As soon as the winter solstice is over, rural families begin to bake bacon and smoke sausages. The bacon and sausages in Zhuxian County, East Sichuan are delicious and fragrant, oily but not greasy, and are the nostalgic memories of many people.

On this day, Uncle Wu asked Li Sanmao, the butcher of his team, to kill New Year's pigs in his yard. Wu Sifu went to the third uncle's house early in the morning to help kill the pigs.

According to the consistent practice of Takemura, the owner of the New Year's pig must invite the family members of the neighborhood to eat the pig-killing rice. Aunt Wu was busy, Wu Sifu helped Aunt Wu cut shredded meat and pork liver, add firewood and fire to stew radish and pork rib soup, and was not idle for a moment.

At noon, Zhou Jueming's family in Uncle Wu's courtyard, Shen San's wife Li Dacui, butcher Li Sanmao, plus Tang Xiaohong in the village, the old village chief, etc., were full of people around the two tables. The table is filled with hard dishes such as freshly baked shredded pork, hot and sour pork liver, stewed pork ribs with white radish, as well as seasonal cabbage and green vegetables. Everyone drank and ate vegetables lively, and Aunt Wu added hot soup and hot dishes to everyone from time to time.

The next day, Aunt Wu was preparing to marinate the bacon and asked Wu Sifu to help. Wu Sifu thought about it, his father, mother and Pingping were in charge of these things in the past, but now that his father and mother are not there, Pingping has not come back, so he will learn from Aunt Wu first, and then he will also pickle some of them, and the family will have to eat during the New Year.

Aunt Wu pickled bacon sausages into her own family, and the bacon sausages smoked out were ruddy and shiny in color, spicy and delicious, and had a great reputation in the neighborhood. Wu Sifu followed Aunt Wu to salt the bacon in the hall, and Aunt Wu explained to him the secret of curing bacon sausages.

Aunt Wu said: It is best to choose the half-fat and half-lean three-line meat and leg meat that are cooked and fed with cooked food, generally a pound of pork with four coins of salt, and then put the salt in the ceramic jar to marinate for half a month, during which the meat must be turned over, so that the salt can penetrate into the bacon more evenly.

After marinating, the bacon should not be smoked directly on the fire, but should be washed with warm water, dried and steamed, and then hung on the firewood for cooking rice and smoked slowly until the meat is half-dried and yellow-brown.

Wu Sifu recalled the old days, in the winter leisure time, his mother took a piece of bacon, washed it and simmered it slowly on the wood fire with dried bamboo shoots or white radish or kelp, and the strong aroma of bacon wafted in the house. Smelling those scents, I feel that the days are quiet and comfortable.

After cooking, the three-line bacon has a moist and bright color, and when you bite it, your lips and teeth are fragrant. The dried bamboo shoots or white radish stewed with it are particularly fragrant and delicious because of the abundant oil and water. If the three-line bacon steamed bean drum is another delicacy.

After marinating the bacon, Aunt Wu opened up the sausage again. Aunt Wu said that sausage baking is more troublesome. Filling sausages is generally prepared with fresh meat in the proportion of thin seventy percent fat and three percent, if only thin and weak, it tastes like firewood, dry and not oily; A small amount of fatty meat is mixed to make it more fragrant.

The meat of sausage is best to choose pork front leg meat, chop it by hand, and then put salt in the ratio of two coins of salt for one pound of pork, and then add an appropriate amount of pepper powder, chili noodles, and white sugar to mix evenly, and pour it into the washed pig's small intestine.

Speaking of which, Aunt Wu added another sentence, the taste of homemade sausages completely depends on the experience, craftsmanship and personal preferences of housewives, some don't like peppercorns, some don't like peppers, and you can mix condiments according to personal taste.

Freshly filled sausages should also not be smoked immediately, so they should be washed with warm water to remove the greasy surface of the sausages, and put them in a ventilated place to dry the water vapor before smoking. The sausage can not be smoked for too long, and it cannot be hung on the firewood for a long time with the bacon, generally about 5 days, and it can be hard to the touch.

As for why the marinated bacon and sausages can't be smoked directly on the fire, and the surface greasy should be removed with warm water, Wu Sifu knew the reason after thinking about it. The surface is greasy and easy to be contaminated with dust, and the color of the smoke will not be yellow. Although Aunt Wu did not explain the reason, the wisdom of the farmers should not be underestimated.

After listening to Aunt Wu's explanation, Wu Sifu knew that the bacon sausages he had eaten before were still so particular. However, he also knew that it was best to cook sausages with bacon, so that the sausages would not taste good without oil and water; Whether it's bacon or sausages, it's best when it's hot.

Helping Aunt Wu marinate the bacon and stuff the sausages, Wu Sifu returned home and found that his back was sore and his legs were numb, and it turned out that doing housework was also very tiring.

Wu Sifu's two fat pigs have broad shoulders and round waists, and he thought that he would be able to sell the fat pigs at a good price by taking advantage of the best time for everyone to bake bacon and sausages.

On the day of the market, Wu Sifu took the woven basket and bamboo basket to Shuangjiang Town early to catch the market.

When I came to Shuangjiang Town, the market had just opened, and there were not many people. In the winter leisure time, the old people in the countryside ate breakfast in a hurry, and then walked slowly to the town to catch the market; When I arrived in the town, I walked slowly and leisurely. When I met relatives and acquaintances, I stood on the spot, and the Longmen Array began to talk lively.

