Bacon-scented classic emotional prose

Speaking of bacon, I couldn't help swallowing at first.

The ruddy, bright and fragrant pieces of meat seemed to wrap their eyes and soak in their hearts with their mother's warmth.

When I was a child, my family was very poor, and there were few meat stars in my meal. Other children will want to eat meat, but my brother and I are not rare. On the one hand, I refuse to embarrass my parents, on the other hand, I feel tired of eating meat. It is better to eat some vegetables and have fun. Over time, I formed the habit of not eating meat, which worried my parents.

Children don't eat meat, and they are afraid of malnutrition, so mother changed the way for us to eat some meat, and bacon is one of them. I remember the first time I faced a bowl of bacon, I still didn't move my chopsticks. My mother said, eat, it's really not greasy, it's growing on me. I carefully picked up a piece of meat, squinted and stuffed it in my mouth, ready to spit it out when I didn't like it. This taste is really not the usual greasy taste, but the unspeakable fragrance and glutinous. From then on, I like this taste. Smoked bacon has also become a compulsory course for mothers every winter.

Every winter, when the weather is dry and the farm work is finished, my mother has time to prepare food for us. She dragged the money she usually saved, went to the store to cut more than ten kilograms of good meat, and began to get busy.

Remove the oil from the thick fat, cut the pork belly and lean meat into pieces, evenly coat with salt, and marinate in a basin. This is for smoking. Why don't meat be cured with fat? It's just that my mouth is awkward and I don't like fat meat, so my mother's bacon is a little different.

After curing the meat for about four days, hang it with bamboo sticks or iron hooks to dry some water, and then put it on the fumigation tank to start fumigation. Mother used a bamboo net rack made at home on the fumigation cylinder, put meat on it and put a brazier under the bamboo net. The brazier is made of Chinese fir ash, chaff, dried tangerine peel and other smoking substances. This wood ash sawdust should not be too dry to prevent open flames. Cover the meat with a tight film, usually a woven bag, so that the smoke can rise slowly and the meat can be smoked evenly. In order to prevent cats and dogs from stealing mouths, mother should always keep watch, add some materials to the brazier for a while, and turn the meat over for a while. Only mild smoke can smoke good bacon, too strong fireworks can smoke the meat into dry wood, too weak smoke can't smoke the meat thoroughly, and the meat will go bad&; ? & amp？ These are all the experiences that my mother taught me while smoking bacon.

Smoked bacon all the year round, and my mother also created a set of smoking recipes. There are two stoves in our home, one is big and the other is small. Small cooking pots are often used for cooking and stir-frying, while large cooking pots are rarely used, and they are only used when cooking large pieces during the Chinese New Year holidays. ? & amp？ Bacon can be used skillfully. Mother moved the big iron pot out of the big stove hall, put the bamboo net rack on the stove, spread the meat evenly, and smoke came out of the stove chamber, and then buckled the big iron pot behind the meat. Cats, dogs and even mice look at the big iron pot and all they have to do is stare. Smoked for three days and dried for two days, bacon can be cooked and eaten.

In order to preserve the bacon for a long time, my mother will sprinkle some vinegar when pickling, and the smoked bacon will remain dry and sealed, which can be put in February next year. Some people have invented a way to preserve bacon for a long time. Before placing, prepare a sealed clay pot. Before placing, put a glass of white wine in the bowl at the bottom of the jar, then use bamboo strips as a frame and put it on top of the wine. Then put the bacon in layers on the bamboo frame and seal the jar mouth. Mom doesn't have to do this, because bacon has become our belly meal before February next year.

The bacon smoked by my mother, with moderate salty taste and good color and taste, was one of my favorite foods when I was a teenager. Every time I eat it, it's like Chinese New Year, and I'm no longer resistant to meat. Mother is also very careful in making bacon, which can be roughly divided into three categories: frying, steaming and boiling. The so-called frying is to put a little cooking oil in a hot pot. When the oil is hot, first put the side dishes in the pot, usually green peppers, red peppers, garlic sprouts and so on. This garlic sprout belongs to next spring, so fried bacon with garlic sprout is delicious in spring. Stir-fry the side dishes until almost cooked, add a little salt and mix well. Then put the cut bacon in the pot and fry it with the side dishes. Sprinkle some water before cooking, then put away the vegetables and fry the bacon. Steamed bacon, pure or mixed. Pure steaming means cutting bacon into large pieces and steaming directly. There are many steaming patterns. You can first put things mixed with seasoning such as lobster sauce under the steaming bowl, and then steam the bacon, which is the best meal with lobster sauce. Cooking, that is, making bacon hot pot, has a lot of ingredients. The most classic is winter bamboo shoots and bacon hotpot. My father dug up fresh and tender winter bamboo shoots from the bamboo mountain, and my mother shelled them and cut them into thin slices. After the bacon hot pot is boiled, put the bamboo shoots in the pot until they are cooked. Winter bamboo shoots are tender and crisp, and bacon is delicious, which is a gift of this season.

Over the years, every winter, my mother will prepare bacon, and we are also looking forward to the early growth of winter bamboo shoots. The winter of bacon is always so sweet and beautiful, just like maternal love is always wrapped in the body and sweet in the heart.