spices into the red oil, and then asked Su Bai to remove the firewood from the stove, leaving only the unburnt charcoal embers. She used these embers to simmer the spice oil, constantly stirring it to prevent it from sticking to the pot.

After a full incense stick's time, the spicy and stimulating aroma wafted out from the kitchen through the cracks, gradually filling the entire courtyard.

This time, Su Hua used a lot of hot pot base, so she ladled out a large bowl before adding the beef bone broth she had prepared in advance to the remaining base.

Then Su Baishi added the firewood that had just been pulled out.

Immediately, he waved to the three people and two tigers by the window, "Da Lang, Er Lang, Chun Hua, Da Bai Hu, Da Bai, time to eat!"

"Hey! Good!" Su Dalang and the other two took a deep breath of the delicious aroma and hurriedly ran towards Su Dahu and the others in the back yard, calling out as they ran.

"Dad, Mom, Second Uncle, Second Aunt, Third Uncle, dinner's ready!"

"My aunt's whole beef hot pot smells so good!"

"My nose is practically smelling of it all..."

When Su Dahu and his friends saw that their mother wouldn't let them help in the kitchen, they didn't sit idle. Instead, they started tidying up the tiger's den. After all, they had previously thought that Da Bai was a kitten, so they had been letting it live in the doghouse with Xiao Hei.

Now, judging from the appearance of the big white tiger, it doesn't seem like it will leave anytime soon; it needs a place to stay.

But it's such a big embryo, even if it wanted to squeeze into the doghouse, it would probably be too big for its body.

The brothers simply went to the outhouse and found some firewood to build a big tiger den for it.

Considering the construction work and the constant flow of people these days, in order to avoid the white tiger frightening the villagers outside, they chose to build the tiger's den in the backyard near the small hill.

When the brothers saw the three little ones arrive, they all stopped what they were doing, carefully washed their hands, and went to the kitchen.

As soon as I reached the door, I saw Su Hua putting a large plate of beef slices into the pot. The broth in the large iron pot, made of some unknown ingredient, was a bright red color with golden oil on top, bubbling away. The fresh and pungent aroma made my mouth water.

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