This year the production team raised 23 pigs. 15 for the commune, and the remaining 8 were slaughtered on New Yearâs Eve. Each pig was carefully fed by the community members. They weighed up to 200 pounds.
The scene of slaughtering pigs was very lively. Many people were watching the excitement. Most of them were still holding baskets and pots, waiting for the division of the meat.
âThis year, we should be able to get a lot, right? Last year it was six heads, and one family got twenty-eight points. This year there must be more than last year. â
âIt is definitely more than last year. But last year, I barely tasted the meat. I just ate two bites of dumplings. My family ate meat and hid from me, which made me very angry. â
âThatâs too much. They cooked a pot of food and they still want to hide it from you? â
When I went back to my motherâs house, Even if they didnât give me food to eat, Da Zhuang is the eldest grandson of their family, and they did not leave two pieces for him. I donât have any expectations for them at all. â
Dong Jiahui was standing next to the two young wives. The two young wives were ridiculing their in-laws, but she also stood next to Zhang Qiaoer, her own mother-in-law. Listening to their mockery with her mother-in-law was slightly embarrassing.
âMom, do you have a share in the pigâs blood?â
Although Dong Jiahui did not particularly like this food, itâs good to eat it occasionally. Of course, the key point was that she wanted to make a pigâs blood cake.
âThere is not much pigâs blood. Some people like it and some donât. So, whoever wants to take pigâs blood, they will have less meat.â
Itâs all collective property, and everyone has a share. In this distribution mechanism, the taboo word was âunfair.â For example, even if someone doesnât like to eat pig blood, they would feel unhappy when they see someone who would have their share. Therefore, if they want pig blood, there will be less meat.
âMom, does anyone want that tripe? I want to take some of the pork belly and lungs to stew. Itâs a good tonic. â
Jiahui saw that tripe was casually thrown on the ground. Itâs a pity that they didnât give much attention to it.
âThis thing can be eaten?â
Itâs not that no one eats the tripe and so on, but itâs extremely troublesome to clean it up and it smells bad. In addition, everyone lacks oil and water in their stomachs. Itâs fun to eat fat meat. They really donât buy this usually.
Jiahui also found differences between regions and times. For example, Shengli commune has a lot of water and fish, but the local people donât like fish, and the cooking method is also very simple. Unlike in the 21st century, there were more than 100 methods for making one kind of food, and the tastes were also different. Take fish, for example. There are fish heads with chopped pepper, pickled cabbage fish, stone pot fish, squirrelfish, grilled fish, etc.
âYes, you can eat it after washing it. Itâs like a big bone. Itâs good to cook it as soup and drink it.â
Since her daughter-in-law said it was good to drink, then that is certainly not bad. She could still remember the bone soup she drank. The most important thing was that it was cheap. It only costs 50 cents per pound, and you can buy several pounds.
âOkay, Iâll talk to your brother Huaishan, so heâll save it for our family.â
Several pigs were slaughtered for more than two hours, and when they were weighed, there were more than 1,500 pounds of pure meat.
âGreat, this year is a great harvest.â
Everyone had a smile on their faces. The teamâs accountant took the abacus prepared earlier and calculated the amount of pork that each family could get according to the total work points of the members of the team. The Zhao family could get 45 pounds. Of course, this number did not include Zhao Donglin. His share had to be collected from the commune.
45 pounds is quite a lot at first. But it takes about 10 pounds to make steamed bread and dumplings, and about 10 pounds to entertain relatives and friends during the new year. In the past, there was not much left after a year.
When dividing meat, itâs the same as shopping malls in later generations. Everyone wants to divide it first and pick the front legs with good meat quality, especially fat pork and streaky pork.
âI want this piece. Give me a direct cut.â
âPig head, does anyone want it? If no one wants it, then Iâll take this one. â
âI have such big bones in this piece. How heavy are the bones? I may suffer a loss. â
Everyone said this and that. Ding Huaishanâs head hurt when it was noisy. He patted the table and shouted, âDonât make any noise. What we give is what you get. Did you forget the time when you didnât have food? Youâve been fed too much, havenât you? You didnât do anything aside from tossing and turning.â
âIs it difficult for a pig to have front legs and back legs? If you donât want it, then we wonât share it. â
After yelling, he drank a mouthful of water to moisten his throat and began to calm everyoneâs emotions pleasantly.
