Chapter 44 Pig Slaughter Feast
Lu An and Lao Dao were gone for five days.
Five days later, they returned with a pig, a rabbit, and two pheasants.
They didn't run into Zhao Xuan when they returned, so when Zhao Xuan walked home from the vegetable garden with a basket on his shoulder, he saw that the gate to the yard was slightly ajar and smoke was coming from the kitchen, where Lu An was boiling water.
The yard was piled high with meat; the pig had already been slaughtered, and Lao Dao was squatting on the ground removing the bones. When Zhao Xuan pushed open the yard gate and glanced at the game on the ground, she clearly saw two golden characters shining above Lao Dao and Lu An's heads: Heroes!
"Ahhh, this...this..." She was already incoherent.
Old Dao nudged the large basin of rib meat on the ground with his foot: "Look, little sister, I've avenged your rice paddy!"
They brought back a male wild boar weighing over 300 pounds, all lean meat. Zhao Xuan then lifted the rabbit and chicken and found they were also quite heavy; indeed, wild game at this time of year is known for its abundance of fat.
"You've only been there a few days, how come you've already hunted so much stuff?! If you went into the mountains for months, you'd probably have a truckload of stuff by now!"
Old Dao retorted, "What kind of capitalist thinking is this?"
Lu An smiled and replied, "There won't be this many next time. Animals in the deep mountains are easy to trap the first time they encounter one. They are also clever. If you set traps in the same place a few times, you won't be able to catch them. If you want to harvest this many again, you have to go deeper into the mountains."
However, without the cabins as a transit point, going any further in would be suicidal.
Zhao Xuan calculated that she could slaughter one of her pigs next summer. She also had a few dried pheasants and ducks at home, plus chickens, eggs, and rabbits. The three of them couldn't possibly finish such a large pig. After thinking about it, she went to ask the Yao family if they needed to take some pork with them.
Of course, it wasn't free. The Yao family weren't the type to take advantage of others. After thinking it over, they decided to exchange the milk from the other ewe for half a pig, and they would have their dog deliver it. Ajiao's lambs had grown up and stopped producing milk long ago, but the other ewe was pregnant and would be able to drink sheep's milk next spring.
Yao Yuan and Zhang Xiaohe, carrying several large iron buckets and a pig-slaughtering knife, rode a tricycle back home with Zhao Xuan.
Slaughter knives are very common in rural areas. In the past, families that raised pigs would keep a few on hand. They are sharp, do not rust easily, and are very convenient for slicing pork.
This wild boar was a purebred mountain boar, with a large head, covered in black hair, a strong odor, and a mouthful of tusks. Zhang Xiaohe thought for a moment, then took the pig's head that Zhao Xuan didn't know how to cook, and also took a small piece of pork, specifically the half near the hind leg. Zhao Xuan and Lu An didn't eat much hind leg meat; that part was mostly lean and required a lot of oil to stir-fry. Luckily, Zhang Xiaohe knew how to cook it. This kind of meat was delicious for making meatballs and shredded pork with sauce, and could also be made into dried meat floss that wouldn't spoil for years.
Zhang Xiaohe was grateful for Zhao Xuan's invitation to share the pork. They had already given her a lot of meat over the past year, but the promised goat milk was clearly a high-risk futures deal. If the ewe didn't give birth to a lamb or didn't produce milk, the half pig would be wasted.
Zhao Xuan didn't think that much about it. She figured that even if there was no goat milk, the Yao family would make up for it with other things.
With the help of the Yao family, the pig was quickly sliced up.
The Yao family took the pig's head, a hind leg, and some offal. The remaining parts were divided into ribs, spare ribs, leg bones, and pork fat, and the Yao family also took some of those.
The large freezer in the living room was once again packed full. Compared to cured and smoked meat, Zhao Xuan still preferred the relatively healthier frozen meat.
She and Zhang Xiaohe discussed it and decided that the two families could smoke the meat together, so that they could take turns and it would be more convenient.
Yao Yuan was more interested in how Lao Dao and Lu An caught the wild boar. Lao Dao wasn't one to keep secrets; he knew that in the end, the young couple and Yao's family would have to work together to make a living. So he told them about the small house deep in the mountains and also explained how to hunt and set traps.
