If you want to survive in the wild, learning to preserve food is a top priority, especially meat that is prone to spoilage.
Microorganisms are the key to making meat rotten. To preserve it, you need to marinate and sterilize it with salt, strong alcohol or various seasonings.
This is also the reason why the two families are in trouble, there is not so much salt.
In addition, the most commonly used methods are dehydration or maintaining a low temperature environment.
Needless to say, keeping the temperature low is freezing, and there is no refrigerator here.
Generally, farmers will wrap the meat in oil paper and bury it in the stream, or step directly into the mud field, which can keep it fresh for a month.
If these are not satisfied now, then the only option is dehydration.
On the other side, Mr. Xiao Man is also actively trying to save the money. Without salt, he also thinks of making bacon.
Jiang Zhi said to Mr. Man, who was looking for sticks to hang the meat, "Uncle Chang Geng, there is no way to smoke and dry such a large amount of meat with the firewood at home."
Xiao Manye's wrinkled face was full of anxiety. He looked at the pile of meat and sighed: "Oh! I have big eyes and a small belly. I can't eat it. I can only smoke some. I can't work hard all night in vain."
Jiang Zhi said: "It must not be wasted. It needs to be dried bacon, and it must be smoked all at once.
Uncle Chang Geng, we can use a charcoal kiln. The space inside is large and the meat can definitely be stacked. The temperature of the charcoal kiln is easy to control. "
This is what Jiang Zhi thought of.
Charcoal kiln!
Everyone raised their heads, suddenly enlightened.
Little Man raised his hand and slapped himself on the forehead: "Hey, look, I'm so busy that I'm so busy that I just think about the little fire on the stove and don't think about anything else. That place can indeed be used!"
Er Ruiniang is right, we just need to hang the meat strips on the kiln wall and then use firewood to burn the kiln, and everything will be smoked. "
In fact, Jiangzhi wanted to use a charcoal kiln to make a large baking box and put the meat in it to dry.
However, charcoal burning involves smoldering at high temperatures while isolating air, while smoking jerky involves baking at low temperatures for a long time.
The temperature for drying pork should not be high, otherwise it will burn.
It occurred to me that Xiao Manye and Xu Dazhu were both good at burning charcoal and could skillfully control the temperature. Based on their experience, even though they had never smoked meat in a charcoal kiln, they would definitely not actually burn it into charcoal blocks.
You can try to modify the charcoal kiln.
Just give it a try!
Jiang Zhi's words suddenly made everyone who had been lifeless just now become excited again.
Xiao Mannai put her hands on her waist and directed several women to perform preliminary processing of the meat.
Mr. Xiaoman took Xiaoman and Xu Errui, who were like chicken blood, to clean up the charcoal kiln and bake the meat immediately.
There is hope that people who were once exhausted will no longer be tired!
Although the weather is hot now, fortunately, the wild boar died in the cold stream, and the meat was cut yesterday when the temperature was the lowest at night, which gave time for processing.
Xiaoman's charcoal kiln is right next to it. It was used all year round and was well maintained.
Even though it has been idle for more than a year, it was cleared out by Xiao Mannai some time ago.
Now Xiao Manye is going to put up a wooden shelf inside to hang the meat.
It's easy to talk about the charcoal kiln, but Jiang Zhi and the others have the heaviest task.
There is no way to pluck wild boar hair. The hair is thick and the skin is thick, so you can only discard it.
Dried meat is divided into raw meat and cooked meat that can be eaten immediately.
There is no time to process cooked meat jerky now, so we can only bake raw meat directly, and it will need to be steamed and cooked when eating later.
So, several people first cut off the pig skin with knives, and then put the clean meat cut into thin strips aside.
Because they didn't sleep the night before, Jiang Zhi and Chunfeng were obviously slow in cutting meat, but they couldn't stop and rest, so they had to hold on.
Qiaoyun and Xiaomannai moved quickly.