âLine up one by one to receive your share. We strive to treat every family fairly. If there are many bones, build a piece of fat. If you want to register and have the pig head, let the accountant know how many people want it and how to divide it. Letâs all discuss it. â
It took more than three hours to slaughter the pigs and another three hours to divide the meat. Dong Jiahui was too lazy to listen to the market-like noise and volunteered to go back after receiving the pigâs blood, but before she left, she also didnât forget to remind her mother-in-law about the tripe.
âDonât worry, I wonât forget.â
In fact, if not for Jiahuiâs reminder, Zhang Qiaoer would have forgotten about it.
The first thing Jiahui did when she got home with her pig blood was to add a spoonful of salt to the pig blood and stir it so that the pig blood could gradually solidify.
Next, she quickly scooped two spoons of glutinous rice, washed it, and soaked it in water, which took about half an hour to soak.
During this process, Jiahui prepared the necessary seasonings and washed the steamer.
After the glutinous rice was soaked, she put it into the steamer for cooking. After the glutinous rice was cooked, she poured it into the pigâs blood and stirred it. Cut it into long strips, pass it through with long bamboo sticks, and steam it in the steamer again until it is cooked. At this time, it is a real pigâs blood cake. It tastes very good whether dipped in soy sauce or chilli sauce.
After the glutinous rice was soaked, she put it into the steamer, stirred it into the pigâs blood, cut it into long strips, and then put it back into the steamer until it was cooked.
Dong Jiahui poured some soy sauce to try it out, and the fragrant and was the kind of taste she had eaten when she was a child.
Zhang Qiaoer led the family back before she finished eating a mouthful.
âHey, it stinks. Hurry up and throw it over there. What did you use this thing for? Who can eat such a disgusting thing? â
It turns out that Zhang Qiaoer and the tripes that Ding Huishan has given are Ding Huishan not only gave the pig lung and pork belly, there were two pig intestines. Zhang Qiaoer let Zheng Yuefen carry it. Zheng Yuefen smelled the smell on the way home, and she really wanted to vomit.
âMom, Meixiang, I have made a good pig blood cake. Do you want to come and try it? Heidan and Shitou, you guys also come over here. â
Hearing that there is food, several people are happy to go towards the kitchen, especially Heidan and Shitou. They rushed in like bullets.
Dong Jiahui didnât call Zheng Yuefen. Her relationship with Zheng Yuefen now is that the well water doesnât invade the river. I wonât quarrel with you or cause trouble with you. I will treat you like air. This ignoring attitude often makes Zheng Yuefen feel humiliated, but I canât find a suitable reason to attack.
Dong Jiahui did not call out Zheng Yuefen. She didnât want to interact with Zheng Yuefen now; she only wanted to mind her own business. I will not argue with you. I will not mess with you. I will treat you like air. This indifferent attitude often makes Zheng Yuefen feel humiliated, but even if she wanted to flare up, she couldnât find a suitable reason.
Just like at this moment, everyone went to the kitchen to eat pigâs blood cake. Zheng Yuefen naturally wanted to eat it, too. Even if Jiahui did not call her, she could not stop her from wanting to eat it. Her heart was upset, but she followed everyoneâs action.
âMmm! This is my first time eating this. Sister-in-law, this is too delicious! â
âItâs a bit like dumplings. We really donât see people doing this here, or if youâre just clever, you can think of making it this way.â
People here usually stew tofu with pigâs blood, boil soup with pigâs blood, or even eat it directly after heating and sprinkling with salt and pepper.
âMeixiang, take two of them to your uncleâs house. Your aunt loves dumplings. She must like them.â
Meixiang nodded, took a bowl, loaded two, and went to her uncleâs house.
