A Bowl of Jjajang, The Son-in-Law of Jegalse - Chapter 560



Only Noblemtl

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Episode 560: Six Combinations of Pig Head Meat

Even though I was a little late, when I went down to the first floor, my wives were waiting for me as usual.

Among the wives sitting in front of the guests eating breakfast, Young-young and Cheong-i tilted their heads and asked.

Perhaps he was curious because he couldn’t see the pitiful girl who was supposed to appear together.

“What about Garyeon?”

“Old man, is Garyeon okay? Has she not woken up yet?”

“No, I woke up last night. I think it would be better to let you sleep a little longer. You must have fallen asleep again because you were tired.”

“Are you tired?”

Yeong-yeong sneakily approached me and linked arms while smiling bashfully at my answer.

“Huh. I heard that Garyeon couldn’t use her internal energy for a few days. Should I also try to use acupuncture to prevent her from using her internal energy next time?”

How is it that he’s so slow-witted in normal times, but so perceptive at times like this?

The eyes of the other wives sparkled at Young-young’s words.

Perhaps everyone felt like they had figured out why Garyeoni didn’t appear and the reason for it.

“It’s a blood clot···.”

“It was definitely fun when Unrang gave me a hard time last time.”

“Huh···.”

From the look in their eyes and the way they spoke, it seemed like they all wanted to act like weak women. If they wanted to act like that, wouldn’t it be great if they pretended to be weak in everyday life?

He quickly straightened his face and spoke to Yeong-yeong.

“Wow, when you’re sick, it takes a lot of energy to recover, so you’re tired. Stop talking nonsense and go fight in the field.”

“On land? Why on land?”

“The artisans said that since all six families are gathered together, they wanted us to make a dish to commemorate the occasion. To make it, go to Yukjeon and buy some pig heads.”

“Pig’s head?”

“Okay, buy it as a smiling one.”

“Smiling?”

Young-young, who is not going to hold an exam, but is smiling, blinks his eyes when I tell him to buy it.

He nodded his head at Young-Young’s question and asked his wives.

“I think I’ll have to cook a bit today at the request of the craftsmen. Is that okay?”

Then the wives looked at each other and nodded.

I can’t refuse because it’s a request from the craftsman.

“Okay, Unrang.”

“Okay, old man.”

“Oh, and Soso, please help me out.”

“Okay, Eun-gong.”

I went into the kitchen, greeted the kitchen staff, and decided to start preparing the ingredients right away.

The ingredients needed for today’s recipe are star anise, cinnamon, fragrant leaf, fennel, white radish, citronella vulgaris, turmeric, cinnamon, pepper, and ginger.

There are more spices than you might think. Since we will be cooking pork head, many spices are used to remove any unpleasant odor.

I asked Soso, who followed me in.

“Please bring me some soso, star anise, cinnamon, incense, fennel, white paper, excess, durum wheat, yam, cinnamon, and ginger. Also, bring me some rice vinegar.”

“I see, Eun-gong. I thought you were looking for me with a sword, but it wasn’t you?”

“No. It’s right to use a knife, Soso. We’ll have to use the knife when Young-young buys the pig’s head, so let’s prepare the ingredients together before then.”

“Oh, I see. Okay, I understand. Eun-gong.”

As Soso thought, the reason I came to Soso was because I needed to prepare the pig’s head that Yeongyeong was going to buy.

This was because the pig’s head had to be cut in half to take out the brain.

The dish we’re making today is made using a pig’s head. Instead of using the whole pig’s head, we cut it in half.

“Here are star anise, cinnamon, incense, fennel, white paper, and cloves.”

“Thank you. Oh, I found the flowers and ginger.”

It was while I was preparing the ingredients and supplies like that.

Yeong-yeong entered the kitchen holding a pig’s head.

I didn’t even ask him how many to buy, but our Young-young had big hands and was holding five pig heads.

“Gaga, here it is. Pig’s head. I bought it for the smiling one.”

“Hehe, you bought a lot?”

“Because there are a lot of people. Shouldn’t I buy at least this much so I can taste it too?”

“Okay, I understand. I’ll make it and give it to you too.”

“lol.”

As expected, Yeong-yeong had an ulterior motive.

I placed the pig’s head that I had received from Yeong-yeong on the chopping board and removed the pot from the burner.

-Whoosh.

Flames shoot up as the pot is cleared.

After stirring the firewood with a kindling stick to control the flames, he held the pig’s head in his hand and held it toward the rising flames.

This is all to burn the pig’s hair and make it fly away.

-Chi-jik ta-da-dak.

As soon as you turn a pig’s head over a flame and burn the hair, a pungent smell hits your nose.

He slowly turned the pig’s head over the fire and burned off all the hair.

“Would you like me to remove the last of the hair by shaving it with a small knife?”

“Okay, then I’m the best.”

-Sigh.

It was clearly a matter of saturation and sweeping, but with each passing touch of Soso’s hand, the pig’s skin turned white, as if it had been peeled off.

Pigs that have been shaved cleanly by first removing the hair by burning and then secondarily removing it by hand.

After he had cleaned all five pigs’ heads, he asked Soso to cut them in half.

“Soso, can you split my head in half?”

“Horizontally or vertically?”

“By bell.”

“Okay. Line them up over here and I’ll cut them in half.”

At Soso’s request, he lined up the pig’s head on a chopping board and asked Soso.

“Can I set it up like this?”

Then Soso shook her head.

“No. Just line up the silver spoons in a row.”

I thought I could cut them one by one if I stood them up horizontally, but they asked me to stand them up vertically on the cooking table in the kitchen.

