In the book, I was fed by my sister

"Sister Ran!" A warm and familiar voice sounded outside the door, like the warm sunshine in spring, dispelling the cold of winter.

Song Ran was busy in the greenhouse. When he heard a call from outside the door, he put down his work and went out to check out curiously.

Li Junlan was standing outside the door with a smile on her face, holding a basket of crystal clear white radishes covered with ice.

When she saw Song Ran coming out, she said cheerfully, "Song Ran, our village is very lively today. We found several fine horses, all of which are fat and strong. We have never tasted horse meat, so I came to ask you if you know how to cook horse meat."

Although there is no custom of eating horse meat here, they all know that horse meat can be eaten.

During this year's Spring Festival, the price of meat was ridiculously high. Not every household could afford to raise pigs, so as the price of meat increased, people bought less New Year's goods.

These five strong horses are so fat that it makes people drool just thinking about them.

When Li Wanshu saw the dying horse, he decided, "Let's stew the horse meat and have a happy New Year together."

As soon as the news came out, the crowd cheered. However, after the cheers, the villagers began to have a dilemma - how to cook the horse meat?

Some people suggested cutting the horse meat into slices and stir-frying it, while others advocated braising it.

But everyone knows that the texture and taste of horse meat are very different from common pork, chicken and duck.

There is a popular saying: "Donkey meat smells good, horse meat smells bad, and I would rather die than eat mule meat."

How did horse meat get so stinky? Everyone was discussing it, but no one could come up with a clear explanation.

Song Ran thought about it and realized that the recipe left by her father did mention it. She replied, "Although I have never made it, I want to try it."

"That's great. Everyone is worried about having no solution. I said that since you can even start a braised meat business, there must be a solution. Then sister, you go to the hall, and I will go and notify the others."

Song Ran hurried back to the house and couldn't wait to flip through the pages of the book about horse meat. The methods of cooking horse meat, such as braised horse meat and stir-fried horse meat, seemed to be similar to the methods of processing other meats, but what attracted her most was the unique method of smoking horse meat.

The book describes stuffing large chunks of horse meat and horse fat into horse intestines, which is quite similar to the method of making bacon and sausages.

With an idea in mind, Song Ran took his younger sister to the hall, picked up a bunch of fresh green onions, and brought some spices.

Along the way, she saw many villagers rushing to the hall with firewood in their arms, and everyone's face was filled with anticipation and joy.

Before she even reached the entrance of the hall, Song Ran saw thick smoke rising from afar. She quickened her pace and arrived at the entrance of the hall, only to see that everyone was already busy and having fun.

Some people were chopping wood, some were building a stove, and some were watching the slaughter of a horse.

When they saw Song Ran coming, they all stopped what they were doing and shouted enthusiastically, "Hey, the chef is here!"

The word "chef" made Song Ran feel warm inside. She remembered that when her father was alive, the villagers called him that.

Looking at the eager eyes on the field, Song Ran felt a sense of pressure, but at the same time he was full of motivation.

Li Wanshu said to Song Ran, "The meat is being divided. Whether it is fried or stewed, everyone will follow your arrangement."

Song Ran nodded and said nervously, "I'm just afraid it won't work. After all, I've never eaten horse meat. I heard that horse meat is sour."

Li Wanshu comforted him: "It's okay, after all it's meat, everyone can accept it."

Others also expressed their support: "Yes, if the chef can't do it, then we will accept the sour and smelly horse meat!"

"Yes! Yes!" others responded.

The meat of two horses was already placed on the chopping board.

A horse weighing 800 kilograms can produce more than 300 kilograms of meat, more than 300 kilograms of bones, and some internal organs.

"Village chief, we may still need a pot. It's early, so let's stew the soup first." Song Ran said to Li Wanshu.

Li Wanshu nodded and asked, "How many pots do you want?"

Song Ran thought for a moment and said, "We'll need ten pots." There are more than three hundred people in Lihua Village, young and old, and forty square tables will be needed. Ten pots should be enough.

After hearing what Song Ran said, Li Wanshu arranged for someone to go home and bring a big pot.

After a while, four large pots were placed on the fire and began to stew radish and bone soup.

The radishes were just pulled out of the snow. The radishes buried in the snow are particularly sweet.

Doctor Qin also brought some wild ginseng and stewed it in the soup. "It was given by God anyway, so let's take some tonic and taste the flavor of this ginseng."

Everyone shouted, "Cut the ginseng thinner and give everyone a piece."

Song Ran was directing the cutting of the meat. If anyone needed any seasoning, he would ask and someone would go back home to get it.

The little ones in the village huddled together, with a pile of firewood sticks in front of them for heating. These firewood sticks exuded a warm atmosphere in the cold winter, making everything around them warm.

The children stared curiously at the bubbling pot where delicious broth was stewing. The tempting aroma filled the air, making people salivate.

Chestnut blinked his bright eyes, looked at the steaming pot, and asked, "What does horse meat taste like?"

She had a cold a few days ago, which had caused her to have a poor appetite and a pale complexion. Now that she had recovered, her stomach growled at the sight of the rich aroma.

Song Li sat aside and yawned and said, "I've never eaten horse meat either."

She admired the optimism of the people in this village. There were still corpses piled up in the shed not far away, and more than 20 drowsy yellow soldiers were tied up in the house, but outside the house everyone was happily stewing meat.

The people in the village seemed unaffected by the haze.

Li Rongrong also joined the discussion. She frowned and said, "I heard that horse meat is sour." There was a hint of uncertainty in her voice, and she seemed not to believe the rumor.

Li Dongmei folded her hands, shook her head and said, "The Master said that seeing is believing and hearing is deceiving. We have never eaten horse meat, so how do we know that this meat is sour?"

Li Zi swallowed, nodded and said, "That makes sense. It smells so good, it must be delicious."

Song Ran was busy processing horse meat. She cut the horse ribs into long and thin strips.

Since I couldn't afford pepper, I had to use Sichuan peppercorns instead. I sprinkled the horse meat with appropriate amount of salt and pepper and marinated it for later use.

"This is similar to the method we use to make sausages, except that I cut the horse meat into long strips and there is more lean meat, so the texture will be firmer. In addition, we also need to stuff some horse oil into the meat, so that it will taste fat and lean." Song Ran explained as he stuffed the seasoned horse meat into the horse intestines.

"Okay." A dozen people surrounding Song Ran nodded to show that they understood.

Song Ran walked over to the device for smoking horse meat that was being built and checked the progress.

Li Kun's family and another family built a half-earth pit for smoking horse meat according to Song Ran's instructions. Song Ran knocked on the wooden rack with his hand, making a crisp sound. "It's very solid."

"Two hundred kilograms of sausages will definitely be no problem." Li Kun looked at his "work" with satisfaction.

"All that's missing is the pine branches." Song Ran said to himself.

The smoking time usually takes several hours to a day, until the surface of the horse intestines takes on a smoky color. As for why pine branches were used, it was something Song Ran came up with in combination with local smoked sausages.

The recipe left by her father did not give detailed information about what kind of firewood should be used to smoke horse intestines, but if the taste of smoked horse intestines made with pine branches is good, she can add her insights to her father's recipe.

She thought horse intestines smoked with pine branches would be good.