Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 37: Delicious
The key to eating "pig-killing feast" is the atmosphere. Regardless of how well it's prepared, as long as there are many people and it's lively, it's a happy meal.

The atmosphere is great right now. On the huge rice paddy, there's a big pot of braised pork on the south side, a cutting board for chopping vegetables on the west side, a large wooden basin for washing pig offal next to it, and freshly cut meat spread out on the other side.

Although many villagers had gone home early, quite a few remained here at this time.

Chen Fan stood in front of another cutting board, and a basin of pig's blood and a basin of bone broth were brought over.

This pot of bone broth is for rinsing pig's blood, so it doesn't need to be simmered for too long. Just simmer it until it turns the color and it's ready to use. The pig bones can be reused to stew other dishes, so at least they can have some meat on them.

Captain Yang, Master Zhu and his two apprentices, Liu Jujiang, four villagers who came to help, Aunt Yang and three women of similar age, plus Yang Ju and Jiang Lili, surrounded Chen Fan in a half-circle.

A dozen or so children stood in the distance, looking on with curiosity.

Seeing this, Chen Fan simply laughed and said, "Learning a hundred times is not as good as practicing once. How about a few people give it a try? Who wants to?"

Without saying a word, Liu Jujiang stepped forward, and Yang Ju glanced at her parents and followed suit.

Jiang Lili wanted to make a move, but she was afraid of being exposed, so she suppressed her thoughts and stood still.

Two other women also stepped forward.

That makes four people.

Chen Fan instructed them to divide the items into four parts, then began giving directions, explaining the tricks of the trade.
"The ideal ratio of pig's blood to bone broth is 1:1.3, which is 1 pound of pig's blood to 1.3 pounds of broth. If you don't have broth, you can use hot water. You can't add too much or too little broth. Too much and it won't hold its shape; too little and it will be too tough and not tender enough. Put the scallions, ginger, garlic, and salt into the bone broth first..."

Master Zhu, standing on the outside, couldn't help but nod slightly and said to Captain Yang, "You've found a treasure."

Captain Yang grinned from ear to ear, turning to look at him, "Of course! Yesterday you taught the whole village how to make turtle, and today you're teaching them how to make blood sausage. Regardless of whether it tastes good or not, this kind of dedication is truly admirable."

Master Zhu nodded first, then shook his head. "His intentions are indeed impeccable, but what I find most admirable is his openness. Do you know what you fear most when learning from a master?"

Captain Yang, "What?"

Master Zhu's expression was very complicated. "What I fear most is not being allowed to do it!"

He paused for a moment, then continued, “This young comrade just said something that hit the nail on the head about the essence of learning a craft: ‘It’s better to practice once than to learn a hundred times.’ When I was learning to slaughter pigs from my master, he made me do odd jobs for him for two years before he would teach me how to scrape the hair. I scraped the hair for another year before he let me make my first cut. Then he slowly taught me how to blow air, how to peel the skin, and how to cut the meat more smoothly. It took me five years to learn before I was considered a master.”

Actually, it's just slaughtering a pig. What's so difficult about it? As long as you're willing to get started, practice more, and have your master guide you and point out your mistakes, you can become quite proficient in about six months.

That's why I said this young comrade is good; he started teaching real skills right away, which is quite rare.

These days, a skill can be passed down through generations, and some people can even get jobs in the city based on their skills. If Chen Fan's cooking skills are half as good as his eloquence, he would probably be able to get a job as a cook at the commune's guesthouse without much trouble.

Teaching someone's family's traditional skills so readily is something probably only model workers in newspapers can do.

Hearing Master Zhu's words, Captain Yang nodded secretly, looking thoughtfully at Chen Fan, who stood with his hands on his hips with the air of a general.

Behind Master Zhu, his two apprentices couldn't help but exchange a glance and both gave a wry smile.

