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墨書 Inktalez
After finishing breakfast, everyone quickly divided their tasks.
Zi Lao Er and Zhou stayed at home to wash the existing vegetables and continued to use the simple Earthen Stove outside to smoke the Musk Deer Meat.
At this early summer, the weather in the south had already become quite hot, making it difficult to preserve food without timely smoking.
Meanwhile, Ziying and Ziyan led Ling Young Master out to gather more fresh wild vegetables.
After half a morning of busy work, the materials needed for the birthday banquet were already abundant. There was Musk Deer Meat, wild boar meat, fish, wild chicken, and various fresh vegetables.
At this moment, the entire courtyard was filled with the aroma of smoked meat, and everyone couldn't help but take deep breaths.
Ziyan ran to the right side of the courtyard gate to the Earthen Stove and lifted the lid of the basket. What caught her eye were shiny yellow pieces of meat that looked incredibly appetizing.
Zhou approached with one hand holding an empty basket and the other carrying a basket filled with Fool's intestines, liver, stomach, and a small amount of unsmoked meat.
Feeling delighted, Ziyan quickly reached out to catch the empty basket from her mother's hand and helped place the shiny yellow smoked meat pieces into it.
The mother and daughter worked together to quickly gather the smoked meat.
They then arranged the raw meat along with intestines, liver, and stomach on the basket atop the Earthen Stove.
After arranging everything neatly, they covered it with another basket. The two then lifted the basket of smoked meat from both sides and brought it back to the courtyard to hand over to Zi Lao Er and Ling Yuxuan. The two men exchanged smiles and cooperatively hung the basket of meat under the eaves.
This was Ziyan's idea for preventing spoilage; hanging dried meat under the eaves allows it to be naturally air-dried, which generally keeps it good for a year or two.
After finishing these tasks, Ziyan went alone to the well and focused her gaze on a small wild boar that had been hanging by the Well Edge since last night due to being too busy to clean it up.
When Ling Yuxuan walked over, Ziyan instructed him to lift it up. Smart Ziying understood that her sister was about to process this small wild boar and quietly slipped into the kitchen to boil water.
Soon, when the people outside placed the small wild boar on the table and cleaned off the dirt from its surface, Ziying also came out of the kitchen carrying boiling water.
Zi Lao Er took the hot water from his eldest daughter and poured it over the wild boar's fur. After pouring the water, he quickly scraped off all the hair from the little wild boar while it was still hot.
Looking at the hairless little wild boar, which had tender black skin and weighed about thirty to forty pounds, Ziyan suddenly recalled the taste of Cantonese roasted suckling pig: that crispy skin and tender meat with a delicious aroma made her swallow involuntarily.
Having made up her mind, Ziyan instructed Ling Yuxuan to build a rectangular fire pit next to the Stone Table, measuring four feet long, three feet wide, and three feet high. She even ran into the storage room to find a large sack of charcoal, placing it beside the Stone Table for later use.
Once Zi Lao Er had cleaned and eviscerated the little pig, Ziyan took out her homemade seasoning that she had previously sautéed, mixed it with appropriate salt and honey, and began to rub it thoroughly onto both the exterior and interior of the wild boar.
After ensuring it was evenly coated, she placed it in a sieve on the Stone Table.
Next, she sent Ling Yuxuan to the riverbank to chop four cinnamon branches of moderate thickness—two long and two short. Upon returning, they sharpened one end of each branch with a knife. The two longer branches were inserted through the body of the pig: one from head to hindquarters and another from hindquarters to head.
The two shorter branches were inserted through one shoulder to the other shoulder and from one hindquarter to the other hindquarter.
With all preparations for roasting the suckling pig complete, Ziyan checked the time; it was almost ready. Since roasting a suckling pig was quite labor-intensive, she naturally entrusted this honorable task to Ling Yuxuan, who was the youngest and strongest present.
Ziyan started a fire by placing some dry twigs in it. After igniting them, she gradually added thicker dry branches. Once all the wood had burned down, she took out a lot of pre-prepared charcoal from the sack and added it to the fire pit.
At this point, Ziyan instructed Ling Yuxuan to move the wild boar over so that it could hang above the fire pit. She explained to him that he needed to turn the little roasted pig occasionally.
This way, it would be evenly roasted until its skin turned crispy and deep golden brown before serving.
Of course, since Ziyan was mentally preparing to make other dishes as well, she couldn't just stand there waiting for this roasted suckling pig.
She firmly believed that her clever Future Husband would be able to perfectly complete the task of roasting the piglet that she had assigned to him.
After Ziyan finished teaching how to roast the piglet, she confidently went to the well to clean the fish.
By the well, Zi Lao Er was seriously rinsing the entrails of the little wild boar over and over again.
Ziyan approached the sink and picked out the largest grass carp, which weighed about five or six pounds. Such a fatty fish was perfect for making Poached Fish with Sour Bamboo Shoots. She took the fish out and placed it on an old wooden cutting board. After a series of “swish swish swish” sounds, Ziyan quickly scraped off all the scales without leaving a single one behind.
She didn’t want to waste any scales, so Ziyan gathered them into a bowl and poured some water in to soak.
Curious Ziying leaned forward and pointed at the bowl, asking, “Sister, what’s this for?”
“Of course it’s useful,” Ziyan replied without looking up, continuing with her task.
“Uh, what’s it for?” Ziying asked again.
“Clean it and dry it out, and it becomes organic fertilizer.”
While removing the entrails from the big grass carp, Ziyan patiently answered her sister's questions.
“Organic fertilizer? Where did you learn this stuff?” Ziying scratched her head, seeming even more confused.
“Oh dear sister, I’ll teach you how to use it later. Right now, instead of wasting time asking questions, you should hurry up and help.”
Ziyan felt a slight embarrassment on her face for using modern terminology but quickly composed herself and tossed the entrails she had taken out in front of Ziying.
“Here, go wash them clean. We can’t waste such good fish intestines. And save the fish oil too.”
"Ah? Oh, okay."
Ziying realized that every time she asked her younger sister about something she didn't understand, her sister could successfully and forcefully change the subject. Could it be that she was really much dumber than her sister?
Thinking this, a trace of lament arose in her heart, and then she resignedly squatted down to clean the pile of fish innards.
For the pickled fish, the knife skills were also quite important. Ziyan carefully and slowly filleted the thick meat from both sides of the fish's back, then cut the thick meat into wider, thinner slices.
After slicing, she chopped off the fish head and split it in half. Finally, she cut the fish body and tail into sections, adding egg whites and a small amount of salt along with the red starch produced at home for marinating.
She instructed her sister to wash the fish innards and put everything mentioned above into the kitchen.
Then she walked over to Ling Yuxuan's side to check on the roasted pig. Seeing everything was as she expected, a faint aroma of roasted meat wafted through the air. The whole pig wouldn't be cooked through in a short time; it needed to be roasted longer.
So Ziyan nodded at Ling Yuxuan and gave him an encouraging smile.
Then she seemed to move without pause to a corner of the yard where two bamboo cages were located, grabbing one of the mountain chickens they had caught yesterday while it was still alive to slaughter.
Before long, after Ziyan had prepared the mountain chicken, she took some dried shiitake mushrooms from the storage room next to the kitchen and soaked them in water.
At that moment, the sound of an ox cart could be heard coming from the yard entrance. Upon hearing that familiar sound, Ziyan knew that Uncle and her grandparents had come to visit again.
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