Chapter 84: Pig Skin Jelly, Steamed is Better
There was a wooden basin in front of Chu Yue, in which was soaked a pile of pig intestines, ears, and pig skin, a patch of white. If a person with a bit of attention saw it, he would probably be disgusted, frown, and turn away.
But Chu Yue not only remained calm, but also continued to wash.
She used cold water and then added flour to the water. After the flour was dissolved into the water, the water became turbid and sticky. This flour water can absorb the dirt on the pig offal that is invisible to the naked eye.
Especially pig intestines, just like washing clothes, they need to be rubbed in flour and water four or five times before they can be slightly cleaner.
Chu Yue had been busy for quite some time, her hands had been soaked in cold water, and her hands were red.
Chen Fengying was heartbroken when she saw this. "Sister Chu, don't wash them, don't wash them. Look at your hands, they're all red from the cold. If Captain Lu saw this, he'd be heartbroken. These pig offal are really hard to handle. After much deliberation, I decided I should give you some pork, so I brought it to you specially."
Chu Yue had almost finished washing by this time. She shook off the moisture on her hands, and Lu Yuanbao beside her immediately handed her a towel and asked her to wipe her hands.
Chu Yue wiped her hands and said, "Sister Chen, it's really not necessary. If I wanted pork, I wouldn't have been polite to you yesterday at the supply and marketing cooperative. These pig offal just look smelly now, but when I'm done, they'll all be good stuff."
Chen Fengying was holding a piece of pork in her hand, but Chu Yue refused to take it no matter how she offered it to her. The two of them kept pushing each other, which was not a good look.
She simply asked, "Sister Chu, what are you going to do? I'll help you. If you don't want pork, you have to let me do some work, otherwise I'll feel uneasy."
It was rare for Chu Yue to meet someone as warm and genuine as Chen Fengying, and she felt warm in her heart.
She agreed and they worked together.
Pig intestines, pig ears and the like continued to be soaked in the flour water, and Chu Yue would come back to wash them.
Chu Yue also bought a large piece of pig skin, which she had simply cleaned and was about to blanch in water, so she asked Chen Fengying to help light the stove and pull the bellows.
Such a small thing is easy for Chen Fengying.
On the stove, Chu Yue cut a whole piece of pig skin into four pieces and put them into the pot with cold water.
Also put into the pot are white wine, onion, ginger, garlic, and a few peppercorns.
These ingredients are used to remove the fishy smell from pig skin, especially the peppercorns, which have a special effect. The white wine will evaporate and dissipate the odor during the high-temperature volatilization process.
Once boiling over high heat, cover the pot and cook for eight minutes.
After eight minutes, open the lid and the pig skin will gurgle and roll in the boiling water.
Chu Yue took a chopstick and poked it into the pig skin. If the skin was soft and could be pierced, it meant it was cooked. If not, it needed to be cooked for a while longer.
Chu Yue timed the cooking time to be just right, and the pig skin was just the right softness.
She took the pig skin out of the boiling water and put it on a cutting board to let it cool.
Because of the cold weather, the pig skin began to shrink and become cold after just a short while.
The next very important step is to scrape the oil.
The part of the pig skin that Chu Yue needed was only the outermost gelatinous layer, not the white fat stuck to the inside of the pig skin. She needed to hold the knife sideways and cut it off little by little with the blade.
Don’t waste the cut fat. Put it in a small bowl and use it to extract oil when cooking later.
This step is very demanding on your knife skills. If you are not careful, you will end up cutting off the skin and meat together, which would be a waste of pork.
Chu Yue's technique was quite skillful. Her right hand holding the kitchen knife was quick and steady. She scraped off the fat without leaving any pig skin, and cleaned it up quickly.
The whole piece of pig skin already has a crystal clear feel.
But this is just the beginning.
Next comes a delicate job that requires a lot of patience - plucking the pig hair.
Because the pig skin has been boiled, the surface is very sticky and the pig hair is not easy to pull out. It must be soaked in water and cleaned while pulling out the pig hair.
Chu Yue had already prepared tweezers for plucking pig hair, one for her and one for Lu Yuanbao. Because Chen Fengying was there too, she took another one.
Three people gathered around a basin filled with warm water, grabbing the pig skin and processing the pig hair bit by bit.
At this point, Chen Fengying picked up the pig skin and smelled it. The fishy smell had actually disappeared. If you didn't smell it closely, you couldn't smell it at all.
When Chu Yue processed the pig hair, she not only plucked it, but also used a scraper to gently clean it in the opposite direction of its growth, cleaning all the tiny, invisible hairs and cutting them directly into thin strips.
Seeing this, Chen Fengying already knew what Chu Yue was going to do.
"Sister Chu, are you planning to make pig skin jelly?"
"Well, pig skin contains a lot of gelatin, and making pig skin jelly is delicious and nutritious."
Chu Yue was multitasking. Not only did she answer Chen Fengying, she also put the shredded pork skin into a large bowl.
Chen Fengying thought that the pig skin had been completely cleaned at this point, but Chu Yue grabbed a handful of salt, sprinkled it into the pig skin shreds, and began to rub it dry.
Rub dry first, then rinse with warm water.
Sprinkle salt again, rub dry, and then pour warm water to wash.
Then sprinkle salt, rub dry, and then wash with warm water...
While Chen Fengying was stunned, Chu Yue scrubbed back and forth four or five times.
Every time you clean it, there will still be a little bit of grease that has not been cleaned out.
Until the last time the water was poured in, with the pig skin placed in it, the water was clear and clean, without a trace of impurities.
Now, it's really done.
Chen Fengying watched Chu Yue work, her eyes fixed on her. Does making pig skin jelly require such meticulousness? Wasn't she washing it a little too clean?
In her entire life, she had never seen anyone do things so meticulously.
After thoroughly cleaning the pig skin, Chu Yue weighed it and found it weighed almost three pounds.
Next, the ratio of pig skin to water is 1:2.
Three pounds of pig skin can be added with six pounds of water, which cannot be put into one basin and can only be divided into two basins.
The next step is finally the last step, which is to steam it.
This step is not difficult, but it is time-consuming and requires steaming for two hours.
During this time, Chu Yue put a star anise into the pig skin water to enhance the flavor of the pig skin jelly.
Chen Fengying watched Chu Yue's entire cooking process and asked curiously, "Sister Chu, if you want to make pig skin jelly, you can just boil it directly. Why go to all this trouble to steam it? It takes so much time and wastes firewood."
Chu Yue kept it a secret, "Sister Chen, steaming is better. Come back tomorrow and you'll know why."
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