They followed Master Zhu for two years doing odd jobs and one year scraping pig hair before they truly began learning how to slaughter pigs. After that, their master stopped working, and the two apprentices were responsible for slaughtering all the pigs assigned to their group, while their master sat and watched, pointing and giving instructions from the side.

According to what my master said, it will take another year to complete my apprenticeship.
On the other side, Chen Fan, seeing that someone was doing the work for him, indulged in being the one in charge. These people were all used to kitchen work, and they were quick and efficient, stuffing four sections of blood sausage in no time.

Each blood sausage is 80 centimeters long, tied with a rope, and then thrown into a large pot to cook.

At this time, Liu Jujiang also began to prepare his pork stew, with Jiang Lili and Yang Ju helping out from the side, working up a great deal of energy.

Aunt Yang, along with several other women, put all the cut meat into a large wooden basin, sprinkled salt into it, and vigorously rubbed the meat strips with the salt. After each strip was rubbed, it was handed to another person.

The man first made a small cut in the skin with a knife, then threaded it onto an S-shaped iron hook and hung it on a bamboo pole to dry.

This is for making cured pork. In addition to cured pork, there are also cured spare ribs, cured pork legs, pig heads, pig butts... It's really not a waste at all. There are also some meat left over to make sausages.

He didn't know how much time had passed or what time it was, but Chen Fan was so hungry that his eyes were dizzy. Finally, all the dishes were ready and it was time to eat.

As usual, there were two tables today. The men sat at one table in the main room, while a large square table was set up in the inner room. The four women who were helping out and Jiang Lili went inside to eat.

There were also a dozen or so children without seats, ranging from two or three years old to twelve or thirteen years old. They could only stand and eat in the room with their bowls in hand. A few of the slightly older children filled their bowls to the brim and happily ran outside to eat.

It was only then that Chen Fan realized that the four women were the wives of the men who had helped build the stove and catch the pig, and that the four men were all Captain Yang's brothers.

Apart from the three sisters who married into other villages, all five Yang brothers are here.

However, these are only biological brothers. If we include cousins, there are as many as 23 generals in this generation of the Yang family.

Chen Fan couldn't help but click his tongue in amazement. No wonder he could be the team leader; there's strength in numbers!
A hole was cut in the middle of the large square table, and there was an iron frame underneath, on which sat a small charcoal stove, the one used to stew turtle soup yesterday. Now it was moved over, and a small round iron pot was placed on top of it.

Various cuts of meat, such as pig heart, pig lungs, large intestines, pig bones, and pork belly, are arranged in the pot, with cabbage pressed down by the meat. Under the heat of the charcoal fire, the broth simmers and releases a rich aroma.

This is the pork stew made by Liu Jujiang; one pot is enough for a whole table of people.

The dishes that Chen Fan contributed were on the side.

Besides a plate of blood sausage and a plate of stir-fried pork liver, he couldn't resist cutting off half a pound of fatty pork belly when he saw it earlier. He then added carrot slices, potato slices, and garlic sprouts to make two plates of twice-cooked pork.

It's a pity this isn't made from Chenghua pork. To truly enjoy twice-cooked pork, you have to use Chenghua pork; the others just don't quite live up to the hype.

Finally, we added Aunt Yang's stir-fried radish with pork cracklings, stir-fried red mustard greens with pork cracklings, and stir-fried lotus root slices, making it an extremely sumptuous meal.

Chen Fan swallowed hard, unable to help but sigh.

The day before yesterday, I was thinking about how I would live in this era. I might not be able to eat meat for a long time. But I've only been here for two or three days. Now I'm wondering what I've been eating.
The first meal was stir-fried cabbage and steamed egg custard prepared by Jiang Lili, the second meal was steamed turtle that I made myself, and the third meal was braised turtle at Captain Yang's house, where we also had a big drinking session.

The fourth meal was a reheated turtle from the previous day at the educated youth settlement; it wasn't bad. Now it's the fifth meal.

Pork stew!

This life is quite enjoyable.

(End of this chapter)