"We'll be going up the mountain again in half a month, and we'll take you with us!" As he spoke, he looked Yao Yuan up and down. "You two are both too skinny, you have no muscle on you, you look like you could be blown away by the wind." Old Dao's aesthetic sense for men has always been limited to the muscular type.
Yao Yuan packed nearly 100 pounds of pork into several large iron barrels, then covered them with homemade wooden lids. Zhang Xiaohe said very seriously that once the meat was marinated, she would invite Lao Dao and Lu An to come over for a meal.
Everyone knows that the biggest contributor to the capture of this pig was Old Knife. Without him, neither Lu An and his group nor the Yao couple would have been able to obtain such a large amount of meat.
After seeing the Yao family off, Lao Dao started plucking the rabbit's fur, Lu An ran around fetching water, and Zhao Xuan began processing the remaining meat.
After refrigerating some meat and bones suitable for stir-frying or stewing, the rest is marinating. The pork fat is removed, cut into small pieces, and then slowly simmered in a pot.
Of the remaining offal, the pig's stomach, intestines, and liver were given to the Yao family, while the remaining parts were the pig's lungs, heart, and kidneys.
Zhao Xuan is preparing a feast of pork butchering to reward everyone.
He picked a pork bone and threw it into a clay pot to simmer. Lu An would stir the lard in the pot from time to time. Zhao Xuan then filled a wooden basin with water, took a section of water pipe, and began to clean the pig lungs.
Cleaning pig lungs is a hassle. First, you poke many small holes in the lungs, then fill them with water. Once they are full, you insert a tube into the lungs and then blow air into them until the air carries the water and dirt out through the small holes.
After repeating this a couple of times, Zhao Xuan was already seeing stars.
Old Dao watched with amusement. By then, he had finished processing the rabbit, tossing the bald rabbit aside. He waved his hand and said, "Get up, I'll blow it!"
He was strong, and with one breath, the pig lungs sizzled and bubbled with water. After repeating this a few times, he shakily got up and left, holding his head. Then, Lu An, who was carrying water back, was pressed down by the two men to continue blowing air into the pig lungs.
It took three people two rounds to properly clean the pig lungs.
After cleaning, the lungs need to have some lymph nodes removed before being sliced thinly. The kidneys are treated similarly; after removing the lateral line, they are also sliced thinly and then marinated with scallions, ginger, and white wine to remove some of the gamey smell.
The wild boar they hunted this time had plenty of lean meat, which was firm, but it was very gamey. When they cut open the belly, the gamey smell was overwhelming. So Zhao Xuan thought that if it wasn't necessary, all the meat from this boar could be smoked, and the parts that couldn't be smoked could be stir-fried with chili.
When I was a child, before the Lunar New Year, my maternal grandmother's village would always hire a butcher to slaughter pigs. Usually, one or two butchers would be hired from each village, and each household would be in a queue. The butcher would come to each household in order to slaughter the pigs.
This pig is for the New Year. It's impossible to have a big feast and eat it all right after it's slaughtered. So, in addition to giving the butcher a few pounds of meat, the host family usually stir-fries a few plates of offal and cooks a pot of vermicelli with a few pounds of meat to entertain the relatives and friends who came to help slaughter the pig.
There's no more glass noodles, but we can stir-fry some pork offal and stew a pot of pork bone soup to treat ourselves and our family.
Unfortunately, 460 has disappeared again. If it knew that the family was slaughtering a pig, it would probably regret its life for leaving home today.
After the oil is rendered, the fatty meat pieces become smaller and crispier, golden and fragrant, like popcorn. Pour them into a bowl, sprinkle with salt and chili powder, and shake slightly to coat the surface of the cracklings with salt and spiciness. They can be used in cooking or eaten as a snack.
Zhao Xuan was extremely busy. First, he processed the pig lungs and kidneys, then he fried out several jars of lard. After that, he sat back in the yard and began to rub salt on the ribs.
