Chapter 185: My Profession is Zombie King 17
Author: 打字机
Yang Sanhan knows how to raise and slaughter pigs. His son also inherited his skills and is helping Yang Sanhan today with Jiang Liu.
“Hey, it’s not even time to take them to market yet,” Yang Sanhan sighed as he looked at the five plump and white pigs in the pigpen. Yang Sanhan couldn’t express the discomfort in his heart. How did the world become like this?
He raised the pigs so well that even with a small number each year, they could be sold at high prices, providing him with a decent income. But now, his livelihood has disappeared, and he doesn’t know if he’ll ever be able to raise pigs again.
Looking at the barren environment outside, where neither the grass can grow, nor the crops can be planted, he didn’t know what they’ll eat after they finished the food they had stored. Compared to that, whether or not he can raise pigs seems unimportant.
Yang Sanhan sighed and continued sharpening his slaughter knife. Even though the pigs he raised were just livestock, he still had an emotional attachment to them. He hoped that by sharpening the knife, he could ensure the pigs would feel minimal pain before dying.
People from the village came when they heard the news. Perhaps it was the sunny weather or the reflection of the moonlight that even at night, the visibility was high, and Yang Sanhan only needed to hang a flashlight in the pigpen to see.
At this point, he had already slaughtered two pigs, and the villagers were debating which part of the fresh and beautiful meat to buy.
The prices for different parts are a bit different. Yang Sanhan claimed the average cost of pork, with better parts such as pork belly, will be more expensive. As for the price of pork offal and other parts, it is slightly cheaper.
Jiang Liu ordered half a pork chop, two pairs of pork hind legs, a pair of pork lungs and liver, pork intestines, and even a pig’s head. Yang Sanhan’s pigs were not ready for market yet, so their weight was slightly lighter than adult pigs. Jiang Liu bought almost half a pig, totalling about 58 jin. According to the different prices of different parts, he gave Yang Sanhan 400 jin of salt, slightly less than Jiang Liu had previously estimated.
Ordinary pork is not so expensive. Now, salt is more expensive than meat. Ordinary pigs raised for meat can only exchange for about two jin of coarse salt per jin of meat. However, Yang Sanhan’s pigs were raised well, and he didn’t want to sell them cheaply, so the prices were so high.
Except for Jiang Liu, the other villagers were not so generous. Some bought one or two jin, while others bought three or four liang to cut into small pieces and stew with vegetables to taste the flavour.
Throughout the night, Yang Sanhan sold two pigs, but the remaining three were not sold. Fortunately, Jiang Liu’s salt was enough to preserve the meat. It could be stored in a cool cellar for at least a year and even longer if made into preserved meat. At least for a long time, the family wouldn’t have to worry about not having meat to eat.
Jiang Liu took the pork back home. Due to the reason that they are yet to buy the solar generator, he has not yet moved to the Chi sisters’ house. At this time, the sun was already rising, but because he was a zombie, Jiang Liu didn’t feel the heat or discomfort coming from it.
The pork should be processed when fresh, so Jiang Liu promptly processed it. He had already planned that, besides reserving enough pork for the next few days, he would use half of the remaining pork to make pork bone scraps and canned pork in oil.
The methods to make pork bone scraps and canned pork in oil were learned from the memories of his original body. His original grandmother was from the Nanyun region, and these two dishes were also famous there.
He cut the slightly fatty pork into chunks, marinated them with salt, ginger, clove, and Sichuan pepper powder, and then set it aside for later use.
Next, he cut the pork ribs into chunks. He added shredded ginger, clove powder, star anise powder, chilli powder, Sichuan pepper powder, salt, and an appropriate amount of rice wine and stirred until evenly mixed. He then placed the mixture into a jar, sprinkled it with cooked rapeseed oil, and sealed it for storage.
This cooked rapeseed oil was from the batch the village had previously seized. Jiang Liu had helped Chi Dayuan collect things from the field, and in return, Chi Dayuan gave him the oil to express his gratitude.
This was the preparation for pork bone. After this treatment, it could be stored in a cool place for one to two years and was easy to prepare, either by steaming or stir-frying, with each method having its flavour.
After finishing the pork bone scraps, Jiang Liu began to process the just-marinated pork with varying degrees of fat. He boiled the pork in water and then removed the meat, using the pork lard in the pot to refine pork oil.
As expected, the pigs raised by Yang Sanhan were indeed excellent. The pork oil he refined was highly fragrant. However, Jiang Liu was now a zombie, and although he could smell the aroma, however, when he put the crispy fried lard in his mouth, they were tasteless.
