The Country Maiden: Fields and Leisure
Chapter 537 - 535: Killing the Pig

Chapter 537: Chapter 535: Killing the Pig

Therefore, to make it simple, two days before warming the house, they invited someone over to slaughter the two pigs.

In peasant households, slaughtering a pig is a major event of the year, usually involving inviting friends and relatives over, with the women cooking dishes from the pig and the men assisting in the slaughter.

Afterwards, everyone would cheerfully enjoy a meal made from the pig.

The guests to invite had already been decided beforehand, and included the entire Wang Family Patriarch’s family, the Lizheng’s family, and several others from the village with whom they had a good relationship. Upon hearing about the pig slaughter, all had agreed to come.

Early in the morning, the men arrived at the Wang Family’s place along with the professional butcher. Several strong men jumped into the pigpen, captured the pigs, then tied up their legs with rope and carried them out.

First, they had to weigh them to see the gross weight.

Old Granny Zhang had stopped feeding them the night before, so early in the morning, tied up and placed on the scale, the pigs let out piercing screams.

A large pot had already been set up in the courtyard, filled with boiling water.

Once the water boiled, it was to be ladled out into the butcher’s own oversized wooden basin until it was half full.

The pig seemed to sense its impending death and cried out even more miserably.

But soon enough, they were subdued by the butcher and other men, laid out on the workbench with their heads dangling over the edge to expose the throat. Underneath the bench, a large wooden basin was placed with a little bit of water mixed with a pinch of salt in it, specially prepared for collecting the pig blood.

The butcher cleaned the hair around the pig’s neck, then cleaned his knife, found the right spot, and with a decisive cut, hot steamy blood gushed out, falling into the basin.

At this moment, the assisting men could not be careless and had to firmly hold the pig down.

There had been butchers whose skills were lacking; with one cut, before the knife could even be withdrawn, the pig would let out a howl and dash off, running around the village with the knife still in it, followed by the butcher and the homeowners in a desperate chase.

They chased for nearly two hours before the pig was caught, by which time its blood had run dry...

However, the butcher hired by the Wang Family was an old hand, with decades of experience.

His cut was accurate and ruthless.

The pig convulsed a few times and then lay still.

When the flow of blood was almost done, Lady Lin and Lady Jiang hurried to carry the basin of pig blood to the kitchen. Soon, the pig blood would coagulate into chunks, and they’d cut the congealed blood into pieces with a knife.

In the kitchen, as the water boiled in the big pot, they poured the cut blood chunks into it to cook slowly.

At this point, the heat control was especially important; cook it too long, and the pig blood would toughen, ruining the texture.

Once the pig blood was cooked through, turning a deep red inside and out, they removed it and put it in cold water to chill.

This method ensured that the pig blood would not spoil easily, nor break apart easily.

Old Granny Zhang and Lady Jiang were adept at cooking pig blood, and with Lady Lin and others to assist, the blood was quickly put into the pot.

Outside, the men needed to lift the pig, which had fulfilled its purpose, into the butcher’s wooden basin and repeatedly pour boiling water over its body with a ladle, covering every part.

Then, while still hot, the butcher meticulously scraped off the hair from the pig’s body. The hair on the feet was particularly tough to remove, so he made small incisions near the hooves and blew air into them, allowing the hair to be cleanly scraped off, revealing skin that was white and tender.

Finally, they lifted the pig out, hooked its mouth onto an iron hook, and hung it on the structure they had set up on the side.

Below was another large wooden basin. The butcher sliced the pig open, and its innards slid neatly into the basin, still steaming with heat.

The butcher would first remove the pig’s liver, heart and lungs, and kidneys.

The remaining parts would then be carried away by the women to be washed and cleaned on the side.

The pig’s stomach and intestines are prized items, and by tradition, they are taken by the butcher as part of his fees.

However, Old Granny Zhang had already agreed yesterday to keep a set of the innards for the household and give another set to the butcher, paying a bit extra in return.

Once the pig was laid on the butchering table, the butcher began to break it down, first removing the head, then the ribs, followed by strips of flesh, and lastly the four trotters.

The meat from around the pig’s neck was especially cut out and handed to Old Granny Zhang.

This piece, with more fat and less meat, is highly sought after in the countryside.

They brought the still warm meat into the kitchen, chopped it into pieces, then threw it into the pot to fry the fat out. Next, they added home-made bean paste, ginger, and garlic and stir-fried them until aromatic, then poured in water, brought it to a boil, and added pickled vegetables, tofu, glass noodles, and freshly made pig’s blood, chopped into small pieces, to cook together in the pot.

Fortunately, there were still two stoves left in the courtyard. They lit another stove, adding water and crushing ginger into it, then boiled a whole slab of streaky pork until it was cooked.

When it was time to eat, they would slice the pork thinly and drizzle it with a dipping sauce made from mashed garlic, chili, and chopped fresh garlic shoots.

In a typical peasant household, a big pot of pork with pig’s blood, tofu, and glass noodles would be considered quite a feast, but the Wang Family also had a dish of garlic white-cut pork, and finally, a soup made with the most tender loin meat called "Three Delicacies Soup."

By the time they had finished slaughtering the two pigs, the men washed their hands and prepared to eat.

There was a big basin of pork stew with pig’s blood, tofu, glass noodles, and sour vegetables, a large plate of garlic white-cut pork, plus a big basin of Three Delicacies Soup, all complemented by two jin of fine liquor.

The men could eat from noon until evening.

Normally, in peasant homes, men would eat at the table while women and children would make do with some food in the kitchen, since some dishes would be left for them anyway.

But the Wang Family was different; knowing the temperaments of Wang Yongzhu and Old Granny Zhang, how could it be possible for the men to eat comfortably at the table while women and children just stood by, making do?

If it were someone else’s household, maybe, but shouldn’t they be in charge of their own home?

So they set up two more tables in the kitchen and the adjacent side room, one for the women who helped and one for the children.

Except for the absence of liquor, the dishes on these tables were exactly the same as for the men.

Not only were the women happy, but the children were thrilled too. Usually, during a pig butchering feast, the favored could sneak over to the men’s table to steal some succulent pork, while the less favored, or the women, were left with nothing but tofu and sour vegetables with glass noodles after the pork was all eaten.

As long as there was food, the children didn’t think too much about it but simply envied Jinguan and Jinhua while they ate.

Women, being more thoughtful, did ponder over this more, but on the surface, they all ate with joy, smearing their mouths with oil, especially the children whose bellies were round and bulging yet couldn’t bear to put down their chopsticks.

After the women and children had finished eating and tidied up the dishes, they got busy with other tasks.

The pig’s head had to be cooked since many men loved to nibble on pork head meat and ears while drinking, and this required particular culinary skills.

Especially the intestines, which also had to be cleaned out for making sausages.

They also needed to trim off the back fat and intestinal fat, cutting them into tiny pieces to render into pure white lard that could last until February or March of the following year if stored properly.

Not to mention, the lard cracklings were also a delicacy.

And the chopped meat had to be cured separately; although winter had arrived and the weather was cold, the cured pork could last until the spring harvest of the next year after being smoked with pine branches and fruit peels.