The ribs and spare ribs had already been chopped into neat strips by Lu An and Lao Dao, and washed clean with white wine. They were just waiting for Zhao Xuan to take out bags of salt, rub them with spices and salt, and then hang them up to air dry.
The weather is getting colder and the air is getting drier, which is good for curing salted meat.
So for the entire day, the smoke from the kitchen never stopped, the white smoke rising in wisps, dissipating with a gust of wind, heading deeper into the mountains.
Buckets of well water were carried into the yard, and buckets of dirty water were emptied. Zhao Xuan came out of the kitchen and, as he went to the yard to get firewood, he couldn't help but look up at the clear blue sky.
The sky was cloudless, and the sun was shining warmly. She suddenly smiled.
They worked all afternoon, until the pork bone soup in the earthenware pot had been simmering for four or five hours and turned milky white, before the three of them finally finished marinating the pork.
The meat, freshly rubbed with salt, was pierced and strung together with rope to hang on bamboo poles. Zhao Xuan, worried about the dust in the yard, asked Lu An to carry all the bamboo poles to the third-floor platform, where clothes were usually dried. The dense strips of meat drying on the rooftop looked like rows of curtains.
Old Dao said, "This is just a flag that's calling out to others to rob us."
That tone reminded Zhao Xuan of what Lu An had said when commenting on his colorful display shelves: "If you encounter robbers, the moment a bandit enters the hall, he'll know what kind of grain the homeowner has hidden."
Back then, Zhao Xuan gave Lu An a disdainful look; now she's giving Lao Dao a sidelong glance in return.
Come to think of it, it seems like they haven't seen a stranger in a long time.
After the outbreak of a major disease, the population plummeted, and after such a long period of apocalypse, it's unknown how many humans are left on this earth. It's estimated that as long as these few don't leave these mountains, they won't see anyone else for a long time.
She and Lu An stayed in this village for a year and only met four people: the Yao family and Lao Dao. On average, they met one person every three months. At this rate, by the time they met the next stranger, the salted meat on the roof would have long since dried up and been put away.
After the meat was dried, Lu An and the others continued to fetch water and clean the yard, while Zhao Xuan patted his bottom and went into the kitchen to start preparing dinner.
The vegetables I picked from the garden this morning were still very fresh. I picked a bunch of bok choy hearts, leaves and stems, and stir-fried them with lard. I stir-fried the marinated lung slices, kidney slices, and freshly cut, tender pork heart slices together with a lot of ginger shreds and chili flakes. Finally, I added a handful of bright green garlic leaves, and it was ready to serve.
Chili flakes are made by pounding dried chilies, and they are not as fine as chili powder ground with a stone mill. Chili powder contains spices in addition to chilies, and chili flakes are different. They are simply small red fragments made by pounding dried chilies. The flavor is not as complex as chili powder, but they are very spicy.
The spiciness can effectively mask the gamey smell of pork.
A plate of stir-fried greens with lard, a plate of spicy pork offal, a plate of salty pork cracklings, and a bowl of warm, milky-white pork bone soup—that's the pig-killing feast Zhao Xuan prepared for tonight.
The pork bones were specially chopped into large chunks, and extra ginger slices and white wine were added to remove any gamey smell. The alcohol in the white wine evaporated completely during the long steaming process, leaving only a sweet flavor. The ginger slices added a touch of spiciness, making it perfect for this season.
Zhao Xuan took out a small knife and used it to slice off pieces of meat from the bone to eat with chili powder. The leftover bone could be kept to make a toy for 460.
Old Dao picked up a piece of salty fried pork crackling and ate it, then picked up a piece of pork offal with his chopsticks, and then smacked his lips: "It would be great if we had a bottle of ice-cold beer." He suddenly missed the time after finishing his night shift when he and his comrades went out and ate a bowl of beef noodles with a very generous portion, along with braised dishes and ice-cold beer.
Zhao Xuan was sipping the fragrant soup when he said, "Sister Xiao He is brewing wine. I'll ask her for a few jars when it's finished."
Neither she nor Lu An were big drinkers, but a thought suddenly flashed through their minds: a few sips when they were happy might really enhance the mood.
Old Dao nodded and praised Zhao Xuan, "Little sister, you're so loyal!"
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