It's almost the New Year, and there are more stalls selling fried goods, melon seeds, peanuts, candy, everything; A basket of navel oranges and seedless oranges, orange and red in color, bright and bright, standing on the street vividly; The clothes of the elderly and children in the clothing store have more styles and quantities than usual, and the middle-aged and elderly people have set up enough dragon gate arrays, holding children, visiting fried food stalls and clothing stores. Throughout the year, you have to buy a new dress for yourself, your wife, or your children.

Wu Sifu came to the farmers' market as usual, set up the basket and bamboo basket, and when he looked up, he saw Li Sanmao, the butcher of the team, rolling up his sleeves and waving a knife to chop meat.

Li Sanmao's meat stall was piled with two halves of pork that had just been cut, and after he saw him grinding it with a butcher knife on the iron rod, he picked up the knife and landed on the ground to chop the pig's head and feet. A leather apron hung from a wide chest, shiny black and shiny. Apparently, he had just gotten pork out of the slaughterhouse.

Wu Sifu walked over with a limp and greeted Li Sanmao: "Sanmao, sell meat?" ”

Li Sanmao saw that it was Wu Sifu, an acquaintance of the team, and said jokingly: "You are selling meat!" ”

This Li Sanmao has complex thoughts, and he must think of women's improper business. Wu Sifu laughed and said, "I want to have meat to sell." ”

Wu Sifu stood next to the meat stall and asked Li Sanmao about the price of pork. Li Sanmao said: "In the past two days, the price of pork has risen, and live pigs have been sold for 10 yuan a catty, and pork is now sold for 15 yuan a catty." ”

Wu Sifu quickly calculated in his mind, his two fat pigs, more than 500 catties. Leave it for yourself to eat, to say the least, you can also sell 300 catties of pork, at least for more than 4,000 yuan. It seems that Xiaotian will have no problem with tuition and living expenses in the coming year.

If you sell live pigs and sell them at home after paying taxes, at least you can get lard, liver, tongue and other offal. Pingping and Xiaotian came back, and the family's life also had oil.

However, selling your own meat is a problem.

After thinking about it for a while, Wu Sifu talked with Li Sanmao. Neighbors, as soon as Li Sanmao heard Wu Sifu's words, he immediately knew Wu Sifu's thoughts. Thinking that Wu Sifu is a big man at home and feeding two fat pigs, it is indeed not easy.

Thinking of this, he whispered to Wu Sifu: "Sifu, the grain fed by your pigs, and the cooked food, the meat must be easy to sell." Now people in the city don't like to eat pork raised by feed, you go and talk to Tang Xiaohong and ask him to roar at his unit, and the pork of your two pigs will be sold. ”

When Wu Sifu heard it, this idea was indeed good. Not only can you earn the difference between the price of the live pig and the butcher, but you can also earn the pig offal. This Li Sanmao is indeed a ghost, but he is still righteous to himself. immediately handed over a cigarette and quickly lit it for Li Sanmao.

The two chatted about other things, and Wu Sifu returned to his bamboo stall to sell baskets and bamboo baskets.

Wu Sifu stood there, looking at the basket and bamboo basket in front of him, even though there were people coming and going on the street, no one stopped in front of him, not even a glance. He muttered in his heart, now that it is not the harvest season, it is estimated that few people will buy these farm tools, and he can't help but feel melancholy.

The restaurant owner who bought Wu Sifu's bamboo sieve came to the farmers' market again. He greeted Wu Sifu from afar: "Brother, hurry up?" ”

Wu Sifu replied repeatedly: "Yes, yes, yes."

The restaurant owner walked straight to Li Sanmao's meat stall and looked over and over the ribs, ribs, and pig's feet on the meat stall.

"Boss Zhang, this pig is good today, look at this pork, how good the color is, fresh and tender." Li Sanmao recommended it to Boss Zhang of the restaurant.

Boss Zhang picked and chosen, chose stick bones and pig's feet, told Li Sanmao to weigh it, paid the money, and prepared to leave.

As if he remembered something, Boss Zhang turned around and said to Li Sanmao: "Butcher Li, if you meet a pig fed cooked food, tell me, I want to buy some cooked food fed pork sausages, smoke some bacon, and eat it myself." ”

"That's fine. However, the price is 2 yuan a pound more expensive than today's meat. Li Sanmao said.

"As long as it's genuine, it's okay if it's expensive." Boss Zhang said.

As soon as Boss Zhang left, Li Sanmao called Wu Sifu and said to him happily: "Your fat pig is so good!" Boss Zhang, who came to buy bones just now, said that he wanted to buy cooked pork. I told him that the price of meat was 2 yuan more expensive than the market price. Guess what people say? No problem! ”

Wu Sifu was also very happy when he heard this. It seems that multiple friends have multiple paths.

Wu Sifu agreed with Li Sanmao on the day to kill the pig at the end of the month, and he calculated that when Xiaotian came back from vacation, he killed the pig, and his son could also eat a good meal of killing the pig.

After that, he went to buy some sausage condiments, and prepared to pack up the unsold bamboo baskets and baskets to go home.

At this time, a middle-aged woman in her sixties came to Wu Sifu. Wu Sifu looked at it and saw that it was his second cousin. Hurriedly greeted enthusiastically: "Second cousin, are you also in a hurry?" ”

The second cousin nodded and asked, "You sell a basket?" ”

Wu Sifu said: "I have nothing to do in winter, so I thought about making up two. However, there are fewer people buying bamboo baskets now, and none of them have been sold today. ”

The second cousin looked at Wu Sifu lovingly.

At this time, Wu Sifu suddenly remembered what his father had confessed to him when he was dying, could it be that his second cousin came here today for this?