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Chapter 42: Braised Pork

Xie Hushan's words made Ma Laowu speechless. He looked at Accountant Zhao, hoping that Accountant Zhao would help him confront Xie Hushan. However, after listening to him, Accountant Zhao also remained silent. Finally, he nodded, obviously agreeing with what Xie Hushan said last.

Accountant Zhao Shuli went to Yaoshan City a year ago because the Yaoshan area organized a large-scale accounting training for grassroots production teams. He ate in the big cafeteria at the training location. Because it was a training reception, all the accountants from the grassroots rural areas who went to the cafeteria did not need to pay for food coupons to eat in the cafeteria that day, but only had to pay for themselves. As a result, when Accountant Zhao asked the price, he found out that pure meatball dumplings with first-class meat were 1.4 yuan per pound.

He gritted his teeth for a long time and couldn't bear to eat it. He spent thirty cents to order a plate of greasy roasted eggplant, and ate it with the steamed buns he brought with him. After returning, he boasted to Ma Laowu in the team for half a year that he had been to restaurants in the city and was a worldly-wise person.

That's right, the meat is first-rate meat that is hard to buy even with money, but using first-rate meat for a side business is not making money, that is wasting money. If you make dumplings and wontons with it, you sell it for 1.4 yuan per pound. People who go to the market in the countryside have to walk around the stall, for fear that they will be charged just by looking at it.

After seeing the reaction of Accountant Zhao, a social man in the team who had seen the world, Ma Laowu sighed and said, "It's a bit of a waste to make dumplings and wontons. What should we do? Ask the families in the team which families need meat for weddings recently and sell them?"

"It would be best to sell it. Public institutions like the veterinary station use quotas to purchase meat. First-class meat is priced at a little over 80 cents per pound. The price of meat in Zhongping is a little over 2 yuan per pound. Even if I sell it directly, with more than 50 pounds of meat, the sideline group can still earn three times the price." Xie Hushan looked at Ma Laowu.

Accountant Zhao waved his hands quickly and said, "Hu San'er, don't do this. It's no small matter to be accused of speculation!"

"I know that even if it is for the team's speculation, it won't work. No one will care when there is no money. Once the transaction is successful, there will definitely be jealous people in the production team who will report it. So the safest way is to sell the finished product in the name of cooperation with the canteen of the veterinary station." Xie Hushan picked up a piece of pork and thought about it:

"In this way, even if someone gets jealous and reports to the commune, we can shut them up with the word cooperation. The canteen is supplied by the meat processing plant under the food company, but in order to keep the vegetables fresh, we purchase them locally from our production team three. The cooks in the canteen are members of the team three. This is cooperation. Since the canteen purchases veterinary drugs from the veterinary station, it is short of cash. After negotiation, we use part of the meat to pay for the vegetables and the cooks' wages. As for how much money is owed for the vegetables and the wages, it will be adjusted flexibly according to how much money our sideline group gets for the meat in the end."

In Xie Hushan's opinion, these words were just a very simple trick of making profits, but they had already left Ma Laowu and Accountant Zhao dumbfounded. The best advantage they dared to think of was that if Aunt Wu could help cook for the veterinary station canteen for free, they could talk to the veterinary station and take the leftover scraps back to the sideline group to make stuffing and get some meat-stuffed wontons to sell.

All we can say is that at that time, most farmers in Bingyang County were still very simple and honest, and never thought that they could do this.

"The veterinary station doesn't have a canteen yet. Since more than 50 kilograms of meat have been delivered to the team headquarters, that means we should give it to the sideline group first. When the canteen opens, we can use the money to buy vegetables and labor." Xie Hushan said to the two, "It's a pity to give this meat to the sideline group."

Upon hearing that more than 50 kilograms of meat would be at Xie Hushan's disposal, Ma Laowu, who was still worried about Xie Hushan, immediately cleared his throat and said something:
"More than 50 kilograms is not a small amount. Besides, it would be a pity to use it in the sideline group. I think the team should make the decision and keep it for you..."

Ma Laowu didn't have any selfish motives. He just thought that since Xie Hushan said it was a pity to use the meat as a side job, he might as well leave a few pounds for Xie Hushan to use as stuffing, and he would find a way to sell the rest of the meat in the name of the team. After all, it was hot now, and if the meat was not pickled, it would not be able to be kept for a few days.

When Xie Hushan saw Ma Laowu's reaction, he immediately interrupted him:
"You want the team to make the decision? Fine. I'll just say one thing: three yuan per pound. The team will transfer the money to my group's account, and you can take all the meat!"

"No, they are all yours. You took my kindness for granted! Three yuan a pound, you son of a bitch, are you trying to beat the local tyrants?" Ma Laowu cursed when he heard Xie Hushan asking him for money:
"The team doesn't want your meat, so don't expect the team to pay the veterinary station! Do you think I want to care about you? I'm just afraid that the meat will go bad in the hot weather and waste such a precious thing!"

"The sideline group doesn't deserve such good meat, but it can't be wasted. I've thought about it. I'll save a few pounds of meat for Aunt Wu to stew to improve the food for the people at the veterinary station. The rest will be sent to the glass factory. The canteen at the glass factory has frozen containers that can store it..."

