Xing'an Mountains 1984: Starting from climbing mountains to support the family

Chapter 91 Northeastern Black Pig

"Auntie, whose family is slaughtering the pig?" Chen Weidong came over pulling the donkey cart.

The middle-aged woman next to him heard what he said and quickly said, "This is Liu Baoguo. He said he originally planned to sell the pigs to the food station, but the money the food station offered was too low."

"Let me tell you, Liu Baoguo has raised this pig for several years and has never been willing to sell it. His son is getting married and the woman wants a dowry of 50 yuan."

"Liu Baoguo wanted to sell the pigs for the bride price, but the donkeys at the purchasing station insisted that Liu Baoguo's first-grade pigs were second-grade. So he decided to kill the pigs himself."

People these days are very enthusiastic. Chen Weidong said something and the woman kept nagging, wishing to tell him all the gossip about other people. After she finished speaking, the middle-aged woman even spit at him. It was obvious that the food purchasing station hated it.

Chen Weidong nodded. Not everyone is as lucky as him when it comes to getting married these days. He married Liu Xueting without paying a single cent for the bride price.

Most of them still require gifts. In the city, the gifts include three things: a bicycle, a sewing machine, a watch, a radio,

In poor rural areas, of course, they don't have the conditions, but they will give some things. If they are poorer, they can marry a wife by giving a dozen or twenty yuan, or some other things.
The dowry that the bride brings usually includes tables, chairs, benches, hanging wardrobes, tea sets, etc.

Nowadays, the girl's family doesn't care much about the amount of the bride price. As long as the boy's family and the person have a good reputation, it's enough. Of course, there are also those who are willing to pay for it if they are capable. This is the case in every era.

As for food purchasing stations, farmers generally sell their pigs to them these days.

Because the pigs raised in the early years were not allowed to be bought and sold, they were all collected by food purchasing stations. Generally, only when a pig died under special circumstances, it was allowed to be sold privately after a report was submitted.
Although the policies have been relaxed a bit now, most people are still accustomed to selling to purchasing stations. However, it is hard to describe the people in the purchasing stations. Many of them like to find fault with everything, and it all depends on whether you know how to handle things.

Killing a pig is a big deal, and Chen Weidong saw that many people from the surrounding villages had come in one after another. He walked in and then looked inside.

In the yard, it was steaming with boiling water scalding pig hair.

In a large iron pot, the slaughtered and bled pigs were soaked in it.

Good guy!
A large black pig from Northeast China weighing about 400 kilograms,

A butcher wearing an apron was holding a butcher knife and demonstrating to Liu Baoguo how to do it.

Then the butcher blew air into the pig through the four holes with his mouth. After blowing air, he tied the four legs with thin ropes to prevent air from escaping.

Then beat it with a wooden board to separate the pigskin and pork. Take a thick iron rod and insert the iron rod from the four legs of the pig to separate the pigskin and pork as much as possible.

After waiting for about half an hour, there was a commotion inside.

Liu Baoguo took a puff of his pipe and shouted hoarsely to the outside: "Who wants to weigh the pork? It's more than a dime cheaper than the one sold in the village!"

The next step is to go door to door to buy meat.

Actually.

The more people buy meat, the more likely it is that the meat will be weighed.

I have no money in my hand, but the meat is cheap! No one is willing to take money out of their pockets if they don’t want tickets.

Basically, people buy half a catty, one catty, or two catties. Most people buy them to gain some fat.

When it was Chen Weidong's turn, there were still about 200 kilograms, most of which were lean pork ribs.

He didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Nowadays, people don’t want to have fat in their stomachs. They all like to be fat.

to be frank.

Compared to fat,
He actually prefers to eat spare ribs. After all, eating too much fatty meat is not good for the body. Of course, this is related to people of that era who can’t even eat meat, let alone fatty meat!

Chen Weidong touched his chin and asked, "Uncle, how much is this rib per pound?"

Liu Baoguo took a puff of his pipe and looked up at Chen Weidong. He felt that he looked a little unfamiliar and couldn't remember whose child he was.
He tapped his pipe and said, "Are you sure you want to buy spareribs? There's not much meat on it. Don't buy it and your wife will scold you."

Most working people these days are still very simple. Chen Weidong smiled and said, "It's okay. I'll buy more ribs and some of the other things too!"

"Pork ribs are 65 cents, and pork is 70 cents a pound," Liu Baoguo sighed as he looked at the remaining pork.

