Chapter 53.4

Translated by Aviana

Thank You Skuku, Evala, and IwonnaHH for your support!! Bonus Chapter (2/4)

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Lin Qingwan swiveled around, trudged back into the room, and asked Yang Tiezhu and Yao-shi. But unexpectedly, both of them had no clue what La cheong was. She tried to describe its appearance with gestures for half a day, but both had no inkling of what she was talking about.

However, Lin Qingwan was craving for it to death.

Yao-shi chuckled at her expression, saying that it is natural for pregnant women to be inexplicably gluttonous. She was also the same when she was pregnant with Sanniu and wished to eat peanuts. But mother-in-law was strict regarding food and firmly denied her request as peanuts cost a lot. Thus, she couldn’t eat them. Later, her husband felt distressed for her and went out to work as labor to carry heavy things for a day in exchange for silver and bought her a few to satisfy her cravings.

Lin Qingwan wasn’t sure if this sort of gluttony was truly because of pregnancy. She just wished to have it by all means.

Impelled by such thoughts, Lin Qingwan, unable to sit still, and spoke with Yao-shi about her thoughts of going to the town.

Yao-shi adamantly refused her, saying that utmost need to be taken during the first three months. Coincidentally, Yang-shi just happened to come to give them food at that time and said she too had to go the town. Thus, Yang-shi and Yao-shi decided to go together and asked Lin Qingwan what she wanted to buy.

Lin Qingwan listed out a series of ingredients she wanted to buy and gave Yao-shi a few taels of silver. She also particularly emphasized repeatedly that the entire length of the pig’s small intestine should be purchased. The more intact it is, the better it would be.

Few people eat pig’s large intestines, but the small intestine is often discarded and fed to cats and dogs. Yao-shi was puzzled why Lin Qingwan would want such a thing, but seeing her firm attitude, she remained silent.

When Yao-shi returned, Yang Tiegen also returned home along with her. Upon asking, Lin Qingwan came to know that Yang Tiegen had returned back to take his clothes and had to return to the town again.

Yang Tiegen had taken up a temporary job outside the other day. It also included accommodation; thus, he didn’t have to return home every night. Initially, he hadn’t taken cotton-padded clothes along with him when going to town. Due to the significant dropping of temperature day after day, he returned to take winter garments.

Yao-shi sent Yang Tiegen with tear-filled eyes. Seeing this, Lin Qingwan was perplexed by Yao-shi’s actions, unable to understand the reason for Yao-shi’s emotional reaction, as it wasn’t a parting of life and death.

But after listening to Yao-shi’s woes, she realized Yao-shi was feeling distressed for her husband. And that so-called temporary job was full of hardships.

Villagers usually work in the fields; thus, they could only find labor jobs when they go out. However, finding such jobs isn’t easy either. The majority of the labor work comprises carrying or transporting heavy objects from one place to another. And their wages depend upon how many numbers of goods are carried over. Sometimes you might find such works, sometimes there is no work. And many times, you have to wait for such work to come.

Rural folk men usually try to save silver as much as possible when they go out and tend to be highly reluctant to eat or drink. When they are waiting, they simply squat in a corner and make do with a smile mantou for their meals.

馒头 (Mántóu): Chinese steamed buns

No wonder Lin Qingwan found Yang Tiegen thin this time around. She went to Yang Tiezhu and asked if he had done jobs similar to this.

Yang Tiezhu honestly replied that the work was indeed laborious and taxing. However, he used to prefer going out to do temporary jobs rather than being pressured by He-shi to go into the mountains. Lin Qingwan asked why, but Yang Tiezhu couldn’t come with a concrete reply. Perhaps it was his way of expressing his rebelliousness…..

Lin Qingwan was silent after listening as she caressed his head, feeling distressed for him.

In an instant, Yang Tiezhu was revitalized and became jubilant, only lacking a sticking out tongue and a wagging tail.

After placating Yang Tiezhu, Lin Qingwan went to wash the small intestines. In her previous life, traditional food markets used to sell sausage casings. But that wasn’t the case here, so she had to make it by herself.

Yao-shi had no clue what Lin Qingwan was doing, but when she saw her washing pig’s small intestines, she wanted to lend her a hand. But Lin Qingwan declined. She was washing small intestines to not make food of it but rather to make a sausage casing of it. Yao-shi had no idea what sausage casing was, so she preferred doing it herself.

