It can be said that pickled bacon, sausages, cured fish and chicken, duck and goose are the patent of Nanjing people!
Since the 1960s and 1970s when life was poor, under the planned economic system, farmers have been able to eat a rich and delicious meal of meat only a few times a year! In addition to celebrating the festival, you have to wait until the New Year pig is killed before the Chinese New Year before you can have a delicious meal of roasted pork with pickled vegetables. It is said that the New Year pig is killed, but in fact 80 to 90% of the fresh meat will be sold. I just left a little meat and pig heads, pig feet, and pig water. I marinated the meat and pig heads with salt to make bacon, dried it in the sun, and kept it for later consumption.
In the rural areas of Nanjing, old farmers have been following the ancient sayings passed down by their ancestors: pickling vegetables in light snow and pickling meat in heavy snow. So why do pickled salty products need to be divided into seasons?
This is the precious wealth accumulated by our ancestors after years of personal experience! Take Xiaoxue solar term pickles as an example! Before the Xiaoxue solar term, the temperature may be high or low. If you pickle vegetables at this time, the pickled vegetables will rot in the high temperature environment, and they will be particularly sour, without any delicious, crisp and tender taste! After the Xiaoxue solar term, the temperature has dropped to close to freezing point, and the temperature will no longer fluctuate. The pickled vegetables at this time are delicious, crispy, tender and have an excellent taste. Therefore, old farmers must wait until the Xiaoxue solar term to pickle vegetables. back! In previous years, this time was the perfect time for pickles. But this year, due to the continuous rain in Nanjing, it is impossible to cool down the main dishes, so we can only move forward!
Why do we have to wait until the heavy snowfall to pickle bacon?
Everyone who likes cured bacon knows that no matter how dry the cured bacon is, the fat will turn bad and yellow in a short time! It tastes like an indescribable flavor! Nanjing people call it "Ha", but in fact it has gone bad, and the nutrients have also deteriorated with the loss! This is what has caused the global warming and air humidity in recent years!
However, as long as you wait until after the heavy snowfall to marinate the bacon and sausage, you can effectively avoid the occurrence of deterioration and yellowing. This is why you have to wait until after the heavy snowfall before you can marinate the bacon!
As for the question asked by the questioner, when curing bacon, how much salt is needed for one pound of fresh meat?
According to an old farmer who was born in the 1960s and has many years of experience in curing bacon, he came to the conclusion that for every ten kilograms of fresh meat, four taels of salt are needed! That is 200 grams, and one pound of meat requires 20 grams of salt. It tastes neither salty nor bland, just right!
During the marinating process, rub all the fresh meat with salt and press it tightly. After one week, turn the meat over and marinate for another week! Note: When you turn over and find a bright red area that has not been rubbed with salt, quickly rub salt on the bright red area again! This way the marinated meat will be more fragrant and delicious! Finally, as an old Nanjing native with many years of experience in curing bacon, I would like to advise everyone that cured meat is different from cured fish! Some netizens say that marinated meat can turn over in three days! This is misleading readers. The meat has definitely not been marinated for three days! Therefore, you must not turn over in three days. You must wait until one week before turning over! It is pickled fish that is turned over after three days. Because if the fish is marinated for a long time, the fish meat will turn into water, so the pickled fish must be turned over after three days, and then marinated for another three days!
Remember the advice of an old Nanjing man: marinate meat for half a month. Just pickle the fish for five or six days! Remember, in order to ensure the original flavor of the pork, never wash it with water when marinating!!!