Chapter 813: A Bit Expensive

Editor: Henyee Translations

In the backyard, Chu Qingshuang and a group of her friends had already ground a lot of spice powders. Each type of spice powder was placed in its own basin, neatly arranged on a table.

Upon seeing Chu Qingzhi, Chu Qingshuang called out, “Fifth Sister!”

“Well done, you’ve ground so much already.” Chu Qingzhi walked over to the table and praised.

Chu Qingshuang replied, “Everyone was worried you’d need it urgently, so we worked quickly.”

Chu Qingzhi told everyone, “Seeing how hard you’ve all worked, we’ll all have the pork dish later.”

Everyone thanked her in unison, “Thankyou, Sister Qingzhi.”

Chu Qingzhi grabbed a nearby bowl and also a small scale, then said to Chu Qingshuang, “How about I teach you how to mix the spices?”

Chu Qingshuang eagerly responded, “Sure, I’ll complete the task!”

Chu Qingzhi finally brought over the salt and sugar, totaling nine ingredients. She planned to make two flavors, one sweet and one salty.

“I’ll teach you the sweet mix first…” While saying this, Chu Qingzhi scooped the ingredients into the small scale to weigh them.

Afraid of forgetting, Chu Qingshuang ran to get paper and pen to write down everything Chu Qingzhi said.

Then, Chu Qingzhi mixed the salty ingredients, again measuring carefully and demonstrating each step accurately.

After making two batches of each flavor, she let Chu Qingshuang try, “Qingshuang, give it a try.”

“Okay.” After two attempts, Chu Qingshuang got much more proficient. “How is it, Fifth Sister?”

“Very good, keep going. I’ll take the prepared spices out and start with a portion.”

“Okay.”

Chu Qingzhi placed the eight bowls of mixed spices on a tray and carried them outside.

Seeing Chu Qingzhi come out, Aunt Xu approached, “Qingzhi, do we just pour the spices into the meat slices and mix them evenly?”

Aunt Xu, from Xu Village, was specifically responsible for mixing the spices.

That is to say, everyone recruited by Chu Qingzhi had their tasks.

Chu Qingzhi nodded, “There are two types of mixes. This one with sugar is the sweet mix, which will be handed over to Aunt Zhang and her team responsible for the sweet sausages. The other is the salty mix, to be given to Aunt Xu and her team for the salty sausages.”

“Also, add a cup of yellow wine when mixing. It’s not just for disinfection; it will make it taste better later on.”

Aunt Xu replied, “Got it.”

Chu Qingzhi still demonstrated, as it was their first time making it and even simple tasks could go wrong.

The meat, shiny with oil, looked appetizing just from the seasoning alone.

After mixing, Chu Qingzhi demonstrated how to stuff the sausages.

She tied one end of the intestine with cotton thread, then used a small ring made of wood to open the other end and started stuffing the meat inside.

During the process, the meat had to be tightly packed to avoid gaps, which could cause it to fall apart when sliced later.

Once a section of intestine was filled, Chu Qingzhi would squeeze and press it to ensure the meat was tightly connected, then seal the end with cotton thread, and tie the sausage into sections. She pricked any bubbles with a needle to let the air out before hanging them to dry.

That was the entire process of making sausages.

The prepared sausages were a beautiful red color, glossy on the outside, making everyone swallow their saliva at the sight.

Chu Qingzhi arranged for the sausages to be dried in the stable where Fu Bao and Hou Fu used to live, as well as in the cattle shed.

These places had been cleaned and were free of dirt, perfectly suitable for other uses.

A wall had been built around the backyard early on, offering protection against theft, good ventilation, and a roof so they didn’t have to be moved in and out daily, avoiding hassle.

Chu Qingzhi, along with the aunties, stuffed the sausages again. Initially, the aunties were quite unskilled, but it didn’t take long for them to become adept, stuffing the sausages quickly and well.

The stuffed sausages were taken to the stables and cattle sheds to be air-dried by designated people. Chu Qingzhi had arranged everything.

Next was the curing of the pork, which required mixing the spices again.

Originally, Chu Qingshuang thought it would be easy, but the actual operation proved to be not so simple.

Each step wasn’t difficult on its own; the challenge was the multitude of steps that had to be performed accurately, as any mistake could ruin a batch of spices.

Chu Qingzhi called Chu Xiafeng to help Chu Qingshuang, which made her task much easier.

Chu Qingzhi took the prepared spices outside and demonstrated how to cure the pork.

First, a large jar of yellow wine was poured into a vat, then the cleaned meat was dried with a cotton cloth, dipped in the yellow wine to ensure the meat’s surface was covered with the wine, a step meant for sterilization.

If sterilization wasn’t done properly, the meat could spoil and turn foul.

After dipping in yellow wine, the meat was placed in a sieve to drain for a while. It didn’t need to be dried completely before it was rubbed with salt, ensuring every corner was covered to prevent spoilage.

The final step was rubbing in the spice powder, not missing any spots, as this was the source of the meat’s fragrance.

After these three steps, the meat was ready to be put in a large vat for seasoning.

The meat was neatly arranged in the vat, which could hold the meat from four pigs.

A pig yielded about seventy pounds of meat for curing, equating to about ten to twelve pieces. For four pigs, that meant around forty to fifty pieces, which could easily fit in the vat.

The meat needed to be cured for seven days to be flavorful, then hung to dry. After drying, it was ready to eat.

By calculation, in three rounds, over twenty-one days, two hundred pigs could be processed.

After curing the pork, ribs and pig tails were also cured, a process similar to the pork, thus not needing further explanation.

Lastly, sauce meat was prepared.

The difference in preparing sauce meat was the use of soy sauce.

In general, soy sauce was poured into a pot, mixed with various spices and cooked. Then, the cooked sauce was transferred to a large vat. After the sauce cooled, pork belly that had been marinated in yellow wine for fifteen minutes was soaked in the sauce.

It also needed to be soaked for seven days, then hung to dry. After a while, it was ready to eat.

Today, fifteen pigs were slaughtered, keeping everyone busy. Seeing the hustle, villagers who came to watch couldn’t help but join in.

Chu Qingzhi was grateful to everyone, so she announced… everyone would have the pork dish at her house at noon.

Even before December, Chu Village was already bustling with the festive atmosphere of the New Year.

After finishing his work, the butcher came to find Chu Qingzhi, “Miss Qingzhi, I’d like to buy something from you.”

Chu Qingzhi had an idea of what he might want but asked anyway, “What do you want to buy?”

The butcher was a bit awkward but covered it with a smile, “Could you sell me some of that anesthetic?”

Using anesthetics made slaughtering pigs too easy. Normally, slaughtering one pig required the help of five or six people to hold it down, exhausting and even risking injury.

Now, with the festive season approaching and more pigs to slaughter, having the anesthetic would make the job much easier, wouldn’t it?!

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