Lin Qingwan asked Yao-shi to find a chopstick to flip the small intestines inside out. Here there wasn’t any faucet to facilitate easy washing of the intestines. Thus, she could only wash the outside part clean before flipping it and washing it.

Lin Qingwan carefully flipped it over, fearing that she might accidentally rupture the small intestine.

After flipping it over, she thoroughly scrubbed it with a mixture of salt and a blend of various flours. After carefully scrubbing it for half a day, she took it to the well to wash it clean.

Once she was done washing, she returned to the room and scrapped the mucous membrane and fat layer on it neatly using bamboo chips. She performed this step quite slowly and carefully, lest she damaged the sausage casing accidentally.

When Lin Qingwan prepared homemade sausages, she used to buy the processed sausage casings from food markets in her previous life. Nevertheless, while reviewing how to make sausages at home, she also read many articles about making sausage casings. It’s just that many things aren’t available here in this era; she could only simplify each step accordingly and do it slowly.

Along with the pig’s small intestines, Lin Qingwan had also asked Yao-shi to get lots of pork meat and other condiments. In the meantime, Yao-shi had already washed the pork meat clean. Once Lin Qingwan was done with processing the small intestines, she went to see the pork Yao-shi had washed.

To make Lap cheong, it is best for the pork meat to have the perfect balance of the lean meat and fat, with the best ratio being 7 portions of lean meat and 3 portions of fat. This would regulate the texture of sausage and prevent it from becoming too hard due to excess lean meat. In her previous life, Lin Qingwan’s favorite food was Lap Cheong.

Lin Qingwan then guided Yao-shi to help her chop the port meat into small pieces. Thereafter, she whizzed to the outlying room to take out a few of the medicinal ingredients she had bought at the drug store while purchasing Yang Tiezhu’s medication.

Thirteen spices – a widely used seasoning by the people of her ear in the previous life. In her previous life, Lin Qingwan often used this seasoning for stewing or curing meat, and while doing so, she had also checked explicitly for its recipe online.

On the internet, one could find a plethora of recipes for Thirteen spices. Though the ingredients used are mostly similar, the blending formula is unique to every recipe.

This Thirteen-spice is made from thirteen different kinds of medicinal herbs and spices. It comprises the blend of Nutmeg, Fructus amomi, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Cloves, Sichuan pepper, Star anise, Fennel seed, Saussurea costus, Angelica dahurica, Sand ginger, Lesser galangal, Dried ginger , and a few other seasonings. The recipe is also relatively simple: 5 parts of each Sichuan pepper and star anise were blended with the two parts of Cinnamon, sand ginger, aged tangerine peel, lesser galangal, and Angelica dahurica and ground into fine powder.

In the Daxi dynasty, these medicinal herbs and spices are usually sold in every herbal medicine store. All of these herbs are typically sun-dried before dispensing them into drugs, except for Sichuan peppers. But Lin Qingwan nevertheless sun-dried it by herself after buying the herb at the store. Even when others saw her doing so, they merely assumed that she was sun-drying some herbal medicine; as such, no one bothered to ask why she was doing so.

While Yang Tiezhu was in the medical center, when Lin Qingwan had nothing to do, she would go to the assistant to ask about the medicinal herbs. Then she found that a few herbs’ names differed from what she had known. She took note of all the names and bought a few at the medicine store while on her way back.

Along with the pork and other condiments, Lin Qingwan also had Yao-shi buy a herb grinder. Now that she had all the raw materials, she was ready to give it a try.

Lin Qingwan divided the herbs and spices into required quantities and ground them into powder with the aid of an herb grinder. She tried to grind the medicinal materials into fine powder as much as possible, hoping that it wouldn’t be too different from her previous life.

Watching his wife sit on a small stool and grind the medicinal herbs with a medicine grinder, Yang Tiezhu asked what she was doing.

Lin Qingwan replied ambiguously that she was making something good with a smile.

She was indeed making something good. Lin Qingwan hadn’t still thought far of how to make use of this. The only thought running in her mind was that she could make delicious things and eat in the future. Besides, preparing Lap cheong requires thirteen-spice seasoning. Anyways, she had too much time for her leisure and was bored to death.

She hoped that the recipe she saw online was genuine and replicable.

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