How much does authentic cured meat cost per jin? Six common smoking fuel recommendations
Every year around Chinese New Year, most parts of our country start stocking up on New Year goods, especially after slaughtering the New Year pig, when farmers start curing bacon and sausages to preserve the taste of the meat, sohow much does authentic cured meat cost per jin? What fuel is used for smoking it?
Authentic cured meat price:
It depends on what kind you buy. If it is cheap, it costs just over 20 yuan per jin. Around where I live, it costs about 40, and one jin of cured meat here takes more than 10 days to smoke, ending up at only 6 to 7 liang. Then there are the spices, and also many people buy feed-raised pork to cure. Farm households make their own from pigs they raise themselves, without feed and over a longer time, so it tastes better. This is also why pork on the market is not as fragrant as that from the countryside.
I once made cured meat to sell, though it was authentic local pig, and just buying the meat was 13 yuan per jin. I bought hind leg meat because it has more lean meat. Two hind legs came to exactly 50 jin of meat, and after smoking only 31 jin remained, nearly 20 jin short. Even I could not believe it shrank that much. Only after making it myself did I understand - just the cost came to 20 yuan per jin, and the smoked meat loses four liang per jin. First it must be salted for a few days, then sun-dried, then smoked. Market meat at around 20 yuan I would not dare praise, and meat at just over 10 yuan is even harder to vouch for - it is up to you whether you dare eat it.
Introduction to common rural fuels for smoking cured meat
1. Sugarcane peel
A common rural material for smoking cured meat, especially in the Guangxi region, where sugarcane output is high and there are many sugar mills, and many people go to collect it to smoke cured meat. Cured meat smoked with sugarcane peel has a rich aroma and a translucent color, fatty but not greasy, and very delicious.
2. Peanut shells plus orange peel
Many peanuts are grown in the countryside, and smoking cured meat with peanut shells plus orange peel gives a more distinctive flavor. The aromatic molecules of the orange peel rise with the hot air, making it easier for them to attach to the meat and penetrate inside it.
3. Sawdust
Sawdust is also called wood bran, and generally only wood processing plants have it. Because wood bran is fairly fine it burns slowly, produces a lot of smoke that easily attaches, and its heat is not strong so it will not scorch the cured meat. Therefore many places like to use wood bran to smoke cured meat.
4. Grain husks
This kind of grain has no rice inside, just a layer of husk, and using it to smoke cured meat is also commonly seen.
5. Cypress branches
This is a particularly rare and good material. The cured meat smoked with it is golden and fragrant. Few people use it now, as villagers have a sense of protection and no longer break off branches to take home. At the same time, there are also regulations against arbitrary felling, which to a certain extent protects the greenery, and it is very hard to buy even if you want to.
6. Tea seed shells
Ordinary firewood-smoked meat, because the fire is strong, has a temperature that is hard to control, and the resulting cured meat not only has a poor color but also a poor taste. The shells left after pressing oil from camellia seeds burn at a stable temperature and also carry a faint tea fragrance. Using camellia seed shells to smoke cured meat is an innovation suited to local conditions.