Farming Beneath the Changbai Mountains

When Zhixin saw that the blood was almost collected, he put the basin aside and went to remove the pig's hair. Xue found a sorghum stalk, split it in the middle, then folded it into a triangle, put it in a basin and stirred it constantly. "Jinghan, come here, help mother stir up the blood. Be sure to stir it slowly until the sorghum stalks are all covered with blood. Mom, go help your father. We will fill the blood sausage with you later, and we will eat it at night. Sauerkraut and white meat blood sausage.”

When Jinghan heard this, she quickly took the sorghum straw and kept stirring it in the basin. Of course I have eaten blood sausage before. This sauerkraut and white meat blood sausage is a famous dish in Northeast China. It can only be eaten when pigs are killed. Jinghan likes this dish very much, but in her previous life, her family didn't raise pigs for many years, so she couldn't eat this particularly authentic dish. I didn't expect to be able to eat this dish in another time and space. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water.

Not to mention that Jinghan was mixing the pig blood here, but over there Zhixin had already scalded the pig hairs with hot water. Then he opened up the pig, took out the sewer inside, and threw it into a big basin. Xue saw that Zhixin's side was almost done, so she took the basin to the well to clean the unloaded goods. First, wash everything with clean water. Wash the heart, liver, and lungs twice with clean water, and then put them in a basin. In addition, clean the pig intestines. This is the dirtiest thing. You have to wash it once with plant ash, then with an alkaline surface, and finally with vinegar. This is done.

After these intestines were washed, Mrs. Chen also prepared all the ingredients for filling the blood sausage. The delicious taste of blood sausage all depends on the seasoning. Generally, onions, ginger, garlic, and peppercorns are put in it. Then some fat meat must be cut into it, so that the cooked blood sausage will be fragrant. Chen put all the ingredients into the pig blood and stirred it vigorously with sorghum straw.

Just as Mrs. Xue came over with the washed intestines, Mrs. Chen was filling the blood sausage there, while Mrs. Xue went to cut the meat and sauerkraut. Mrs. Chen took a funnel, connected the pig's small intestine at the bottom, tied the other end of the small intestine with a string, and then poured the pig's blood into the funnel. In this way, the pig blood can be poured into the pig's intestines. After pouring it in a few times, blow it with your mouth to see if there is any gas in it, and then pour it in one by one. The length of a blood sausage is only about one and a half feet. It is too long to fill with blood. When the blood is almost filled, tie this end with a string.

There was boiling water in the pot, Mrs. Chen put the blood sausage into the boiling water, and heated it vigorously under the pot. After a while, the water boiled again. Mrs. Chen held a needle in her hand and kept pricking the blood sausage, firstly to deflate the blood, and secondly to see if the blood sausage was cooked. As soon as there is no blood on the needle after you pull it out, you have to fish out the blood sausage quickly. This stuff won't taste good if it's overcooked.

Zhixin had already cut the pig into pieces and shaved off the big bones. Mrs. Chen poured out the water in the pot where the blood sausage was cooked, then cleaned the pot, added more water, and put the big bones into the pot to stew. When the bone soup was cooked and turned a little white, Xue happened to cut a large basin full of sauerkraut, and there was also a lot of fat. Pour the sauerkraut into the pot and cook, put the fat slices in, and continue cooking like this, while also adding some seasonings. After a while, the unique flavor of sauerkraut and the aroma of pork came out. There was some meat in the other pot. Mrs. Chen put enough seasonings in it, so the aroma spread far and wide.

Jinghan and Wenxuan had been helping to light the fire, and when they smelled the smell, they couldn't help but sniff. "It smells so good." Jinghan said.

"You little greedy cats, stop being greedy. The food will be ready in a while. I let you eat freely today, so you can make a lot of it." Mrs. Chen looked at the expressions of the children and smiled.

The Lin Xing family is here to help take care of all the pigs before leaving. How could Mrs. Chen let him go? The rules here are that if you kill pigs for others, you have to have a meal there. "Xingjia, we can't leave here. We'll eat here and wait until we finish eating before leaving. I'll ask Jinghan and the others to call Zixuan Niang and a few children over later. Let's have dinner together."

"Auntie, that's not possible. How can anyone help and bring the whole family to dinner? I can just eat some here." Lin Xing's family refused.

Mrs. Chen couldn't force it, so she had no choice but not to call Xingjia's wife, but she was thinking about bringing Xingjia some food back when he left later. Although it is the twelfth lunar month, almost every family is killing pigs, but this is the nature of human relations, and there must always be a return. Furthermore, if one person makes something and it tastes the same, it’s okay to try it differently.

Mr. Xue simmered rhubarb rice in the pot in the east wing. This was a rare treat. Northeastern people like to eat sticky things, and this rhubarb rice is a kind of glutinous rice. It is generally used to wrap bean bags, stick fire spoons, stick mice, etc. The Xu family planted less rhubarb rice this year, so they couldn't make sticky bean buns and could only save it for dry rice. The newly arrived big yellow rice fills the whole yard with a unique fragrance of grain.

