Our ancestors lived in a small village in the Taihang Mountains, where the terrain is poor, all are hillside land, the largest plot is not more than 3 acres, and only one season of corn is planted, and people are working hard for many years. There is not much grain, there are few vegetables, coupled with the poor circulation of goods in the early days, money can not buy things, so in the winter, every family will vomit a large urn of sauerkraut, a small jar of pickles, that is half a year's rations. In the 1970s, although the family fed pigs, they mostly sold for money, and they could not eat meat several times a year.
For as long as I can remember, my family always had meat to eat, thanks to my grandfather. At that time, there were more than 10 people in the family, and the rations were naturally tight, so my grandfather picked up the dead pigs that were thrown away after the death of others and peeled them for us to eat. In my memory, there are often 10 pounds, more than 20 pounds of small dead pigs in my backyard, and then later people in the village have dead pigs, which will be delivered directly to my doorstep.
My grandfather has a good hand in killing pigs, he will also identify the quality of pork, under normal circumstances, dead pigs are skinned, internal organs are also lost, afraid of disease. Single the good meat is picked out, cooked thoroughly with charcoal fire before we eat, cold mix, hot stir-fry, noodles, barbecue, change the pattern to be afraid of us eating injuries. Our family has developed the habit of loving meat. My son is still fleshless and unhappy.
When my grandfather got old, he passed on the art of killing pigs to my second uncle, but as his life improved, my second uncle stopped killing the little dead pig. It is to go through the village and alley to kill pigs for others. Where in our place there is a rule, the pig intestines that kill the pig, the pig's tail, the lard oil, and the pig's "Anus" are given to the pig master. When I encountered the owner's family's difficult to handle the water, my second uncle would also buy it cheaply to go home, so that my family could still eat meat often.
I remember that every year before the eighteenth day of the waxing moon, my family's meat could not be eaten. We have the custom of offering sacrifices to Lao Jun on the eighteenth day of the 18th month of the Waxing Moon, and those who open mines, run factories, and engage in transportation are all old junye, and they all have to slaughter pigs and sheep to pay tribute to Lao Jun, and my second uncle's busy home will not return. The 3 of them teamed up and took turns to kill pigs everywhere according to the agreed time. The second uncle will be young and powerful, catch pigs, poke pigs, withdraw hair, open the chest, divide, sell meat, process the water to take up and put down, every day to kill more than 40 pigs, at night to go home also processing to take home meat, although busy, the heart is happy.
The equipment for killing pigs is simple, that is, a large cauldron, 4-5 knives, the cauldron is generally prepared by who kills pigs, and the second uncle carries a dung basket to load the tools.
In addition to good physical strength, there is also a certain technical content, both to kill the pig and protect themselves from injury. The first process of killing pigs is to catch pigs, catching pigs is not just by brute force, but also to be fast, looking for the timing to find the protrusion of the pig, generally catching pig ears, or hooves, or tails, without waiting for the pig to react to it, put it on the ground, and then cross the front and back legs, the pig is honest. After catching the pigs, they began to divide the work into boiling water and poking pigs. Boiling water to grasp the water temperature, cold and hot is not OK, the water is cold and the hair is not clean, the slaughtered pork with the hair is not clean The main family will have opinions, too hot to kill the pig people are busy catching up with the trip, but also have an impact on the quality of the pork. This is to grasp the water temperature with experience, and at the beginning, the second uncle needs to test the water temperature from time to time. The commander will add fire, water, stir up water with a scoop, and order the wood at the bottom of the pot to be removed. This scene made me always think that the source of the phrase "yang soup stops boiling is like drawing a salary from the bottom of the kettle" is from here.
At the same time as this side boiled water, that side began to stab the pig, stabbing the pig with the largest knife, at this time the second uncle was full of seriousness, holding a scratching hook in one hand, holding a stab knife in the other hand, calling the pig ready, saying that the time was urgent, then fast, the left hand hooked the pig's chin at the same time, the right hand knife stabbed into the pig's neck, it was really a white knife into the red knife came out, and the pig screamed red blood gushing out in an instant. At this time, someone took a blood basin to catch the blood, and as the pig's limbs shrank, the second uncle would take the bloody knife in his mouth and wait for the pig to swallow. It is said that this is a prayer to heaven again, asking God to forgive the sin of killing.
When the pigs are out of breath, two people cooperate to first make a small opening on the inside of the pig's left hind leg, and then take an iron bar they call "cane" and poke the pig's head, front leg, and stomach along the small opening. The role is to separate the skin and flesh of the pig, and finally use the mouth to blow air into the small mouth, at this time the second uncle's cheeks bulge, the eyes are round, the face of the donkey is red, and soon the pig will be blown round. At this time, a few offspring came to help carry the pig into the cauldron. The second uncle and a few people quickly picked up a few pieces of iron tiles to fade the pig hair. Within a few minutes the pig turned into a white strip pig. It is then hung, opened, offal, dehydrated, deboned, and finally broken down into enticing pork. This set of processes down takes about half an hour, 3 people work non-stop in turn, kill more than 40 pigs a day, the physical exertion is particularly large, the second uncle is that will learn to drink, every day all rely on alcohol support. Old age is also alcohol addiction. At that time, pork was still sold uniformly by the supply and marketing cooperatives, each family was fed one or two pigs, the pork was bought for the supply and marketing cooperative, and the main family that fed the pigs was only a pig in the water for the New Year. And my family's second uncle will send back a large package of pig intestines and the like every few days, and I can't eat it in a new month.
After the reform and opening up, along with the land contract to the household, the grain has a long surplus, my father feeds more than 10 pigs every year, that will allow his own family to kill pigs to sell meat, my brother and I have grown up, killing pigs can also help, my father will kill pigs every other month, my family is even more rib pork continuously, in those years my family's lard is filled with a large urn, all year round can not eat, the whole family has both income and mouth blessing. It was not until later that the policy became the fixed slaughter of pigs, and my family did not feed pigs to kill pigs.
Decades of time have passed in the blink of an eye, and my father has left us for more than 10 years, and if my father had known about the underground, he would have been happy for the good life we have now.