noffsinger Chapter 261 Blood Tofu
Chapter 261 Blood Tofu
Jiang Shuzhi took a shovel and painstakingly dug the big cow out.
Da Niu quickly went home to change into dry clothes and rushed to the village chief's house to find his father.
Gao Mengli was left alone at home. Feeling bored, she took a few wooden basins and went with Jiang Shuzhi to watch a pig being slaughtered in the open space next to the inn.
Little did they know that as soon as they stepped off the wooden bridge, they saw Hei Yi riding a pig and speeding past them.
"Ah this?"
Jiang Shuzhi was shocked; how could they be riding pigs?
Behind "Flying Pig" were Mengze and his group, who rushed over in a swarm to chase after Hei Yi.
Gao Mengli quickly pulled Lin Xi, who was running at the back, and asked, "What are you doing?"
Lin Xi was both crying and laughing and speechless: "Sigh, we were just about to slaughter a pig. We pulled the pig over and were about to put it on the slaughtering bench when the pig suddenly turned against us and struggled violently."
They couldn't hold Hei Yi's legs down, so it ran down, rampaging between Hei Yi's legs, and then "carried" Hei Yi away!
At this point, Lin Xi slapped his thigh and quickly ran up to stop the pig!
Hei Yi rode on the pig's back, gripping the bristles tightly with both hands. It was his first time riding a pig, and he was both nervous and excited, shouting, "Brother Pig, stop! Stop!"
He wouldn't have been so stealthy if it weren't for the fact that this thing needed to be killed and bled.
The owner specifically instructed that the blood was to be made into blood tofu and should not be wasted.
Ahead lay the construction debris of the inn, with no way to proceed.
The pig ran to the debris, then suddenly braked, its head lowered, and Blackie was thrown out and stuck in the snow.
Seeing that Brother Pig had stopped, Mengze and the others rushed forward with ropes and tied up Brother Pig tightly.
Lin Xi was out of breath from running and stood there bent over, panting heavily.
Damn it, we finally caught them.
Hei Yi grumbled as he lifted his head from the snowdrift, his face and hair covered in snow. He was quite the professional at cosplaying an old man with white hair.
He quickly shook off the snow, stood up, and helped catch the pig and pull it onto the slaughtering bench.
A killer should be a professional at slaughtering pigs; this is why there are so many problems with just the first pig.
Having learned from the experience with the first pig, they would tie up the pig's feet first when they got the second pig.
The pig was successfully slaughtered!
Gao Mengli turned to Jiang Shuzhi and instructed, "Mother, go to Dou Dou's workshop and ask her to send over two pots of tofu, but without the broth!"
"Hey! I'm going right now!"
Jiang Shuzhi responded, wrapped her cotton-padded coat tighter around herself, and hurriedly walked towards the bean workshop.
After the pig is slaughtered, an incision is made in its hind leg so that air can be blown into it.
While blowing air into the pig, you also need to pat it with a stick to make it round and plump, and then tie the opening with a rope to prevent air from leaking out.
After scalding it with boiling water again, the hair will be scraped even more cleanly.
Lin Xi and Hei Yi surrounded the pig, their scrapers flying up and down, the pig hair fluttering down with each scraper, covering the snow with a layer of silvery-white "fluff".
The rest were disemboweled.
Mengze steadily plunged the knife into the pig's stomach, the blade slowly slicing down along the midline of the abdomen. His movements were cautious yet swift, and the pig's stomach was cleanly cut open, with steaming hot internal organs gushing out all at once.
Hei Yi and the others quickly took over and clumsily sorted and processed the organs, placing them in a clean basin that had been prepared beforehand.
Lin Xi looked at the pig liver and immediately became extremely happy!
"We must save this pig liver. Tonight, I'll stir-fry some tender pig liver tips for everyone. It's nourishing and delicious."
He paused after speaking, because he didn't have any cornstarch...
There are no potatoes or corn in this era. But that's okay, we can find lotus root starch later to make a substitute.
Now we have to cut corners to make it, and apart from the slightly tougher texture, it's actually not bad!