âChildren should eat less glutinous rice. If they eat too much-accumulated food, their stomach will swell.â
Zhang Qiaoer saw that her two grandsons ate the food one mouthful at a time. She was afraid that they would eat too much. She stopped them in a hurry. There was Yingbao, who just ate one piece and should not eat more than that.
âYes, you cannot eat too much. You have to save some stomach for something else.â
The originally reluctant children willingly stopped eating when Jiahui said that there was still food later. When no one was paying attention, Zheng Yuefen also stopped eating. Obviously, she was also looking forward to Jiahuiâs delicious food.
It was a troublesome process to sort out the tripe, Jia Hui picked up some ashes from the stove and threw the whole cleaned tripe into the ashes and rubbed it to clean the layer of grease on the skin.
âHey, youâre quite good at this method.â
Zhang Qiaoer saw her eldest daughter-in-law work well and sharply. She couldnât help but praise Jiahui in her heart. But maybe she had a little expectation of Jiahui before marriage, so when she entered the family, Jiahui would often give her a surprise.
Jiahui first cleaned the pork belly and lung, which were to be saved for the stew.
The soup pot was filled with water and seasoning and simmered slowly on a briquette stove for about two hours to bring out the flavour.
The rest of the large intestine is a big job, and although Jiahui can sort it out, she is also a little princess who only needs to eat without using her hands in modern times!
âDonglin, help me get this done, and Iâll make you something delicious.â
When Jiahui was at a loss, Zhao Donglin came back pushing his bike. She hurried over to pull Zhao Donglin.
âWait, wait for me to put the pedals down.â
The bicycle was pulled by her before it was parked, and then it was time to deal with two extremely smelly pork sausages.
But he is, after all, a soldier who has experienced countless difficulties and hazards. He is not afraid of real guns and bullets, bleeding and sacrifice. Whatâs the small pigâs large intestine for him? It was done for her in a short time.
âGreat, youâre really good. Wait a minute, Iâll make you a good meal.â
Zhao Donglin bent over the wellâs side to get soap and washed his hands. Seeing the look of happiness on Jiahuiâs face, the corners of his mouth also curved up.
As long as his wife is happy, not to mention the whole pig intestine, if she wants him to jump into the cesspit (gutter), he would also be willing. Of course, it would be better if she could cooperate with him in the quilt at night.
That night, other peopleâs houses ate braised meat and pig head meat, but in Zhaoâs house, they ate pig tripe, pig lung soup, fried large intestine with green pepper, and Chinese cabbage and pork dumplings.
The creamy soup is filled with fragrant dumplings. Pick a piece of chilli sauce and put it in it. Itâs fragrant and spicy. The taste goes straight to the brain. Thereâs also the pigâs large intestine. How can you cook something that stinks so badly? Itâs unscientific!
The family ate until their stomachs were full. The key ingredients were the tripes, which were acquired without having to spend money to buy them. Jia Hui stewed a large soup pot, and they can still continue to eat it tomorrow.
âItâs true, I feel very comfortable after eating it.â
Zhang Qiaoer didnât go to school much. She didnât know what happiness was. She only knew that she was very happy and comfortable at that moment. This is the happiness brought by food.
Under the dim kerosene lamp, everyoneâs faces had a warm smile, even Zheng Yuefenâs, who was no longer the usual harsh and tit-for-tat.
After dinner, Jiahui took a bath, leaving the pots and pans to Meixiang and Zheng Yuefen, who worked more willingly than ever today.
When Jiahui came out of the bath, the kitchen hall had been dark. Everyone went back to the house to rest.
âWife, how can you be so capable of cooking everything?â
The moment Jiahui returned to the house, she was taken into Zhao Donglinâs arms. Her mouth could not wait to kiss her face and mouth. Jiahui soon felt that her legs could not stand, pushing him towards the bed.
Zhao Donglin smiled and picked her up horizontally, consuming all the calories from the evening meal.
The night is late, the wind is blowing clouds, the moonlight is not very bright from time to time because of the dark clouds, and the sky is full of stars, indicating that tomorrow will be a good day.