"Lap seven and eight, pickled fish and pickled duck", in the middle and late part of the lunar month, the aroma of meat will fill every day, every village and alley, and every farmer...... The strong smell of the New Year lingers in my heart, and everything becomes warm and lovely. In the good days at the end of the year, walking in the countryside, the bamboo poles are skewered and hung on the walls, all of which are preserved goods such as chickens, ducks, fish and meat dried in the sun, showing the wealth and abundance of Jiangnan farmers at the end of the year. Sometimes, a white pig's head, freshly packed up, hangs under the eaves, squinting intoxicated, with a pair of small eyes and two fat ears, at first glance, it seems that it can't hide a smile.

When the "pig's head three" who completely cleaned his face, first deleted the fat collar meat (some people kept it without deleting), and finally removed all the bones, sprinkled with salt grains and peppercorns and put them in a bowl, and mixed with the cut into strips of leg meat and rib meat to compact and marinate for about half a month, you can pick it up and put on a string and hang it in the sun, until it is dark red and shiny, and then it is really delicious. I can't remember whether I read Zhou Zuoren or Wang Zengqi's article earlier, saying that it is a high-grade pig's head, the forehead should be wide, and the skin on the forehead should be wrinkled, I don't know if it really makes sense.

The pig's head meat has thick skin, heavy gum, chewy, and the texture is only old. In the past, we had a kind of Jiangnan polder pig here, this pig has a big belly and a saddle back, the ears are super large, the tip of the mouth is long, the forehead is wrinkled, the face is vicissitudes, the growth is slow, but the meat quality is particularly good, think about it, the flavor on its head is very good.

In the eyes of some people, pickled pork head meat is not elegant, and it is hard to imagine that politicians or beauty celebrities will patronize a piece of pickled pork head meat. But the pickled pig's head meat is indeed wonderful, and its mystery lies in the integration of fat and thinness. In the fattest place, a lump of fine flesh grows, and in the most refined place, there is suddenly a line of fat embedded in it. I think the best thing is the pig's nose - that is, the pig's arch mouth, which is a piece of natural meat, the pigmentation is almost purple-red, salty, salty, soft and chewy, approachable and amazing.

Asking the world, what is the love, of course, you can't miss those pig ears that have been cut into strips...... The white tendons are embedded in the soft glutinous meat, eat in the mouth, the tongue is slippery, and the bite is crispy, in short, it can quite arouse your good luck. If you haven't tasted it in your life, you're really disappointed!

Serving the marinated pork head meat with little to no cooking techniques, it is just steamed in a pot – at most, a thousand sheets underneath. That is, this steaming can best reflect the folk elements of Jiangnan, but it is atmospheric and informal. On the dining table of the farmhouse, the steamed pickled pig's head meat is almost a troubadour walking on the rural land, between the true meaning of life and the imagination, walking and singing, transcending reason, and grasping passion.

Earlier, there was no greenhouse vegetables, but at the end of the first month and the beginning of February, the garlic sprouts came up, and the pickled pig's head meat was fried with garlic sprouts or tender and slightly crispy rape sprouts.

All in all, the beauty of marinated pork head meat is like poetry to life. Therefore, people like me who enjoy life in simple terms are naturally in love with pickled pork head meat.

Meat, also known as crystal trotters, is a famous dish in Zhenjiang. The meat she made is white and red, the marinade is transparent, and the pieces are crystal shiny, which is exquisite and lovely. Its crispy and fresh tenderness, it is still delicious to eat again and again, and if it is dipped in ginger vinegar, it has a unique flavor. In fact, more than ten years ago, I tasted this mellow and fragrant crystal dish in Zhenjiang.

The almost transparent gelatinous pig skin, the creamy fat paste like clotted fat, and the carmine jade-like tendon meat, while the eyeballs are locked, a burst of fragrance has come to the nose...... After tasting it, it was really impressive. Later, I saw Zhenjiang meat sold in boxes on the street, just like we had met in Yangzhou, Wuxi and Jiaxing, where we had met big lion heads, sauce pork ribs and ham dumplings.

Meat, to put it bluntly, is a pig's trotter dish. When it comes to pig's trotters, there are them everywhere, braised hooves, spiced hooves, sauce hooves, and in the countryside, the hooves served in a big bowl are the dishes that are heavy and have great momentum.

When Zhou Zhuang was just hot, I went there, and I was selling "Wansan hooves" all over the street, but at that time, most of the people who could run around everywhere were already slightly convex and had a bit of identity. In contrast, the strict selection of materials, the fine processing, and the delicious taste of this crystal dish are a bit winding and secluded. The sister said that when you buy meat in Zhenjiang, as long as you tell the master to cook meat, he will help you carefully remove the bones, and then cut the meat into four large pieces, so that it will be much easier to cook it at home.

The boneless pig's trotters are scraped and cleaned, poked some holes in the lean meat with bamboo skewers, and then evenly sprinkled with nitrate, and then smeared with salt, star anise, cinnamon, and peppercorns, and the lean meat is wrapped in the skin and marinated for three days. The water in the pot is boiling, a bamboo mat is rested, and the hoofs that have been re-treated with spices are placed. After boiling, skim off the foam, add green onion and ginger, Shao wine, cover the pot, change to low heat and cook for two hours, flip the hooves up and down, and cook for about two hours until the hooves are crispy and rotten.

Place the hooves skin-side down in a flat box, flatten and scoop in the original soup in which the hooves are boiled. After about a day (put it in the refrigerator when it is hot), it will be made into meat, take out and slice it. The red and tender frost arranged in the blue and white dishes is trembling and shiny, like a spring boudoir girl who answers with a glimpse of shame.

The allure of the meat lies in the fact that the meat is fragrant and mellow, fat but not greasy, and thin without ingrown teeth. But anyone who has eaten meat knows that "crystal" refers to the skin of meat, which is chewy but not stalked, and lean meat is strong but not tough. Pick up a piece of meat, dip it in Zhenjiang balsamic vinegar mixed with fine ginger and eat it in your mouth, the result of the harmony and interaction of meat, acetic acid and ginger juice will remind you of the famous minister Yi Yin, who ruled the country as well as cooking Xiaoxian three thousand years ago, sighed about the food: "The taste is subtle, and the mouth can't speak!"