Next to her, 3-year-old Nini was sleeping with little Caixia, who was only 2 months old, without distracting the adults at all.
Suddenly Xu Dazhu's voice came from the shack: "Nai, Chunfeng, get me out!"
Chunfeng thought he had something to do, so she quickly got up and went in. Unexpectedly, Xu Dazhu was also coming to work.
Xu Dazhu said: "You put me on the wooden lift. Although I am slower, I can always help a little!"
"You are so tired, but grandma can still move!" Xiao Mannai felt sorry for her grandson and didn't want him to lie on the ground and work like this.
Xu Dazhu insisted: "Nai, I have strength now. Aunt Jiang said that I need to practice more!"
Jiang Zhi: "...?"
Okay, she thinks this is okay. One more person will shorten the time. Besides, Xu Dazhu will definitely work like this in the future.
With Xu Dazhu's insistence and Aunt Jiang's words, he was carried onto a wooden board, which was the summer bed that Mr. Xiao Man had built for him using two tree trunks.
With the wooden board raised, Xu Dazhu could cut the meat with his hands. Although it was a bit more troublesome, having him join would give him an extra strength.
After Xiao Manye and the other three had tidied up the charcoal kiln, tied wooden sticks into a rack, and prepared the firewood and charcoal, they came over to cut the meat, and the pace suddenly picked up.
Soon hundreds of kilograms of meat were evenly cut into strips two fingers wide and one foot long, and then sent to the charcoal kiln and placed on wooden racks.
The remaining question is how to burn it so that it can maintain a constant temperature inside, not burn out, and dry the meat.
Xu Dazhu said confidently: "Master, Aunt Jiang, leave this matter to me, and I will definitely not let anything happen to the meat."
The temperature inside cannot be controlled by adding charcoal, but by the ventilation of the kiln door, which requires very high technology.
This time, no one objected to Xu Dazhu's request because he was the most skilled among them.
After Xu Dazhu started burning charcoal at the age of sixteen, he made few mistakes and produced a lot of charcoal with good quality.
In Xujia Village, he was second in number and no one dared to say that he was number one.
After Xu Dazhu checked the quantity, dryness and humidity of the charcoal in the kiln, Xiaoman used firewood to light the charcoal pile.
Because he was worried that if he couldn't do it himself, the kiln of meat would be scrapped, Xu Dazhu asked Xiaoman to curl himself up in a basket on his back, and then tie the basket to a wooden stake next to the entrance of the kiln.
In this way, he can observe the situation inside at close range, and can also block the kiln entrance with thin mud to control the temperature of the charcoal fire inside.
It was just that he was too close, and it was inconvenient to move around. The smoke from the kiln entrance blackened his face, making his body squatting in the basket look like a naughty child.
It was extremely satisfying to be entrusted with such an important task. Xu Dazhu's usually indifferent face was relaxed, and he even made faces in black and gray, making Chunfeng and Nini laugh.
Grandma Xiaoman quietly wiped away tears beside her.
At this time, Xu Dazhu seemed to have returned to the old days and returned to the high-spirited young man he was before the injury.
Xiaoman was not tired anymore, and he circled around his elder brother, listening to him teach him how to see fire from the subtle points, and how to sense temperature changes.
This requires practice. Even if someone gives guidance, the inexperienced Xiaoman still can't tell the difference between an extra layer of mud, a missing layer of mud, and charcoal fire inside.
Roasting meat is a long process, and with Xu Dazhu around, the few of them can go back to sleep with peace of mind.
Even Xiao Man next to Xu Dazhu looked distracted and yawned: "Brother, they are all exhausted and need to sleep for a while. I can still hold on. If you need anything, just call me!"
Xu Dazhu didn't look at him: "If you want to sleep, just take a nap, I'm watching!"
"No, no need... Huh! Huh!" Before Xiaoman could finish his words, he was already leaning in the wheat straw beside him and started snoring.
Xu Dazhu smiled and focused on the temperature in the kiln.