Meanwhile, Jiang Shuzhi had already arrived at the bean workshop.
The workshop was bustling with activity, and several workers were busy at work. The stone mill turned slowly, and soy milk gushed out, filling the air with a rich aroma of soybeans.
Jiang Shuzhi found Li Doudou to order tofu.
Li Doudou greeted her warmly, "Auntie, don't worry, two pots of tofu will be prepared for you right away. Our tofu is made with the best soybeans, guaranteed to be tender and smooth."
Jiang Shuzhi shook her head: "Dou Dou, my daughter-in-law said she wants to make blood tofu, so we don't need to use tender ones. It's okay if we cook them a little longer."
"Oh, okay, then wait a moment!"
As Li Doudou spoke, she quickly instructed the staff to swiftly remove the formed tofu from the mold and carefully place it into a wooden bucket. She also thoughtfully covered the bucket with a cotton quilt to prevent the tofu from getting cold and hardening.
Jiang Shuzhi, accompanied by two young men from the village, each carrying two buckets of tofu, walked towards the place where pigs were slaughtered.
The dissections and dismemberments are done very quickly here.
There were children surrounding her. Lin Xi took out the pig urine bag, cleaned it, and washed it.
Blow it up, tie the mouth shut, and toss it to the big cow and the children to play with.
This thing is bouncy, like a balloon, perfect for Da Niu and his friends to play with as a "ball"!
This is Da Niu's first real toy!
Da Niu's eyes sparkled as he excitedly reached out to catch it, joining the village children in a playful huddle. They patted it, kicked it, and laughter filled the snow.
"Watch my powerful kick!"
Da Niu's face turned red, and he kicked the pig's bladder bag into the air with all his might, causing the snow foam to fly up with their movements.
The children's noise attracted the villagers to stop and watch.
Several elderly people stood to the side, their faces beaming, reminiscing about the past: "When we were kids, we didn't have any real toys. This pig bladder was the best thing we could play with for a long time."
At this moment, Jiang Shuzhi arrived with tofu.
"Here it comes! This tofu is fresh out of the pot and still warm!"
She patted the snow off her body while calling out.
Lin Xi quickly went to meet them, lifted the lid of the wooden bucket to take a look, and nodded with satisfaction: "This tofu looks really good. Thank you for your hard work, Mother, and thank you both for your hard work as well."
After saying that, he quickly took out his money bag, counted out the money for the tofu, and handed it to the two people in front of him.
Lin Xi took a kitchen knife and first cut the tofu into even small pieces, put them into a large bowl, then slowly poured in the collected pig's blood, added appropriate amounts of salt, peppercorns and other seasonings, gently stirred it evenly, and then added minced meat and continued stirring.
Finally, shape the blood tofu into fist-sized rounds and place them in a steamer.
Jiang Shuzhi saw that it wasn't difficult and helped to knead it.
Gao Mengli quickly placed the steamer full of blood tofu on the large pot of water that had been boiling earlier and steamed it.
After steaming them thoroughly, pick them out and put them in a winnowing basket, then place them on the wooden rack at the very back of the drying room.
When preparing to smoke cured meat, let the tofu be smoked for three or four days as well. This makes it easier to preserve, and it can be kept for a year without any problems!
However, it takes about fifty kilograms of tofu to make blood tofu from one pig.
The four buckets they bought were clearly not enough, so Gao Mengli quickly ordered two more pots of tofu.
That was just enough; we made about 170 jin (approximately 85 kg) of blood, minced meat, and tofu.
Lin Xi also set aside a bowl of pig's blood, intending to make it into a soup with cabbage and pork!
The rest was curing the pork. After reserving the meat and ribs for the pig-killing feast, Lin Xi took some salt, mixed it with Sichuan peppercorn powder, and began to carefully rub the meat with the sauce.
After watching for a while, Hei Yi and the others started applying salt together.
The cured meat, after being rubbed with salt, needs to be marinated in a wooden basin for two nights to allow it to release some of the water.