"You two stop chattering, get to work. Wu Cuimei listened to the two masters discussing other people's affairs, and she couldn't listen to it anymore, "Tomorrow is the winter solstice, do you want to wait until tomorrow to work?"

"What are you doing?" Liu Qingshan asked, "Mom, what do you want me to do?"

"Qingshan, you chop the filling, Yuanhe, you are responsible for brushing the grapefruit leaves, and I will make the noodles. Wu Cuimei is like a heavenly soldier who fell from the sky at this moment, wearing a brand-new apron, so imposing.

She can't do the work outside, but the work in the kitchen is what she is good at.

According to his mother's instructions, Liu Qingshan found various foods such as fresh winter bamboo shoots, white radish, pork, dried mushrooms, tangerine peel and other foods that had been prepared before, cleaned them, chopped them all, and then put them in a pot and fried until fragrant, adding an appropriate amount of seasoning.

Dad sat on the stone threshold of the hall the whole time, carefully brushing the grapefruit leaves.

Mom is making noodles in the kitchen.

Liu Qingshan prepared the filling, and she had already paired glutinous rice flour with boiling water and gardenia to make a golden dough.

"Is the filling good, is the leaf good? I'm going to start making glutinous rice cakes. Wu Cuimei urged.

Liu Qingshan hurriedly brought the filling that had just come out of the pot to his mother: "Mom, look, how about the filling I fried?"

Wu Cuimei frowned and stared at the black filling, squinted and asked, "Did you put the old soy sauce as a light soy sauce?"

Liu Qingshan: "Hehe, Mom, your nose is so sharp, you can smell it." ”

"What the hell, look at it yourself, this black one, either it's scorched, or it's soy sauce, you say you're in your twenties, and you can't tell the difference between raw soy sauce and old soy sauce?"

Liu Qingshan wanted to invite credit, but he didn't expect to be counted down by his mother, so he had to run away in disgrace.

As soon as he walked away, Liu Yuanhe brought a basket of cleaned green grapefruit leaves, and said with a smile: "Look, this time I washed it quickly enough, there is no white bird droppings, and there is no use of cobwebs." ”

Wu Cuimei glanced at the shiny leaves, grabbed one casually, turned it over, and showed the back of the leaf to Liu Yuanhe: "How is the sediment behind this fat? Where are your eyes? Can't you see so much sediment? Take it back and re-do it." ”

Liu Yuanhe obediently picked up the basket and returned to the stone threshold of the hall.

"Dad, my mom's old mistake has come again. Liu Qingshan leaned over and whispered.

Liu Yuanhe nodded, and said in the same low voice: "I estimate that it will be more serious tomorrow." ”

"What do you say? Qingshan, you have nothing to do, don't you?" Wu Cuimei shouted out from the kitchen, "You have nothing to do, you just go and marinate the pork that your father bought in the morning, and tomorrow morning, I will see the bacon hanging on the stove." ”

Liu Qingshan stuck out his tongue and hurriedly did what his mother told him.

Curing bacon is simple.

At least, it's simple for a foodie.

Or rather, it's simple for a young man who grew up in a family of foodies.

There is such a thing as bacon, I don't know what dynasty it can be traced back to.

But in Liu Qingshan's memory, it can only be traced back to his grandfather's generation.

When I was a child, every year on the day before the winter solstice, my grandfather would always buy a lot of pork.

At that time, pork was not as expensive as it is now, it was very cheap, and only 'fine meat' such as chicken, duck and fish was expensive.

Grandpa helps people treat diseases, although the income is not high, but every year he takes out a sum of money to buy some pork and come back to make bacon, but it is still okay.

After buying the pork, Grandpa took him with him to the creek in the yard. The grandfather and grandson each carried a basin.

Grandpa's basin was filled with heavy pork, and his basin was filled with kitchen knives, cutting boards, knives, salt, and the like.

When they arrived at the stream, the two squatted together by the stream to wash the pork.

"Qingshan, this pork has to be washed like this, you see me, gently scrape its skin with the blade, and the scraped off is all dirty. ”

Grandpa took a kitchen knife, and he used a knife to do the same.

After washing the pork, Grandpa carefully removed the bones from the pork, and the serious appearance seemed to be carving a fine handicraft.

Remove the bones, cut the pork into strips, and sprinkle salt on top of the pork and rub it all over.

Later, as if by magic, Grandpa sprinkled rice wine, soy sauce, and five-spice powder into the meat. Then, under the rubbing of his big hands, the pork slowly changed color.

The next morning, his grandfather took him into the mountains to cut back the leaves of two wild palm trees, and then cut off the slender leaves with scissors, cleaned them, and boiled them in boiling water.

The pork that has been marinated overnight is boiled in boiling water, and when the meat turns white, the wild palm leaves are passed through the pork, knotted, skewered on a piece of wood, and hung on top of the stove where the fire is lit.

At that time, the life of the people in the mountains was generally not good, so if anyone pickled bacon, it would be a matter of shame for the thief.

Therefore, for the sake of face, many people would rather not eat pork for a month, and they must also marinate bacon and hang it high on the stove.

What's more, in order to let others see their own cured bacon without entering the door, every morning, whenever it is not raining, more than ten pieces of bacon must be hung in the yard, so that the row of bacon is like an old man and an old lady, lazy and comfortable in the warm winter.

When the villagers passing by saw it, they inevitably praised it.

Of course, grandpa never did such a thing.

When I think of my grandfather's cured bacon, I can't help but think of bacon stew.

Cut the bacon into small slices and place it in rice to steam. The moment you lift the lid of the pot, it's really fragrant. There is the aroma of meat in the mouth of the rice, and the aroma of the meat in the mouth is overflowing, floating in the kitchen.

Although bacon is delicious, you can't eat too much. Grandpa said, good things, you have to keep them and eat them slowly, and you have to keep them for a long time.

Come to think of it, grandpa's generation is such a frugal person. In those days, in the hard days, limited food could always be processed into delicious and unforgettable dishes, which not only brought taste enjoyment to the tip of the tongue, but also brought indelible beauty to long-term memories.

However, when I was young, I didn't understand the difficulties of life, nor did I understand the original meaning of curing bacon. I thought it was to prevent the meat from rotting and stinking, or to be able to eat delicious food for a long time after the year, as if the festive winter days had lasted for a long, long time.

However, when Liu Qingshan grew up, he realized that 90% of the bacon entered his stomach, and when he ate the leftovers, it was his grandfather's turn to eat. Mom and Dad can only eat a little once in a while.

I still remember one time, he ate a lot of bacon, puffed out his cheeks, chewed the meat with a mouthful of oil, looked at his parents with a curious face and asked: "Dad, Mom, bacon is so fragrant and delicious, why don't you eat it?"

Mom put a piece of bacon in his bowl and said with a smile: "Oh, the bacon is too hard, your father and I can't eat it, Qingshan, you eat more." ”

"yes, if you eat our teeth, your grandfather won't be able to cure them. Dad laughed too.

Grandpa laughed too, and everyone laughed.

In those hearty laughter, the New Year is gone imperceptibly, and the childhood time is also unconsciously gone.

It wasn't until Grandpa was gone, and he grew up, that he realized what a gentle lie it was.