Local Specialty Sausage

Local Specialty Sausage

　　Local Specialty Sausage

　　Just like dumplings in the north, in my hometown of Huaning, the most festive and traditional foods are sausages and cured meats. Don’t believe me? Just take a look—once the lunar December arrives, topics among folks at street corners and in alleyways always include things like, “How much cured meat have we pickled?” or “How many links of sausage have we stuffed!” These conversations, nearly unanimous and spoken so casually, highlight both the busyness of preparing for the New Year and the prominent place sausages hold among New Year foods.

　　The very word “stuff” alone saves so much of the tedious work involved in making sausages. First, you have to go to the market to buy—or ask someone to get you—a length of small intestine from a household that has just butchered a pig for the New Year (it seems to cost just a few yuan per length). Then you bring it home and rinse it repeatedly, using flour, scallion whites, edible alkali, vinegar, and other ingredients to remove the odors. Next, you use a ribbed bamboo chopstick to repeatedly scrape and squeeze the inner and outer mucous membranes of the intestine until the once dull-looking thing you brought in becomes clean and bright white. And don’t forget, this all happens during the freezing cold days of winter, when the north wind howls and dripping water turns to ice. By the time the intestines are cleaned, your hands are already red and numb from the cold. But can such hardship and pain deter our folks back home, who are accustomed to doing everything with precision and care? Not likely. Is it any wonder, then, that this tradition of making sausages has endured through the rapid changes of time?

　　Cleaning the pig’s small intestine is only a small part of the sausage-making process. The next step is to select the right meat and seasonings, chop them up, and stuff them into the finger-thick intestines.

　　Using the original flavors to enhance the food, most families choose lean pork (though some opt for beef), cut into inch-sized cubes. Depending on personal preference, different seasonings are added. Some mix in five-spice powder, star anise, or ginger powder for flavor, others add pork belly or glutinous rice to increase stickiness for easier slicing, some drip in cooking wine for aroma, and others simply add sugar and salt for preservation. In short, the wide variety of ingredient choices has greatly enriched the types of sausages available. During the Spring Festival, if you drop by any home, you’re likely to taste sausages with different flavors. As you savor them, you can’t help but marvel: no modern assembly line could ever match such diverse and unique flavors. In fact, modernization has already brought countless delicious dishes to our tables—we can enjoy the conveniences of modern life without leaving home. For example, sausages can be bought at supermarkets, featuring varieties from Guangdong, Sichuan, even with Russian flair. But in the end, the traditional sausages from our hometown have held their ground in the battle between modernity and tradition.

　　Once the sausages are stuffed, they are tied into short sections about the length of chopsticks with thin string, then hung under the eaves of houses to dry. This becomes another iconic sight of the Huaning winter. Neighbors stand under the sunlit eaves, commenting on the quantity and quality of the sausages, their laughter drifting through the wind...

　　As time goes by, one lunar December after another comes and goes, leaving behind countless anecdotes about sausages.

　　With the economic development of Huaning, the local sausages have seen large-scale growth. There are now large-scale handicraft workshops, as well as well-known brands like Ningzhou Xiang, Xiangchuan, and Xianglili. The production techniques have become more advanced and meticulous, resulting in bright colors, delicious flavors, and no artificial colors or additives. What used to be a rare treat only available during the New Year can now be bought anytime.

　　When you come to Huaning, tasting authentic local cured sausages is a must. Boil them, slice them thin, gather a group of friends, open a bottle of fine wine, raise your glass under the moonlight, and say, “Come, try some of Huaning’s local specialty sausages!” At a moment like this, can you really say those thin slices of sausage aren’t steeped in deep homesickness?