After a simple rebirth

The Chinese New Year is approaching, but many families are not preparing for the New Year in the order of tradition. One reason is that nowadays, many things can be bought, and the other is that most families have people working away from home, and everyone comes back at different times.

For example, the general cleaning before the New Year should be done on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, but the Fu family has only done part of it and has no time to do the rest.

The highlight of today is smoked bacon. The fresh meat eaten in the first month of the year is not salted, but the pork with salt needs to be smoked.

Smoking bacon takes a long time and involves many steps, and is usually done in one’s own farm.

After breakfast, Fu's father started to prepare. He took Fu Ying and Fu Zhe to Fu's second aunt's house and brought back a lot of bricks. The bricks here were not the red heart stone bricks commonly used outside, but were made by a nearby quarry. They were hollow in the middle with two holes and were four or five times higher than red bricks.

This kind of brick is very cheap. The family uses this brick to build pig pens and toilets. The Fu family also uses this brick to build their house. Fu Ying feels that the wall is not that strong and its service life will definitely not be as long as reinforced concrete.

After this brick is moved over, it forms a right-angle wall with the wall and is stacked in two rows. In this step, it is enough to place the bricks steadily and there is no need to seal them.

Then put a big steel frame, like the fence in the community, between the two walls, and it will be a super double version of the barbecue grill. This step is not over yet, and two more layers of bricks are added to the rack to fix the rack and make it higher for placing meat.

Mother Fu and the three washed their hands, brought the meat to be smoked, and Father Fu was in charge of placing it. The pork was placed in strips, with the skin side facing downwards. The large pork heads and legs were placed in the middle, and the small pieces were placed on both sides to ensure that they could all be smoked.

After putting the meat in place, Fu's mother brought a large piece of cardboard and together with Fu's father, placed it on the top brick and used something to hold down the cardboard. Finding that it was not fully covered, Fu Ying went to get two more pieces so that there was enough space between the meat and the top.

In addition to the heat from the fire below, the key to smoking bacon is the smoke that rises. The smoke blocked by the paper is dispersed back again, and this cycle is the only way to complete the smoked bacon.

In this way, the smoked bacon rack with a gap on one side and surrounded on five sides is completed.

The burning material under the bacon is not wood, but corn kernels which are used according to local conditions.

The corn that Fu Ying picked together was dried and the remaining kernels were removed. The long corn kernels are a good helper for making fire and increasing firepower, and are also the main force for smoking bacon.

Fu's family went to Fu's second aunt to take three bags of corn cobs. If they were not enough, they could take more depending on the situation. Now that they had taken too much, Fu's second uncle's face had become very black.

Dad Fu first spread the corn cobs into two layers, then lit the corn leaves and threw them around, letting them burn slowly and connect into one piece.

The fire should be a little bigger at the beginning to make the pig skin crispy. You don't need to keep an eye on it at this time, but you should check it from time to time to avoid uneven fire.

After three hours, turn all the meat over, lower the fire, and continue smoking for another two hours. The whole process takes at least five hours.

Nearing evening, the bacon was completely smoked. Dad Fu removed the paper wrapper and checked the results of the smoking. It looked fine and after letting it cool for a while, it could be taken off.

Fu Ying took a knife and picked a piece of meat with even fat and lean meat. She sliced ​​it twice and tried it. It was still the same taste as she remembered. Although the bacon tasted like chewing wax after being stored for a long time, the fresh bacon was actually quite delicious, salty, fragrant and tender like bacon. Fu Zhe also ate two slices.

The smoked bacon is not placed in the main room. One strip is kept for eating during the New Year, and the others are hung on the beams.

When the first floor of the house is built here, six holes are left to pass through the beams for hanging bacon and for ventilation.

Dad Fu stood on the ladder, and Fu Ying and Fu Zhe took the strips one by one and handed them to him to hang up.

The stove had not been dismantled yet. Fu Ying looked at the "battlefield" with some residual fire and suddenly became playful and asked Fu Zhe if he wanted to have a barbecue.

Fu Zhe nodded, "But we didn't buy anything, what should we bake?"

Fu Ying thinks the main point of this is to be spontaneous and grill whatever is available.

Fu Ying first gathered the burnt corn kernels on the side and piled them together. Then she narrowed the range of the stove, made the wall bricks on both sides narrower, and then took down two bricks to block the front, making it safer.

Fu Zhe randomly searched around the house and found small crispy rice cakes, dried tofu, green peppers, cabbage, spare ribs, yellow rice cakes, tangerines, and anything that could be grilled and eaten and put them in a basket. Then he took the bamboo sticks that had not been used up from last time and the two of them skewered and grilled them right away.

When Fu Ying was roasting cabbage, her mother passed by. Fu Ying kicked Fu Zhe and signaled Fu Zhe to ask her mother.

"Mom, do you want some roasted cabbage?"

Fu Ma saw it but couldn't help but say to them,

"I don't want to eat. It's almost time for dinner. Why are you trying to eat this way? I'm full here. How can I have room for dinner?"

Father Fu happened to come out and heard her, so he took her away.

"It's Chinese New Year, let them have some fun on their own. If they can't finish their dinner, they can eat it tomorrow."

"You just pamper them all day long." Fu's mother stopped talking.

The two continued to grill on the stools. They didn’t know how much they ate for dinner, but they were very interested and happy now!

Some happiness is just simple and doesn’t need too many reasons.

Fu Ying asked Fu Zhe to get some chili powder, and Fu Zhe added some slices of freshly smoked meat. It really was a hodgepodge.

No matter whether it is meat or vegetables, sprinkle some all-purpose chili powder on the roasted food and the flavor will come out.

Li Xingying and her brother next door were curious about why Fu Ying and Fu Zhe were sitting here. Fu Ying said that they could sit down and roast something to eat while there was a fire, and she also invited them to join them.

The memories of the last barbecue were quite fun, so they both hurried over to join the battle. Li Xingyun also went home and brought some meat, glutinous rice cakes and other ingredients to grill.

Fu Zhe invited friends who were passing by, such as Wang Cong who was going to the convenience store. He came over excitedly and ate two skewers. After putting down his food at home, he brought the shelf from his home, which made it more convenient.

So the adults nearby watched them playing there. They were all grown-up kids, and because it was New Year, no one said anything.

Fu Ying had almost finished eating, so she put a few oranges in the corner to grill. Grilled oranges are not a dark dish, but a delicacy.

Fu Ying remembers that when she caught a cold as a child, her grandmother would roast tangerines, and then poke a hole in the middle with chopsticks without piercing it. Eating the roasted tangerines would help the cold heal quickly.

When we stayed at home in the winter or when relatives came over, Fu's mother would warm some oranges on the stove, but they would be eaten before the orange flesh could even warm up.

Fu Ying's orange is almost ready. She poked a hole in it and a little juice popped out. It's not a big problem.

Fu Ying peeled the orange. It was a little hot and not as sweet when eaten, but it had a different taste.

Fu Ying gave one to Li Xingying, who took it. The boys refused to eat it, so Li Xingying ate one and refused. Fu Ying ate three by herself.

When it was time for dinner, they were still grilling, and the adults from each family came over to ask about it, but they also knew that they couldn't eat it for the time being.

Fu Ying also felt that she was full for the time being, and she could just eat something when she was hungry later.