Butcher Wang was sitting in front of his stall, fanning himself now and then, and seeing Yan Jiang come up he hurried to greet him: “Would the young man like to buy some meat? This pig of mine was killed only this morning, it’s fresh.”
The weather was hot lately and meat wouldn’t keep, killed in the morning, by evening it wasn’t fresh.
Butcher Wang didn’t kill a pig every day either. The town was only so big, and the amount of meat used up each day was limited, anything more he couldn’t sell he had to bear the loss on himself.
Lately it was also because the autumn harvest was at hand and the villagers all wanted to eat something good to build themselves up, so their strength wouldn’t fail and cause trouble while getting the grain in.
Who could have foreseen, for all the reckoning, that some villages thought the weather had been dry so long it certainly couldn’t rain, and made no preparations, meaning to go and get the crop in when the time came, and the heavy rain that had been brewing for half a month came after all. It began with a burst of hard rain, and it hadn’t stopped long before three days of light rain followed, and more than half the grain in the fields was ruined where it stood.
Some villages had decent headmen who called the villagers out to work several days early, there was still some loss, but most of it was got into the granaries, and they only had to wait for better weather to bring it out to dry.
As for those who hadn’t got their grain in in time, never mind the second half of the year’s food, there was no telling what they would do about the taxes. It was said that some villages had already gone to the county office to plead with the magistrate, hoping the taxes might be reduced somewhat in view of the circumstances.
As for the grain that had been soaked, it was still brought in. Paying tax with it was out of the question, but it would do to eat at home.
Yan Jiang looked at Butcher Wang’s long face and guessed business was bad. If someone came now, cutting the loss a little was good too.
“You’ve no fat meat left, only some lean with no grease in it. Can you make the price a bit cheaper? I’ll buy more. How about throwing in these few marrow bones?”
Yan Jiang had come for the lean meat to begin with. His little sister liked it, fat meat was only fragrant made into cured pork, and fresh fat meat she wouldn’t so much as touch.
“All right, all right, see how much you want. If it’s over ten catties, how about thirteen wen for you?”
Hearing he wanted to buy a lot, Butcher Wang not only threw in the bones but lowered the price himself, taking thirteen wen where it should have been fourteen. Never mind that one wen wasn’t much, over ten catties of meat that saved ten wen, and marrow bones normally cost one wen each too. Never mind that there wasn’t much meat on the outside, pry the bone open and there was no little marrow inside, and boil a pot of bone broth to cook noodles or greens in and it was full of the taste of meat.
“All right, give me ten catties then. Oh, and give me that pig’s liver too, how about calling it two wen? It’s getting late now, and if it sits any longer it’ll go off.”
“All right, all right, take it all. If it weren’t that you’re buying so much, young man, I couldn’t give you the liver on its own. Remember to come to me again next time you buy meat.”
Ordinarily offal was sold paired up with other cuts. Pig hearts, livers, heads and tails sold rather better, but lungs and large intestine wouldn’t do, a lot of people looked down on offal, saying it had a pig stink to it, and anyone with a little property wouldn’t eat it. Only poor households who wanted a taste of meat would buy it.
The butchers had no help for it, and couldn’t throw it away either. Pig heads were all right, around New Year and the festivals, when people sacrificed to the ancestors, there weren’t even enough to sell.
The other kinds could only be paired up two by two: lower the price of the liver and heart a little and sell them together. With that method they could finally be sold off.
He paid a hundred and thirty-two wen in all, packed the meat up and covered it, and only then got ready to go home.
When he got home the Yan family had indeed eaten, and what had been kept for him was warming in the pot.
“Little Sister, I’ve brought back the meat you wanted. It’s hot weather, how do we keep it so it won’t spoil?”
“It’s all right, Third Brother. In a while cut a little off for the old house. They certainly went up the mountain today too, let them make a bowl of mushrooms stir-fried with meat as well. As for the rest, wash it clean afterwards, cut it into pieces and fry it dry, and put it in an oil jar to eat slowly. It’ll keep for over half a month, and there’s no fear of it spoiling.”
“Oh, and we can also keep some to make a sauce with the mushrooms. Put a little in when you’re having porridge or cooking, and there’s no telling how good it is.”
“Does doing it that way really work? Around here we usually only have smoked meat, this is the first time I’ve seen it done like this.”
“Listen to me, I’m not wrong. When I went into town to sell things before, that’s how the great households do it,” Yan Xi explained offhandedly.
No sooner said than done. Yan Xi first had the two sisters-in-law dice the meat, then diced the termite mushrooms to about the same size and set them aside. She had the nephews pick some scallion, ginger, garlic and coriander from the vegetable plot, and ground up some crushed peanuts. There should really have been some onion in it too, but the state of Tianqi had none. Fortunately she had the spirit spring water, putting some in while marinating, and then adding all the various sauces, made the flavor simply unbeatable.
With everything ready, add soybean oil and put in the spices one after another, Sichuan pepper, star anise and so on, fry them till fragrant and scoop them out, tip in the minced meat and fry it fragrant, pour in some white spirit to take away the raw smell, then add a suitable amount of rock sugar and fry it to a caramel color (white sugar works too, if you have the heat right), then put in the family’s own pickled bean paste, then the diced mushrooms, keep the flame low throughout and stir constantly to keep it from catching in the pot, and when the water has been fried off add seasoning to taste, and after turning off the heat add the crushed peanuts. Stir it evenly, and when it has cooled put it in a jar and set it by, sealed well and kept in a cool place it will keep for a month.
By the time the family had finished dealing with the meat it had just gone dark. In summer it got dark late, so it was probably the middle of the xu hour by now. The meat for the old house Yan Xi had had Yan Yu take over earlier, and she had arrived just as they were having supper. She had brought back half a basket of blue-bruising boletes as well.
Everything tidied away, they all went to their own rooms. In a few days they would be cutting the rice, there was always work in the fields that never got finished.
The next day Yan Xi had barely got up when Yan Yu came in, unable to wait.
“Auntie, let’s go and gather mushrooms early today. Let’s call the eldest aunt and the second aunt from Great-aunt’s house. There’s a place they went to before with a lot of mushrooms, they can’t gather it all themselves and they want us to come along.”
“All right, you go out first. We’ll go after breakfast. We won’t come back for lunch, so I’ll fry a few scallion pancakes to take with us.”
The weather had cleared today, and even if they went far they wouldn’t gather much, so they might as well stay out a bit longer, they wouldn’t be going up the mountain again for a while.
After breakfast Yan Xi fried pancakes with Zhou Fen. Each person had to take at least three, which came to eighteen, so to make a round number they’d take twenty. Thinking the family would certainly like them too, in the end she made a dozen or so more, so anyone who wanted could take one. She also cut a bowl of shredded cucumber to roll up in the pancakes and take up the mountain, and took a jar of the mushroom-and-meat sauce fried the night before to spread on the pancakes when they ate.
Everything ready, she told the family and set off toward the old house, to call the two cousins’ wives to go up the mountain with her. Because it had been arranged in advance, everyone had brought dry rations.
Zhou Pandi and Liu Xiangcao had brought twelve steamed buns, and it went without saying that they had prepared some for Yan Xi and the others too.
Having said goodbye to the people at the old house, Zhou Pandi and Liu Xiangcao led the way in front. The place they were going today was rather far and the mountain path was hard going, it took nearly the space of an hour to get there.