"What are you thinking? You stored the meat in the glass factory. Ma Da Nao is so stingy that he wants to count the paper money for his mother's grave three times before burning it. You still expect to get it back? He is my relative, and I don't know him? No way!" Ma Laowu quickly refused when he heard that Xie Hushan wanted to send the meat to the glass factory to freeze it.

"I'm not saving it, I'm exchanging it for some meat. My aunt said that the glass factory is not doing well, and the food in the canteen is a lot worse. Because Ma Da's head is always fighting, the meat processing factory doesn't give much third-grade meat, and always uses bones, offal, pig blood and the like as a perfunctory measure. I'm going to use first-grade meat to exchange the worthless offal and bones in the glass factory. Those things are worthless, and the sideline group can sell them at a lower price, so everyone is willing to buy them. Besides, my aunt works in the glass factory canteen. If she steals my meat, she'll have to empty the canteen!"

"Wontons stuffed with pork offal...why don't you learn how to cook first, Hu Saner." Accountant Zhao twitched his face a few times. Thinking about the scene, he felt that it would be better to eat wontons with vegetarian fillings.

Xie Hushan said to the two of them:

"There's a snack in Yanjing called braised pork with fire. It's made by mixing a pot of thick stew with cheap pig offal and steamed pork with unsalted dough. Cut a steamed pork with a few pieces of offal into pieces and put them in a bowl, then pour a spoonful of soup on it. It's both filling and satisfying. If it's not enough, you can use the soup to soak the cakes or dry food you brought with you." "I haven't eaten it either. I heard a driver who traveled a long way tell me about it when I went to the county to collect manure. I got greedy when I heard him say that. I'll ask Aunt Wu later who stews the best meat in our team. Let's try making some first. If it's suitable, we'll stop selling wontons and sell this stuff instead."

He thought about this when he was wandering around the market. Everyone likes to eat greasy and meaty food, just like the steamed bun stall, the steamed buns are always sold out first and the meatball soup is sold out later, because there is more meat in the steamed buns, and although the meatballs are also made of meat, they are mixed with a lot of flour.

Even if the wonton stall has meat-filled wontons, it can never be more successful than the steamed bun stall. He has to come up with a food that can satisfy the farmers who are tired of poverty and used to living a frugal life and that is more affordable than meat buns.

He was from the south in his previous life and had eaten a lot of snacks, but many of them were light and not suitable for the rural areas of Yaoshan today. People here like to eat oily and salty food, and it would be best if they can finish a steamed bun with three bites of vegetables.

Xie Hushan finally thought about it and expanded his ideas from the braised beef offal sold on the streets of Hong Kong Island to the braised steamed buns that he was taken to taste by a local friend when he was traveling in Yanjing.

These two kinds of food are actually similar, both of which are boiled offal at roadside stalls, but the braised beef offal is beef offal with radish, while the braised pork is pork offal with steamed bread. All in all, Yanjing's braised pork and steamed bread are more affordable.

From the perspective of visual effect in attracting business, braised pork and steamed buns are more impactful than steamed buns. Steamed buns are steamed in a steamer and cannot be seen by customers, while braised pork and steamed buns are cooked in a pot that is open all the time, allowing passers-by to clearly see the bright red and fragrant pig offal in the pot, making the food visually tempting to customers who are craving meat.

The most important point is that if you are still not full after eating offal and steamed buns, you can use the remaining soup in the bowl to soak the dry food you brought with you.

As for the so-called authentic details of Yanjing braised pork and steamed buns, such as the requirement to select a certain part of the intestines and the ratio of three pieces of lung to one piece of intestines in a bowl of braised pork, Xie Hushan thinks that the same principle applies: flexibility in adjustment.

The product is mainly aimed at the broad masses of farmers. No matter how cheap pig lungs are, they are still meat. According to everyone's current desire for meat and low prices, they may not be unable to accept the combination of six pieces of lungs with one piece of intestines. The cheaper the better.

"Fourth girl! Fourth girl! Come in and get some meat from Aunt Wu!" Xie Hushan shouted outside the door. Han Hongzhen had not entered the house just now. She had been talking to Daxiu who had come from home specially after hearing the news.

After shouting, Xie Hushan looked at Ma Laowu and Accountant Zhao again:

"Then we can give it a name that can serve as a trademark, such as Team Three's Ma Laowu's Braised Pork, Team Five's Big Head's Braised Pork, and so on. Let the driver help to spread the word. In the future, even if other teams start this business, everyone will know that Team Three's is the authentic one."

"Just like the tofu made by Wang Quezi in our team, stewed by Hu Saner. How great! I can tell it's you who made it." Accountant Zhao said.

Outside the door, Han Hongzhen's voice rang out. It was obvious that she had been holding back her laughter for a long time and was about to burst out laughing:

"Xie Damen'er, who are you disrespecting? What are you calling me? Say it again!"

After Han Hongzhen finished shouting, the sneering laughter of Daxiu and Xiao Laodao suddenly rang out outside. No need to ask, it must be her sister Daxiu who told the young widow Xie Hushan's nickname.

When Xie Hushan heard Han Hongzhen calling out his nickname, which had not appeared in many years, his face changed and he looked a little embarrassed.

Ma Laowu, who was thinking about Xie Hushan's words, was amused:
"This is a good name, Da Men'er Braised Pork. Let's not talk about whether people are hungry when they go to the market. After hearing this name, just to see how old you are, I have to try the braised pork."

(End of this chapter)