Serialized 36 Disappearing Rural Memories-Cooking with Fire

There are no children in this country who cook without fire. Most of them like cooking with fire, especially when they have guests at home or in winter.

At that time, firewood was burned in rural areas, and now most rural areas are still burning firewood.

Cooking in the country requires a lot of firewood to cook pig grass. These firewood are not only wheat straw, cereal grass, corn stalk and rape branches in the crops, but also branches and miscellaneous trees on their own mountains. Many families just don't burn enough firewood, so they need someone to collect firewood, and most of them are girls at home to do this delicate work.

Cutting pig grass is generally to go to the edge of the field and take a walk in the field. This is a daily operation, because pigs have to eat three meals a day, and they can grow strong if they eat more. To collect firewood, you have to climb mountains and cross mountains. The best season to collect firewood is in summer and summer vacation or when leaves fall.

Whenever the summer vacation comes, Xiaoxing will go with his friends to graze cattle and collect firewood, then go home to dry and pile them in a woodshed, like a hill, with a special sense of accomplishment.

Stove is an indispensable cooking facility for every household in rural areas. From single-pot stoves to double-pot stoves, three-pot stoves and even four-pot stoves with steamer, the size and shape are different according to the conditions of each household.

Cooking stoves in rural areas is a technical activity, and its construction also has certain knowledge and rules. A well-made stove will make the stove burn well and save wood. People in rural areas have accumulated some experience, which seems to be self-taught. Xiaoxing's cooking chamber was designed and made by her mother, which is very easy to use.

The stove of Xiaoxing's house is a brick rectangular fire pit, with a stove more than one meter high on one side. There are two iron pots on the stove, one large and one small. Small pots are used for cooking, while large pots are used for cooking pig food.

There are several mouthfuls of aluminum pot beside the stove for boiling hot water. Behind aluminum pot is a chimney that stands high on the roof. Bacon and sausages hang on the top of aluminum pot all the year round. Opposite the stove is a stool made of a knot in one's heart, which has been sitting shiny and shiny, and there is a pile of fuel burning with dead branches.

When cooking, mother cleaned the stove, Xiaoxing was in charge of making a fire, and soon the kitchen hall became red. Suddenly, the smoke curled up and gave off a faint smell of firewood.

Actually, burning a fire is also a technical job. What can't be burned out always burns up, burns down and burns out. The fire didn't burn well, and a layer of black charcoal ash fell on my clothes and trousers, and my hands and face were blackened.

In fact, there is a trick to burning a fire. There should not be too much firewood in the hearth, and the firewood should be overhead, so that the fire can burn well. At that time, my mother always said, "People should be real, but fire should be empty." Of course, the fire also needs to be coordinated with the people cooking on the stove. When you cook, you should cook fiercely, and when you stew, you should stew slowly.

Xiaoxing's mother is busy on the stove, and pots and pans are jingling. Cut vegetables, put seasonings, wave a spatula, and the dishes in the pot sizzle.

The little star burns a fire here, the firewood crackles, and the blazing flame makes it blush and warm all over.

At that time, all the iron pots in the house were covered with wood. Of course, the best material for wooden pot cover is Pinus massoniana. The smell of rosin on the pot cover, mixed with the smell of food, always makes people have an appetite.

At night, firewood crackles and there is no need to light a lamp in the room. The flame in the stove penetrated the thick darkness and dyed the room red.

The kitchen is also a gourmet paradise for children.

Autumn is the harvest season, and it is also the harvest season for sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes can be eaten raw or cooked, and our favorite thing is to simmer in the stove. The little friend put the sweet potato in the stove and buried it with hot wood ash. After about half an hour, the sweet potato is ripe. When the friends peel off the burnt skin, take a bite, put it on your mouth and put it on the tip of your tongue to smell it.

You can stew not only sweet potatoes, but also sweet potatoes, peanuts, walnuts and chestnuts.

"People should be real, but fire should be empty".

The blazing fire and choking wood smoke are symbols of spirit, the embodiment of kitchen god and the metaphor of prosperous times. Of course, what is more important is the simple truth that "man is solid and fire is hollow".

Postscript: This is a rural memory and a memory that is disappearing in the countryside. When I returned to my hometown on National Day, I felt that the road was repaired and the house was beautifully repaired, but the land was deserted, people fled and even uninhabited villages appeared.

This is a prose novel with about 65,438+10,000 words, tentatively named "Little Star in the Country", which will continue to be serialized. I hope someone will like it.

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