Chapter 60 Killing the New Year Pig

Today, Shen Ruoqing had just finished taking a few little kids for morning exercises when he heard the sound of a bell ringing in the village.

It turns out that it’s time to slaughter the New Year pig.

This is one of the most anticipated days in the village, as the New Year pigs that have been raised for a year are finally slaughtered.

Under the command of Captain Tang, the threshing ground was particularly lively. A stove was set up in the corner, and several large pots were boiling water. A large wooden barrel was placed on top of one of the pots, and another pot was placed on top of the barrel. The surrounding area was filled with the smell of alcohol, and they were brewing local wine.

In the pigsty, the pigs that had been raised for a year seemed to have sensed something and were grunting uneasily.

"This year's pigs are not as fat as last year's. The largest one weighs only about 150 kilograms." Some people shook their heads when they saw the skinny pigs.

There is no way. There is not much food to feed the pigs this year. The little subsidy allocated from above has been eaten by people. Most of the pigs eat the pig grass picked by the children in the village. It would be strange if they could grow fat.

Shen Ruoqing rarely cared about the pigs in the village pigpen. He was shocked to see such skinny pigs. Some of these pigs were not as fat as the wild boars he got last time. It seemed that he could get some feed so that the pigs could be fatter next year.

"Master, the water is ready! We can start!" someone shouted from the stove.

The butcher who was invited responded, threw away the cigarette in his hand, and shouted, "Come on, some people, drag all the pigs out."

Several strong young men in the village leaned on rocks and jumped into the pigsty, grabbing the pig's ears. Several other strong brothers rushed forward, each holding one leg, and lifted the pig out.

The Nian Pig also knew that it was about to reach the end of its life, and struggled hard, but in front of these good laborers, its struggle was of no use at all.

There were two benches in the middle of the threshing ground. Captain Tang had already taken down the door panel and placed it on the benches. "One, two, three!" Everyone worked together to lay the big fat pig flat on the door panel.

"Look, the pig is being slaughtered! Look, the pig is being slaughtered!" Several kids gathered around, shouting.

But they didn't dare to surround too much, and only dared to stand outside and watch from a distance. Shen Ruoqing and others were also among them. Although the scene of slaughtering the New Year pig was too bloody, everyone knew that slaughtering the New Year pig was equivalent to having meat to eat, so no one minded at all and surrounded the threshing ground.

Apart from the pigs that were handed in as tasks by the villagers, only three more could be killed.

"Hold it!" the butcher shouted, and went to the wall to get his tools. In his left hand was a bamboo basket filled with sharp knives, boning knives, scrapers, meat hooks, wooden spikes and other pig-killing tools. On his shoulder was a long iron skewer as thick as a thumb, with two iron planes for scraping hair on one end of the iron skewer, which made a "clang" sound when he walked.

He returned to the wooden board, put the things down with a clang, took out the butcher knife, stretched out his thumb to test the blade, nodded with satisfaction, and said, "Bring the basin over here!"

A large wooden basin was placed under the pig's neck. The butcher covered the pig's mouth with his left hand, picked up the shining butcher knife with his right hand, aimed it at the key position of the neck, stabbed it in and then pulled it out. With a puff, the pig's blood with foam fell into the basin.

At first, it was like a fountain. When the basin was almost full, the pig stopped struggling, but Zheng Huaqiang still didn't let go. The old butcher knew that the pig was not dead yet. If he let go earlier, the pig might just turn over and run away. Lin The pig was definitely dead after being hit so hard, but it was not good to run around with blood, and wouldn't the pig's blood be wasted!

"That's it!" The butcher let go only when the pig's blood started to flow down in small streams. By then the pig was already completely dead.

Someone quickly sprinkled salt into the pig's blood to speed up the coagulation of the blood. After it coagulated, it became blood tofu, which tasted delicious when fried with chili peppers.

Everyone continued to work, and the boiled water came into play. The pig was lifted into the wooden barrel, and the boiling water was poured on it, and the pig hair fell off with a simple pull.

Depilation is a technical job. There are still a lot of small hairs on the pig's body, and the butcher needs to use his unique skills to depilate the hair.

After the hair is almost gone, the pig is hung upside down and the belly is cut open with a knife, revealing the pig's stomach, liver, intestines and other offal. Then the tendons and skin are gently cut with a knife, and with a splash, the steaming offal flows into the container that has been placed on the ground. After the offal is cleaned up, the white pig fat is exposed.

This pork fat is what every household wants.

After all, cooking with lard can be as delicious as cooking with vegetable oil, and the residue from lard is also delicious.

After the three pigs were slaughtered and the meat was cut up, Captain Tang divided the meat by centimeters. Captain Tang had always taken good care of Shen Ruoqing's family, so naturally he gave some of the pig fat to the Shen family. However, this time, the pig offal was not divided. All of it was to be used as a pig-killing dish so that the villagers could have a good meal.

The educated youths were naturally given pork, but not pork fat. However, the pork they were given was neither good nor bad, and there was nothing wrong with it.

The remaining pigs were taken away by the commune and weighed, with a total weight of 712 jin. The price of live pigs was 40 cents per jin, so the total profit was 284.8 yuan. However, this money was not to be divided, and had to be saved for buying piglets next year and other expenses.

The pig-killing dish is prepared by several aunties in the village who are good at cooking.

They have been cooking this pig-killing dish for several years, and their skills are pretty good. They can make all the pig offal into delicious dishes. Shen Ruoqing secretly changed the water used for cooking, and was looking forward to this pig-killing dish.

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

Everyone brought bowls back from home and waited to eat the pig-killing dish.

Because there is no surplus grain this year, the village does not supply staple food, only a pig-slaughtering meal.

Old Mrs. Ji asked her son to take the pork home, and she and her children had already lined up in a long queue. The educated youth were also able to share the pig-killing dishes. Shu Lijuan and her friends had never eaten the pig-killing dishes before, so they were also very interested in it.

There were hundreds of people eating, and even with the potato vermicelli, it wasn't enough. So everyone ordered some food to eat back home.

Shen Ruoqing went to get a pound of grain wine. Several people in the village also went to get wine today. This grain wine costs one cent per two ounces, and it cost one dollar. This was for the two brothers Shen Xiangnan and Shen Xiangxi to drink. Shen Xiangdong couldn't drink yet, so this pound of grain wine was enough for the two of them to drink several times.

The dishes were good, so the rice couldn't be bad either. The Shen family cooked white rice. Today was a good day, so they didn't make black flour steamed buns for Wang. It was quite troublesome to cook two kinds of rice every day.

Shen Ruoqing tasted the pig-killing dish and it tasted really good, and paired with rice, it was absolutely delicious. Especially the blood sausage, it tasted really good.

After the meal, the Shen family started to work. The Shen family smoked all the meat they were given to make bacon. Although the weather was cold, bacon could still be preserved for a long time. The pig fat weighed one pound, and it was all turned into oil and grease. Shen Ruoqing sprinkled a handful of sugar and gave it to the children to share.

(End of this chapter)