Text/Gao Chuanbo
In the rural areas of Northeast China, the annual flavor of hometown is always the strongest. After the twelfth lunar month, the flavor of the year is getting stronger and stronger, and many people are busy washing quilts and sweeping dust. The new year is coming, so we must clean the house very clean and look more like the new year. Some people put up Spring Festival couplets at home, went to town to buy new year's goods, and some people asked butchers to kill pigs. This was the folk custom of welcoming the New Year in our hometown at that time. These scenes most easily remind me of the Spring Festival in my childhood, and those things that killed pigs at home in those years.
The stupid pigs raised at home don't feed the essence, and the pork is fragrant, so you can eat it with confidence, especially the braised pork. The more you eat, the more fragrant it is.
In those years of rural production team, poor families could not afford to kill piglets. If there is flood and drought, eating will become a big problem. Therefore, at that time, the pigs must have been killed by families with good weather and good family circumstances.
My family was poor in those years, and there were six of us. At that time, we were still in primary school and junior high school. We eat too much at home, earn less work points in the team and have insufficient rations. We often eat potatoes with pigs. Pigs in pigsty grow up after eating potatoes and wild vegetables for a year.
One year, my parents were cruel and decided to kill pigs in return for their neighbors' help. Hearing the news, like a thunder on the ground, the two brothers were so happy that they put their fingers in the sky.
On the day of Killing Year Pig, I invited my relatives and neighbors to have a meal at home, thanked the villagers in Tun for their help at home, and used wine. My mother asked us two brothers to go to my grandmother's house to pick up my grandmother, uncle, aunt, uncle and menstruation, and informed them that my family would kill the pig tomorrow and they would all come to my house to eat braised pork. Father's guests are his parents, brothers and sisters, etc. If all the guests are here, there are about two tables.
Women at home, their mothers, neighbors' aunts and aunts are all cutting sauerkraut. Two pots of cut sauerkraut are ready, and braised pork is cooked after killing pigs. Drink sauerkraut soup.
Kill pigs and eat blood sausage, big fat slices, liver sausage, bitter sausage, halaba lean meat and oil. I am looking forward to it. How greedy!
The butcher came into the room. It's Lao Wang, the pig killer in our village. He carried the burden of the butcher, with a big wooden basin with scalded pig hair at one end and a bamboo basket with pig killing tools at the other. That pig-killing bathtub is really big, oval like a wooden kidney, with a fungus handle on each side, which is higher than an adult's knee. In the basket, a sharp knife to kill pigs shook in the cold light. You have to ask for help to kill pigs. My neighbors came, some brave people came, and so did Master Cao. Dad is going to boil water and prepare two high stools. I asked my brother to bring a wooden basin with pig's blood and put a wooden staircase in the hall, and our family suddenly became lively.
Butcher, father, uncle, Cao, uncle and many neighbors all called the pigs in the pigsty to the balcony at the entrance of the main hall. Lao Wang, the butcher, hooked the pig's mouth with an iron hook. My father held the pig's ear and front foot, and the neighbor held the pig's other ear. Uncle grabbed the pig's tail, and many people dragged a big fat pig of more than 200 to a high stool. The pig howled loudly, as if knowing the ending. Pay attention to killing pigs, with the pig's head facing the room and the pig's tail facing the door. Pig blood washes the hall, a year's wealth. It can only go to the house, not to the door. The butcher hung the hook on his foot again, freeing up his two hands. One hand pressed the pig's head hard on the high stool, and the other hand picked up the pig-killing knife from the basket next to it and thrust it hard at the pig's neck and heart. The pig lay prone on the high stool and let out a loud roar. Then the pig blood gushed out and fell into the basin on the ground. Salt has been sprinkled in the basin, and Lao Wang stirred the pig blood evenly with a sharp knife. The pig's cry gradually became smaller until it finally disappeared, and the fat pig lay quietly on the floor of my hall.
Generally, pigs are not skinned, scalded or shaved. Scraping pig skin is an important process to kill pigs. Blow first, just like we blow balloons. Lao Wang cut a hole in the pig's head and poked it in all directions with a long pig collar. Lao Wang pointed his head at the wound of the pig's foot and breathed heavily. The butcher's face was flushed, his eyes were wide open and his cheeks were bulging. It took a lot of effort. The whole body of the pig immediately became thick and strong, and instantly grew into a big fat pig. My uncle likes to joke: "pigs grow so fast that we will have meat for dinner."
Father brought two buckets of boiling water, and uncle and Cao came to help and carried the pig into the bathtub. Father poured boiling water on the pig with a ladle, and Cao and his uncle began to scrape the pig skin with an iron scraper. Soon, the pig's hair was shaved, the pig's head, pig's tail and pig's trotters were all cut off, and Pharaoh's head went on to gut the pig. A big fat pig is divided into two sides and hung on a hook on the wall of a room. Cut the best meat and keep it for yourself. Cut off the pig's liver and lungs and keep them for yourself; Then cut off a large piece of tenderloin, about five or six pounds, and put it in the basket. My father asked me to go to the kitchen and tell my mother that this is for everyone who invited me to dinner at noon today.
Lao Wang's technique of killing pigs and turning intestines is famous. He is fast and clean. He turns the pig's large intestine and small intestine as fast as magic. In a short time, all the feces will be poured out. Seeing that Lao Wang's head was too fast, his mother said, "Brother Wang, you have to clean it, or it stinks and no one dares to eat it." Lao Wang smiled and said, "Aunt, you don't understand. The intestines of pigs are a little smelly. Here Lao Wang washes his intestines backwards, and there Cao uses all kinds of ingredients to noodles pig blood. Cao is a master of filling blood sausage, and he is famous as the "king of blood sausage". The blood sausage infused with his blood is particularly delicious.
Soon, half a basin of pig blood was poured into the intestine. People saw the steaming white steam of a large pot of stewed pork with sauerkraut overflowing the roof beam, and the fragrance of pork penetrated into people's hearts. Set the table, set the banquet, and the table is full of pork. A full meal, three pounds in this house and five pounds in that house. They all bought meat. Then, carrying meat, some burped, stuck their teeth and wiped their greasy mouths one by one, and went home happily. In this way, a pig weighing more than 200 kilograms was divided up.
Now rural people go to work in cities, and fewer and fewer people feed pigs. Ordinary farmers don't feed pigs. They are all professional farmers in rural areas. There are large pig farms with an annual output of tens of thousands of pigs. The pig farm is equipped with modern electrical equipment, air conditioning, electric lights, electric fans and so on. However, it is not easy to eat the delicious pork of that year. If you want to go to the countryside to feel the lively atmosphere of killing pigs, you can only miss it.