Hunan people's cured bacon
Bacon, or cured bacon, is actually two sides of the same coin, two links in the process of making bacon, one is pickled, the other is smoked, and any animal becomes bacon after being cured and smoked. It is estimated that such things as bacon are found in all parts of the country, even in all ethnic groups around the world. "China on the Tip of the Tongue" once described bacon as follows: "This is the taste of salt, the taste of the mountains, the taste of the wind, the taste of the sun, but also the taste of time, the taste of human feelings." These tastes, only under the tip of the tongue, and then on the heart, let us almost can not tell which one is the taste, which is the feeling." The variety, quantity, flavor and popularity of Hunan people's cured bacon are unimaginable to you, especially some of its rarity, which will definitely surprise you.
The world says that Cantonese people will eat, dare to eat, whether it is flying in the sky, or swimming in the sea, or running in the mountains, as long as it is back to the sky, of course, excluding people, are in the category of eating, which also makes Guangdong people very proud of this. But Hunan people are different, their first reaction when they see any creature is always "make a wax", they can pickle everything, have the momentum of the pickled smoking world, and only hate that the beams hanging the cured bacon are not long enough.
People outside Hunan, their pickled smoking is common in: pork, beef, sausages, fish, and chickens, ducks and geese, there may be some I don't know, but it is estimated that there will not be too many varieties. And the content of Hunan people's pickling is unimaginable to you, in addition to their pickling of your common variety, they will also pickle the hearts, livers, lungs, kidneys, intestines of various animal internal organs, of course, as well as animal ears, tongues, noses, mouths, and certainly faces. If you take a closer look, you will find that they will also pickle smoked bamboo rats, field chickens, eels, loach, turtles and foot fish, and even snail meat, river mussel meat, that little meat you can marinate and smoke it? Even madly including crocodiles in the category of bacon, that thing hangs on the hanging rack of your balcony at night, you don't worry about out in the dark and hazy? Is it in the daytime how does this wax crocodile mouth? At least my courage wasn't enough to sustain me in making such a mighty attempt.
In addition, every wax flavor shop is hung particularly publicly, if the sign at the door is not too conspicuous, so that newcomers to the outside world, it is likely that the Wax taste shop on the streets of Hunan will be regarded as the fugitive specimen holder of which anatomist of our Xiangya Medical College: the smoked suckling pig cub that is as well-behaved as a sharp dog, slightly dark red; the big grass fish with a perfect skeleton exposed and smoked dark yellow; and the slightly pale wax duck and goose that can see some songs to the sky... I have never understood how a Hunan man could pickle and roast an animal carcass into such a wonderful, lively, even aesthetically inclined object.
Don't think that Hunan people can only pickle the flesh of various animals, they can also pickle Shaoyang's pig blood tofu, Changsha's quail eggs, not to mention the dried incense on ChangdeMan Street, and recently heard that smoked walnuts have appeared, which is appalling, in short, as long as it is something that can be eaten into the mouth, it is possible to be "waxed" by Hunan people, for Hunan people: "everything can be pickled", this is not a literary metaphor, and in the daily life of Hunan is a strange and ubiquitous attitude to life. But I've always wondered: Why do we have to pickle the turtle - that is, what we often call Wang Ba? What is the purpose of pickling? Isn't it that in ancient times, there was no refrigerator, it was difficult to preserve ingredients, and it was only when humans were lucky enough to create such a delicacy, but "a hundred years of king eight thousand years of turtles", you even have to pickle the eight kings, let it live well, the time of preservation is not longer?
Every year in Hunan after the winter solstice, if you walk into the vast countryside below each county, you will fall into a wide range of confusion, which is a real confusion: the sky is covered, the road ahead is not seen; the ethereal, everywhere smokey world. Every stove house, every threshing field, even if some houses are narrow to avoid fire, simply moved to the flat rice field in winter, not only will you be confused, but also careful to choke your throat. If you are a Jiangsu and Zhejiang person who has never seen such a scene, you are likely to be scared to report a fire alarm when you first arrive in Hunan.
Cured bacon in Hunan is widespread, profound, is unimaginable in addition to Hunan places, first of all these things need to be cut clear strips, and then salted, pay attention to the need to mix in fried cinnamon, peppercorns, star anise, sprinkled with unequal liquor, soy sauce, pickled four to seven days after hanging in the open air cool sun, at the latest in the First Week of the New Year began to smoke, smoked hot and cold smoked, the so-called cold smoking is hung on the stove brazier for many years on the beams, The so-called hot smoking is to use a large tank or a wooden frame to hang a variety of bacon, and below it is placed some kind of wood chips, grapefruit peels, incense leaves, pine needles, and of course, it is necessary to pour some water at the right time to keep it moist and smoke, and then cover various packages to avoid smoke leakage, it is best to experience twenty-four hours.
In Hunan, there is a well-known divine song: "Hot Girl", I thought it should also be "La Meizi". I think there should be nothing that can stop a Hunan person's yearning for bacon, and the name of the four seasons in Hunan can be changed to spring, summer, autumn and wax season. In this era when everyone yearns for the big city, perhaps only in the winter of Hunan, all the people in the city are scratching their hearts and lungs to envy their relatives in the countryside, or rather, envying that they have a beam that can hang bacon. Some urban people without rural relatives are not so happy, but the cramped mansions still can't stop their deep affection for smoked bacon, even in Changsha, which has a prosperous population of tens of millions, there are many fires caused by smoked bacon every winter. I think the red pepper is just a protective color on the Hunan table, and its real soul should actually be the oily, yellow and brilliant happiness when the bacon is missing, in this part of Hunan, all the meat is proud of the wax, and the traces of no smoke and fire are not worthy of being called the main dish of the finale.
When I was a child, I felt that the smoke smell of bacon was very heavy and very pungent; after leaving my hometown, I understood the taste of bacon and understood that it was the taste of my hometown. When I was a child, I saw pieces of bacon hanging high by my fathers during the cold winter wax moon; I also saw my parents often use bacon to entertain guests from home; I also saw pieces of cured and smoked bacon stuffed into their bags when the wanderers in their hometowns went out; when I grew up, I saw that in distant places, there must be a bowl of fragrant, chewy, salty bacon on the table when friends and relatives gathered for dinner in a distant place...
Hunan people's love for bacon has long surpassed the needs of pragmatism and has come infinitely closer to the existence of a certain faith. This habit and this taste have lasted for thousands of years in China, and in Hunan, the taste of wax is the taste of the year on the tip of the tongue, which is the nostalgia of Hunan people. Whenever the autumn wind rises again, the taste of bacon will not be late even if it passes through most of China. When you see every street and alley in hunan's vast urban and rural areas in winter, shrouded in an ethereal white smoke, please don't think that it is just an ordinary human firework, in fact, it is the oldest and most common nostalgia that Hunan people accompany with their hands.
Two days ago, I found that my eldest sister's eyes were red, and I just said two words and walked away, and I was worried and asked my nephew: What's wrong with your mother? It seems to have cried, is there something wrong in the family? The nephew said: Mother's eyes are smoked with bacon. I can only express my heartfelt admiration and gratitude to the Hunan villagers who have been fighting in the front line of bacon.
The Festival of Lapa is coming, but is it reasonable for the eighth king to say?
2022.01.27 in Changde