In the northeast, it can be directly connected with the New Year's Eve and Spring Festival with highly ritual foods, and the only thing you want to come and go is sauerkraut. The beauty of sauerkraut is that it can be eaten flexibly and can be paired with a variety of other meat ingredients. It can be said that it is very much in line with the Taoist idea of nature and going with the flow. The reason why I say this is because in addition to sauerkraut can be fried and eaten alone, the annual pig pork that comes out of the pen with every household after the lunar month is a natural partner, and can stew a pot of pig-killing vegetables, symbolizing the end of the year's hard work and the approaching of the Spring Festival. When it's time to pack sauerkraut stuffed dumplings, this Spring Festival Chinese New Year's Eve arrives.
When I was a child, when the leaves turned yellow and cooled morning and evening, it was time for autumn to arrive. At that time, the neighbors living in the bungalows began to get busy, and the outreach ability was strong to find farmers who planted land outside to order vegetables, and the neighbors around the front and back also began to greet each other on how many pounds of cabbage each family bought, so that two or several partners chartered a few carts of cabbage, and it was also convenient for the family to stay and help each other to transport vegetables to the yard.
The method of pickling sauerkraut is different, my family's method is to seize the time to break off the rotten cabbage gang, take advantage of the good weather to set up in the yard for two or three days to make the cabbage dry, so as not to rot. Wash the sauerkraut jar, cutting board, and kitchen knife clean, and do not stick to the oil, otherwise the sauerkraut will deteriorate and spoil. Use a knife to remove some vegetables to help the root of the dish, put a tight password into the jar, put a layer of sprinkled salt so back and forth is not I still have to jump into the tank to step on the dish tightly, of course, the foot is washed in advance to clean the food hygiene or pay attention to drops, haha!
As the large cabbage yard is placed at the mouth of the cylinder, the last two layers of cabbage yards are placed particularly neatly and tightly, and finally firmly pressed with a pressure cylinder stone. Pour a pot of cold white prepared in advance into the tank, and finally completely submerge the cabbage to prevent contact with air decay, which is also a water seal. After a period of time, with the action of lactic acid bacteria and temperature in the air in the house, the water surface begins to grow with white sauce for fermentation. After a period of time, the sauerkraut, which is exclusive to each unique taste, is pickled.
Every time in the cold winter month, it is the turn of the annual pigs to come out of the pen one after another. This is also the most anticipated time, because there is fresh Pork for the Year. Pigs out of the pen in every household is a very ritual event, after inviting a neat master, the "second master brother" will be howling all the way to be "invited out of the pigsty" by a group of people in advance to be "sacrificed" on the board (omit a few words here will not be described in detail).
According to the old tradition, the head hoof is not counted as meat, and it is given to the master who slaughters the pig as a reward, and now these are all good goods. When cleaning up the pigs, there are special people who clean up the pig's internal organs. Some pig intestines are usually prepared after rapid processing, while the prepared pig blood is still hot, and it is a rare delicacy to quickly fill the blood intestines, and it is one of the protagonists of the pig killing dish.
When the stove is supported outside in the cold and snowy sky, and the hot air in the cauldron is boiling blood sausages, the people in the house are also busy cutting sauerkraut and cutting meat and bones. Large pieces of meat and bones were sorted out and watered in the snow outside the house to cover the snow and frozen for the New Year, and the people in the house put the tender parts of the flesh and bones and the internal organs such as the heart, liver and lungs in a large pot to be used to entertain the relatives and friends of the neighbors who helped.
Generally speaking, a pig-killing dish is a table made with a new year pig, rather than a single dish. The core main dish of this table dish is also the most common one at present, which is the table top card of sauerkraut stewed white meat and blood sausage. The lid of the simmer pan is lifted, and a steaming hot air mixed with the aroma of vegetables gushes out to fill the kitchen. Sauerkraut and large bone sticks vibrate rhythmically in the pan with hot bubbles, and are covered with a thick layer of fat and thin slices of meat.
Fat meat and bones add aroma to the dish, and the characteristics and sour taste of sauerkraut itself can solve the greasy of pork, especially fat. The fat meat after the sauerkraut stew, in addition to the fresh flavor is really fat but not greasy. This pot of vegetables is stewed to a certain extent, and then the blood sausage made on the outside or thick slices or whole sticks are thrown into it and stewed together to let the umami taste of the sauerkraut soup seep into the blood sausage. What you want is a fresh and solid fragrance, into a fragrant!
When I stewed, the kitchen was not idle. The blood sausage made outside should be eaten freshly, not overnight, let alone overnight. It can only stay outside in the cold for a while, then cut into thick slices, and then blanch the remaining blood with hot soup. Between heat expansion and contraction, the cross-section of the blood intestine will form the shape of a lamp bowl. The stewed pork liver, meat skin, bone-cutting meat, and heart-protecting meat are served separately and served with garlic sauce. Pork belly, chest, etc. are rare delicacies on weekdays. They have to be made by the hands of skilled housewives to bring their taste to the extreme. With a few stir-fried vegetables and a cold dish, when the stew is finally on the table, it is equivalent to announcing that this pig-killing new year pig feast will be opened together.
Three meals a day bring fullness and fulfillment to the whole family. Following the aroma that overflows from the stoves, the dishes of each house begin to change. I am accustomed to a dull diet on weekdays, and I also began to enjoy the meat and delicious harvest of a busy year without hesitation. The process of storing and processing these foods, this hectic preparation process, is the meaning of life. These handmade foods made by everyone are family affection, sharing, and belonging, and they are also the smell of fireworks in the stoves and lives of each family.