"Okay, let's all wash our hands and get ready to eat." Mrs. Chen said to the greedy cats in the yard. It happened that Wenhan and Wencheng also came back, so he asked them to wash their hands quickly and eat together.

Jinghan and the others helped set the table and set out the dishes. Mrs. Chen opened the pot where the sauerkraut was stewed, poured the blood sausage cut into small pieces into it, and then hurriedly put the vegetables out. This blood sausage is already cooked, it just needs to be heated gently, otherwise it will become old and unpalatable. Mrs. Chen filled two small pots of sauerkraut, with pieces of meat and blood sausage floating in the vegetables. As soon as they were placed on the table, the aroma hit her nose.

Mrs. Xue also cut up the cooked meat and served it, and also made two bowls of garlic sauce. Just dip it in the garlic sauce when eating. "Okay, everyone, hurry up and eat. I'll let you enjoy it today."

Everyone sat down to eat, and the children naturally worked hard for the meat. Fortunately, several children were quite civilized and did not fight for the meat. Wenhan picked some meat for his brothers and sisters one by one, and also brought bowls to help fill them with sauerkraut and blood sausage. There is soup in this pickled cabbage, and the soup contains the essence of big bones, so it tastes very good. Naturally, Jinghan and the others will not waste it. After eating sauerkraut and meat, and drinking sauerkraut soup, my stomach was full after a while. "Master, milk, father and mother, Uncle Lin, you eat slowly, I'm full." Jinghan touched her round belly and left the table. She couldn't stay here any longer, otherwise she still wanted to eat.

Wen Xuan and Wen Chang also left the table, touching their bellies one by one, with satisfied smiles on their faces.

Mrs. Chen looked at their looks and quickly gave some instructions, "Don't lie down yet, be careful of food accumulation. Jinghan, didn't you get some mountain reds in autumn? Take them out and boil some water to drink to relieve the greasiness, otherwise you won't be able to catch them." Oil and water. "I seldom eat oily and watery things all year round. If I eat it once in a while, I will easily get upset.

Jinghan also understood. She went back to the house and found the mountain red she got in autumn. She grabbed a lot of it, put it in a crock pot and stewed it on the stove. After a while, the water boiled. After boiling for a while, she took it out to cool. Jinghan put some honey in it. This honey was brought back by Zhixin from the mountain a while ago. Here, people usually go up the mountain to get honeycombs in winter, and then put them in a pot to steam out the honey.

"Here, drink some mountain red water. I put honey in it. It tastes very good." Jinghan brought the water into her eldest brother's room, where Wenhan and the others happened to be reading. Jinghan took out a bowl and everyone poured a bowl. The red soup is appetizing just by looking at it. Wen Han and the others all picked up their bowls and drank.

"Second sister, your water is well cooked, sour and sweet, and delicious." Wen Xuan said while holding the bowl and drinking.

"If it tastes good, drink more." Jinghan said and went out. She just left two bowls for Jingya and herself, and brought the rest here. Back in her room, Jingya took the needle and thread and wanted to embroider, but Jinghan refused, "Sister, you can't always do this. The light is too dim, be careful of hurting your eyes."

Jingya put down the needlework in her hand, "I just feel uncomfortable being idle, and I need to do some work with my hands. I listen to you, I won't embroider anymore." Jingya picked up the bowl and took a sip. "Oh, it's really good. It tastes good." Girls generally like the sweet and sour taste, and Jingya is no exception. She held the bowl and drank two more sips.

"Sister, we have a lot of this stuff at home. If you like to drink it, cook it often. It's good for digestion. This year I was busy fluffing pine seeds and so on, but I forgot to pick some mountain grapes. Otherwise, I would make mountain grape cake and put it in the It's better here." Jinghan also held the bowl and drank the water in small sips.

"You are already capable enough. This autumn, you have sunburned. Finally, you look whiter now. You can't do this in the future. You are a girl. What should you do if you get sunburned?" Jingya actually said I admire my sister very much. She has been walking up the mountain and down the river all day long, and she doesn’t feel tired. She has brought a lot of things to the house this autumn.

Jinghan smiled after hearing her sister's words. "Sister, I'm still young. I'll pay attention when I get older. Our eldest brother and Wencheng brother both go to school. Wenxuan and Wenchang are young, so they have to be led by someone. Look, this year, we picked up If the pig eats so many acorns, won't it make it grow much faster? Next year we will have to pick up more and bring them back. A pig can be sold for more than four taels of silver. If we raise a few more, it will be enough. It's like this year. Besides selling it, we can also keep food. Besides, aren't the pine nuts and walnuts we got also sold to make clothes? How nice are the new clothes? It's warm. I like to work. If I can get a better life by working, what if I work more? How many meat stars can you see? Of course, this was not just her fault, but she was still happy.