Countryside-Made Smoked Pork: Some Don't Eat It, Others Can't Buy It
In Xiao Wu’s hometown of Xinwan, Hunan, there is a tradition of processing and making smoked cured meat, which happens every year after the winter solstice. They slaughter a pig from their own family to eat during the New Year, leaving enough meat for the New Year’s consumption, and the rest is used to make cured meat.
Because Xinwan is a remote rural area in the mountains, it’s not very convenient to buy things. The market only happens five times a week, so people can go to the market. However, even going to the market takes a whole day round trip, which is very inconvenient.
Therefore, most rural households make a lot of dried vegetables. Even in winter, when there are no fresh vegetables to eat, they can cook dried vegetables, such as dried bean sprouts, dried bitter gourd, dried eggplant, dried chili peppers, etc.
Rural households’ cured meat can be cut and stir-fried for eating in the second year when festivals come or when guests arrive. It’s also very convenient to cut a piece to eat when you want to eat meat, and it’s particularly delicious and fragrant.
Rural households rely on farming to make a living, and planting crops is a major event for rural people. When planting crops, you need cured meat, otherwise it would be very bad. Hiring someone to plant crops is no good without cured meat.
This firewood cured meat is very popular among the people of Xinwan. As the saying goes, ‘One piece of land and water nourishes one piece of local people.’ This Xinwan people’s favorite cured meat is not liked by everyone, such as Xiao Wu’s mother-in-law’s family in Guangxi, who don’t like to eat it, saying it’s stinky. It has a strong smoky smell. However, this firewood cured meat is rarely bought in Xinwan because most people don’t buy it.
Firewood cured meat has a long history and fine craftsmanship in Xinwan rural areas, it's a traditional food with the most local flavor in Xinwan County. When making cured meat, they use high-quality local pork as raw material, add appropriate salt, soy sauce, MSG, spices, and carefully marinate for about 7 days, then hang it up and put it in a room where firewood is burned, burning pine sap, sugar, etc.
The firewood cured meat that is cooked is golden and translucent, with pure fragrance, fatty but not greasy, making people drool, eating a mouthful, you will immediately feel a rich, fragrant, oily and moist deliciousness that lingers in your heart. Pig’s feet, pig’s ears, and pig’s heads can also be marinated and cooked.
Rural people raise their own native pigs, without feeding them feed, and they will not fatten them up or make them grow quickly. They only feed them the taro, corn, sweet potato, pumpkin they grow themselves, as well as leftover food and vegetables, vegetable leaves, taro stems, etc.
Especially for newcomers working outside, when Xinwan people want to eat cured meat, they will ask someone to bring some from home. Now that express delivery is convenient, they can also mail it from home. Ordinary people don’t always know about this delicious firewood cured meat, and they can’t even get it if they want to buy it. City people can only eat it if they have relatives in rural areas.
