The prose of killing pigs and celebrating the New Year with a slight cold

When I was a child, the atmosphere of Chinese New Year began with the preparation of killing pigs. Old saying-slight cold and severe cold, killing pigs for the New Year.

This probably makes sense. First of all, according to the timetable, slight cold and severe cold are the last two of the 24 solar terms in a year, followed by beginning of spring, which marks the arrival of spring. The Spring Festival is around beginning of spring, which is a timely holiday; Secondly, slight cold and severe cold are the coldest times of the year, that is, the traditional twelfth lunar month and March 9th. Now is the "cat winter" season for farmers in the farming era. It is the most leisure time in a year and they have enough time to prepare for the festival. Third, because the weather is cold and freezing, the food for festivals is the most suitable for preservation. Chicken, duck and fish will be frozen in any cool place, even if it is accumulated for a long time, it will not deteriorate, which is beneficial for people to eat it slowly during the festival.

It is also a custom to kill pigs in the New Year. Of these three animals, the pig is a necessity for sacrifice. In ancient times, ancestors and gods used to sacrifice pigs, cows and sheep, also known as sacrifices. But in general, cattle belong to animal power, which can be used for farming and is a part of productivity. Slaughtering must be approved by the government, not indiscriminate killing; Sheep are mostly raised by nomadic people. Before the Song Dynasty, they were just meat eaten by officials, belonging to ethnic minorities and elegant food. Sacrifice by ordinary people is not so common. We can roughly know from the story of Su Shi's invention of Dongpo Meat. According to historical records, the sacrificial ceremony for non-kings is called "Tai Prison", and all other sacrificial activities are called "Shao Prison" or "Special Sheep". "Prison" refers to cattle, and "less prison" is a sacrifice without cattle; "Special sheep" is mutton, and it tastes good. Therefore, this pig is essential in the sacrifice of ordinary people. The function of pigs is to sacrifice.

During a slight cold, especially in the twelfth lunar month, several wild butchers in the village set up a big stove in an open space on the street, and set up a cauldron big enough to hold 200-300 Jin of big fat pigs. Split the wooden chopping board and the wooden barbell, put them in the kitchen fire, beep, and let out a flame, and most of the hot water in the pot will boil. From the villagers' pigsty, two strong men fed grass for a year, supplemented a big fat pig with carrots, white radishes and concentrated flour in winter, tied the front and rear legs with pig leg buckles, and a big wooden barbell passed through the legs, carried it around the big stove and threw it on the ground. After a while, seven or eight big fat pigs with black and white flowers were thrown all over the floor. No matter how they howl like pigs, they all line up in the first-come-first-served order, waiting for the guillotine.

The "guillotine" is actually a stone case made up of several stone piers and a slate. It is where every pig lives, but it doesn't matter if his head is cut off.

There, a skilled butcher, who needs to be a well-known strong man, holds a two-foot sharp knife in his mouth and holds the sleeve of a cotton-padded jacket high. I can't tell whether the cotton-padded jacket is white or brown. Several holes are covered with gray cotton wool, and the black and thick arms are covered with hair, and the veins stand out.

He held the fat pig's long mandible in his left hand and let it bend its head to his waist, revealing a long bulging throat; Then, the right hand pulled out a knife from his mouth, aimed it at the throat of the pig that only whimpered as a baby, went through it obliquely with a "poof", plunged into his heart, and then suddenly pulled it out, and the dark red blood spewed out with a "poof-",forming a water column of blood that moistened the big earthen basin that had already been prepared on the ground; Blood quickly flowed through the bottom of the earthen basin, and several bright red blood flowers splashed all over the floor; Blood flowed like a note, the earthen basin was half full, and red bubbles appeared.

Pig struggled with his last strength and sobbed, but his head was firmly hugged by the strong man, his legs were firmly tied, and several strong men were holding him down, but he said nothing. The last bit of accumulated strength also turned into full pressure, and the blood in his veins was all pressed into the earthen basin with a "wow".

The buckle of the pig's leg was opened. The strong man stabbed an inch-long pigskin in one of the pig's hind legs with a sharp knife, and then stabbed a bald stick more than two meters long into the pig's neck, pulled it out, and then blew into the pig's hind legs with all his strength: his cheeks were swollen, his eyes were red, his beard roots stood upright in his mouth, and several tips were still stained with oil and blood. Another strong man took a wooden stick and hit it around the pig's front legs, back and ears. The pig slowly expanded and fell into the sky like a big airbag. An inch-long blade in the throat, "glug" and red bubbles.

Several strong men began to work together. One man grabbed a leg of the pig, shouted "12 12" and rolled into a steaming cauldron. Turn over, burn all over, and then "one, two, three" to the case. Two or three strong men each have a coiled steel scraper to "stab" and blow pig hair. The fat pig, whether black or white, soon became naked and white.

Two strong men brought iron hooks with hooks at both ends, and "sloped" and "sloped" deeply hooked into the two thigh roots of the fat pig, and then stood up and hung on a one-person high crossbar. The fat pig has its big head down and its small tail sticking out on it. A strong man spat at the pig's defecation place with a five-inch machete, and his small tail tilted to one side; Then, the knife "glared" along the belly, like a zipper that was quickly pulled open, and all the internal organs of the fat pig were exposed. This is disembowelling.

The pig's internal organs were taken out one by one, and the intestines, stomach, heart and lungs became the side dishes for people to drink during the Spring Festival.

When the internal organs are cleaned, the process of killing pigs is completed.

A strong man put a felt cloth on his shoulder. With the sound of "hey hey", he carried a pig with complete head and feet on his shoulder, rested on his hips with one hand and shook it off with the other, and strode home with the owner of the fat pig. Pig lifted up his head and shook rhythmically on the strong man's shoulder, with big ears flickering, fat face and big ears, and small eyes narrowing, as if he were asleep and laughing, innocent. On the sacrificial table for immortals and ancestors on New Year's Eve, its head is the best sacrifice.

At that time, we witnessed the whole process of a fat pig or a fat pig being sacrificed. However, there is no blood relationship, because we have our concerns. For example, collect a few bristles, tie them neatly into a bundle and sell them at the waste collection station in exchange for firecrackers set off in the New Year; Or, wait for people who don't have children and ask others' pig urine bubbles to blow up as balls to play with; Or wait for the urine bubble to dry, make a small drum and knock it in the first month; Or, pick up a few big pig's hoof shells as small bowls, remove a few pieces of fallen grease as oil, and let mom screw up the rope on the sole to install lanterns during the New Year.

After that, the butcher will personally come to the door with a sharp knife and axe in the leisure night, untie the fat pig and separate the flesh and blood according to the owner's requirements. The bones were cooked immediately, fished out and put on the kang table, and the family gathered together to chew heartily-the taste of the New Year finally came.

Save some whole meat for the New Year. Dice the skin, simmer it in a large pot until it is half cooked, then take it out, put coarse salt in a clay pot, spread sauce on the skin, put it in a jar, seal it, and hide it in a corner to make bacon. In this way, whenever the farm is busy or there is a holiday, there will always be meat on the table, not much, but it will definitely arouse the appetite. I remember that every year during the Dragon Boat Festival and the wheat harvest, there will be bacon rice cooked by my mother on the table.

Pig pancreas is also a treasure. Father carefully tamped the stone pier with alkaline noodles, and then rubbed it into balls the size of meatballs. He can't afford to wash his hands as soap in winter.

Years, in the incense of pork, are coming slowly.