His price is much cheaper than other places in the countryside, but if he can sell most of the pork, it will still be much more cost-effective than selling it to the food station.

Suddenly, Chen Weidong became interested when he saw the unwanted pig livers in the basket. This thing can replenish blood, so he could buy it and cook it for his wife and children at home.

Nowadays, if you kill a pig in the countryside, you basically sell it.

However in reality.

Liu Baoguo is slaughtering pigs now, and it is not difficult to sell them, otherwise he would not choose to sell them to the food station first. After all, this 400-jin old black pig has so much meat! How much money do people in the village have in their pockets?

Unfortunately, the food station rated his A-grade pig as B-grade, so he lost a lot of money.

Had to kill.

We should sell as much meat as we can. Otherwise, we will just leave it there.

Pork liver is not easy to sell.

It has a big flavor and not much oil. If you want to make it delicious, you have to add heavy ingredients.

All said and done, it costs money.

Not cost-effective.

Chen Weidong also understood this principle. He said, "Uncle, how about this? I buy seven pounds of spare ribs and five pounds of pork, and you give me the liver. Is that ok?"

When encountering such cheap old black pigs, Chen Weidong naturally wanted to buy more.

Liu Baoguo's mouth and nose twitched.

I am so happy!
He was originally worried that he wouldn't be able to sell these ribs, but then a young man came and asked for seven pounds of them right away. As for the pork liver, he was originally worried about asking his relatives who would take it!

Now the young man asked for it.

He couldn't just give it away as a gift. After all, the other person bought more than ten kilograms of meat in one go!

"Okay! Seeing that you are happy with your work, I will weigh you now!"

As he said this, he picked up the butcher knife and cut a large piece of ribs from the hanging half of the pig. When he weighed it, it was a little short. He then found a piece of fat and lean meat next to it, which was just over seven pounds.

"I'll give it as a gift to you if you have more!"

Liu Baoguo said with a smile, and then started cutting the pork. It was fat and lean, just five pounds, not more or less.

Liu Baoguo found some straw and used a butcher knife to insert the straw directly through the ribs and pork. As for the pig liver, he tied it in the middle and handed them to Chen Weidong together.

Chen Weidong was also very straightforward.

He took out eight dollars and five cents from his pocket and handed the money over.

Although these ten pounds of old black pig pork cannot be eaten up in a few days, they can be pickled into bacon.

The way meat is stored in the Northeast is different from that in the South. In the South, it is air-dried bacon, while in the Northeast, it is salted meat.
There is no pickled bacon at home yet, so Chen Weidong plans to pickle some.

The preparation of Northeastern bacon is generally more complicated than that of southern bacon. Cut the meat into even long strips, clean it, and drain the water.

Heat a pot, pour in salt, add peppercorns, star anise and dried chilies and stir-fry until the salt turns slightly yellow and then pour out.

Apply the fried hot salt to the meat and rub it vigorously to allow the salt to penetrate into the meat.

Then put the meat into the jar layer by layer and sprinkle some white wine on each layer. This will make the bacon taste more delicious.

After sealing the jar lid, marinate for seven days.

When pickling, it is best to place it in a cellar where the temperature is relatively low and constant.

After seven days, pierce a hole in the marinated pork belly, tie it with a rope and hang it in a cool and ventilated place to dry for seven days.

After drying, you can put it back into the jar. It can be stored for a long time and you can take it out whenever you want to eat it.

However, this method of making bacon is not something that most people can do.

In this day and age, ordinary families may not even be able to eat meat once a month, so why would they bother making bacon?

Only some wealthy families or some hunters' families would make bacon.

Because, as a hunter, there is usually no shortage of meat at home. Although hunting is dangerous, it is an enviable job in the mountains.

Even though many hunters die in the mountains every year, there are still many people who want to become hunters. However, not everyone can be a hunter.

……

Chen Weidong's lavish purchase of more than ten kilograms of pork at one time attracted a lot of attention, but Chen Weidong didn't care at all and drove his donkey cart directly home.

As soon as Chen Weidong turned the corner, he saw the little baby Wu Ni sitting at the gate of the yard with a puppy in her arms.

The puppy barked at Wu Ni, and the little guy immediately looked up and saw Chen Weidong.

Xiaojia's big watery eyes flickered. The two looked at each other for a second, and then Wu Ni called out "Dad". She quickly shouted into the house, "Mom, sister, Dad is back."

After saying that, the little guy ran towards him with his short legs.
Whoosh whoosh!

In the yard, Dani and four little girls also ran out.

(End of this chapter)