Indeed, gain and loss were always present together. This zombie body made him not afraid of the heat but deprived him of the pleasure of enjoying delicious food.
Jiang Liu took out the fried golden-yellow crispy fried lard and called Chi Ruoyu, asking her to receive this delicacy in her space. The crispy fried lard was best eaten while still hot.
The crispy fried lard, which had already been depleted of oil, was not greasy at all. On the contrary, they were crispy and delicious. Whether dipped in salt or sugar, the taste was excellent.
After finishing this task, Jiang Liu put the pre-boiled pork into the hot pot and rendered the pork fat. He fried the pork until its surface turned golden brown and put it into jars. After the oil in the pot cooled down, he poured it into the jars, covering the pork entirely with the oil. Finally, he covered the jars with lids.
The pork preserved in the jars is rich in oil and water, but the taste is excellent. The combination of lean and fatty pork makes it easy to cook and delicious to eat. Especially the fatty part, which looks like a crystal, can be easily bitten into and releases the rich aroma of pork and spices.
Similarly to canned pork in oil, the pork bone scraps can be stored for a long time. Moreover, the jars contain plenty of pork fat, solidifying into blocks in the cool cellar. Sometimes when there is a shortage of oil for cooking, one can scoop some pork fat from the jar and use it for cooking. Even ordinary dishes can have the aroma of meat.
The Jiang family also has a cellar, and its temperature is relatively low, about 20 degrees Celsius. If not for the thin air in the basement, which is unsuitable for long-term stays, the people in the village would have wanted to move their homes underground.
Jiang Liu could have stored the prepared bone scraps and pork fat in the cellar, but he had a cheat item like spatial storage, which was more convenient than the cellar.
After thinking about it, Jiang Liu put the jars of bone scraps, pork, and fresh pork that had not been processed into the spatial storage.
After doing all this, he finally felt at ease and went to bed.
Strictly speaking, as a zombie, he did not need to sleep, but Jiang Liu felt that he was still a human at his core, and the sleeping ritual was indispensable.
*********
“Where did the pork fat come from?”
Chi Ruojin was caught off guard when her younger sister stuffed her mouth with some crispy fried lard. While she was impressed by the crisp and rich flavour of the crispy fried lard, she also became curious about its origin.
She couldn’t remember stocking up on crispy fried lard when they hoarded supplies. Plus, the crispy fried lard taste wasn’t like the regular pork lard. It tasted more like the white-cut pork slices she bought from Yang Sanhan.
Only two people were in the house, she and her younger sister. There was no reason why her sister would secretly fry crispy fried lard without her knowing.
Chi Ruojin became cautious and began to suspect where her sister got the crispy fried lard from.
“Yes, where did it come from?”
Chi Ruoyu realized that she had been careless. Jiang Liu had prepared to move into her house long ago, and they had already agreed that they couldn’t keep their co-ownership of the dimensional space a secret forever. Eventually, the day would come when she would have to confess to her sister.
After all, they would live under the same roof in the future, and some secrets couldn’t be kept forever. It was just that Chi Ruoyu felt guilty for not telling her sister earlier.
Now, because of her carelessness, the secret she wanted to hide seemed hard to keep. Chi Ruoyu was a little regretful and annoyed at herself.
“In fact, it’s like this…”
She could only tell her sister the secret she had been hiding: “I didn’t awaken a spatial ability. I accidentally opened the space inside because of the half-piece of a jade pendant that Xiao Jiang gave me. Xiao Jiang and I are both the owners of that space.”
“Didn’t we store many supplies in the space back then? Xiao Jiang also stored a lot of things there. Now the space is almost full.”
This secret was quite shocking to Chi Ruojin. She couldn’t believe that her sister and Jiang Liu had such a connection.
“Jiejie, Xiao Jiang is really nice.”
Chi Ruoyu gently tugged at her sister’s clothes and stuttered, “You see, he even made crispy fried lard for me to eat.”
Chi Ruojin was a little speechless. She feared that her sister thought that anyone who could cook well and was willing to make delicious food for her wouldn’t be a bad person. However, so far, Jiang Liu’s character seems quite good, and her sister could only have the space because of the Jiang family’s help.
As Chi Ruojin thought about the relationship between her sister and Jiang Liu, who co-owned the space, she felt that she should consider her attitude towards him more carefully in the future.
Perhaps, as Jiang Liu had suggested before, letting him move into their house wasn’t such an unacceptable idea after all. At least if he lived under her nose, she could observe him more closely.
A/N:
Chi Ruojin: “I will observe you carefully.”
Jiang – the one and only Zombie King- Liu: “Shivering in fear.”
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