As Soso requested, we lined up the heads again. Soso stood in front of the table with the pig, wearing the sashimi I had bought her last time on both her waists.

Something feels quite solemn.

‘What, what is it?’

As I blinked my eyes in a solemn feeling, I heard my brother’s voice from behind me.

“Oh, it looks like Soso is going to cut off all five pigs’ heads with one stroke.”

“Is it just one stroke?”

Before I could even finish asking my question, Soso, who had been lightly hugging the pig, quickly put her hand on her waist and then removed it.

-Crunch!

The eerie sound ends and Soso knocks the saturation onto the floor.

When Soso wiped the saturation with the cloth she had prepared in advance and put it back on her waist, only then did the five pig heads split in half.

At that sight, I could hear my brother’s voice of admiration from next to me.

“Oh! Sosoya, your sword has grown even further? Congratulations. It’s so clean.”

“Thank you, Brother. I guess it’s because I practiced diligently every day.”

Then, Hyungnim and Soso look at me.

Perhaps he was looking at me with a look that said, “Why don’t you praise me when you’ve seen something so great?” So I quickly clapped my hands and said.

After all, people are perceptive.

And I have a keen eye for change.

‘No, do you really have to cut the pig’s head like this?’

“Wow! Cutting off five heads with just one sword! Shit, you’ll be this good at cutting them in real combat, right?”

Hyungnim and Soso looked pleased when I praised them and smiled awkwardly while thinking of something else in their heads.

If I had cut it with an axe, the cut surface would not have been clean, but since Soso cut it, the cut surface was very clean, as if it had been cut by a machine.

It was a bit excessive, though.

“Sosoya, the tip of the sword is alive. Seeing the cut surface so clean, I am worried······.”

“You felt it too, Brother? My mind is at peace and I am filled with joy these days, so it seems that it is rubbing off on the sword. I think I will try using it this way next time······.”

“Oh, that sounds good too.”

While my brother and I started having some otaku-like conversations about swords and sorcery, I decided to start slaughtering the pig.

The act of gouging out the eyeballs, taking out the brain, and soaking it in water to drain the blood.

There are also dishes made with pig brains in China, but since we are not making a brain dish today, we discarded all the brains.

Then he gouged out the eyeballs, cleaned them, and put the halved pig’s head in cold water.

Water that turns red as soon as you put it in.

After a while of slaughtering the pig, Soso came to her senses and came over with an apologetic expression and said.

“I’m sorry, Eun-gong. I’m sorry, the sword story came up…”

“It’s okay. Soso, you’ve cut off the pig’s head, so you can go out and rest.”

“Oh, no. Today, I want to focus entirely on helping Eun-gong.”

I guess he feels a little bad about making me do the work alone.

That would be the case, since half an hour had already passed since I had talked to my brother about the sword, an hour had already passed.

“Okay, now that all the blood has been drained, let’s rinse it with cold water and rub it with salt and vinegar.”

“all right.”

He took out the pig’s head, drained the blood, removed the moisture, mixed salt with vinegar that stung the tip of his nose, and rubbed the pig’s skin with it.

-Clang clang.

All to remove the unpleasant odor from the pork skin.

So diligently he cut the pig into ten pieces, rubbed them with salt mixed with vinegar, rinsed them in cold water and took them out.

Now that the secondary task is done, it’s time for the tertiary task.

It needs to be blanched to remove any fishy smell.

First, I placed two large pots of the same size on the burner.

And on one side, add water, fragrant green onions, ginger, and trimmed pork, and lastly, add Shaoxing wine, which is a must in Central Plains cuisine.

-Crunch.

Now all that is needed is ten minutes for the water to boil.

After waiting a bit and stepping on the handle a few times, flames shot up between the pot and the burner and then died down.

At the same time, the work to be done is to put the wok on and stir-fry the spices in the wok.

“Soso, can you give me the spices I prepared earlier? Just put them into the wok here, a handful at a time.”

“Yes, Eun-gong.”

-Ting. Ting ting.

Star anise, cinnamon, cloves, fennel, white pepper, sesame seeds, turmeric, cinnamon, cinnamon sticks, dried ginger, and other spices sprinkled from Soso’s fingertips in a wok with rising heat.

Let’s stir-fry them gently, the characteristic aroma of Central Plains cuisine spreading along with the hazy smoke rising from the wok.

The reason for roasting the spices like this is to explode the fragrance of the spices, which are mostly composed of essential oils.

I quickly rotated the ingredients so they wouldn’t burn in the hot fire, fried the spices, and put them in a separate pot without the meat.

And wait a moment, two boiling pots.

In one pot, the scent of pork mixed with gamey odor.

On the other side, the scent of a mixture of roasted spices began to emanate faintly.

When you need to move your hands a little faster.

“Soso, could you take the meat out and rinse it?”

“Okay, Eun-gong.”

While Soso took the meat out and rinsed it to remove any unpleasant odor, I immediately turned down the heat on the stove where the wok was and added sugar.

Then, a rising scent of sweetness.

Soso, who usually doesn’t show it, also had a happy expression on her face, as if she liked sweets.

“It smells sweet. Eun-gong.”

“The temple is melting a little.”

“I guess you’re going into cooking?”

“exactly.”

The reason we put sugar in the slow fire is to make caramel.

Because to make the pork look brown and delicious, soy sauce and caramel were essential.

So I made the caramel and put it in the pot where the spices were boiling, then I added soy sauce, soy milk, sweet potato, and finally Shaoxing wine to adjust the color of the boiling water.

“I’ve already rinsed the meat, what should I do?”

“Now, just put it here.”

When you put a pig’s head into the boiling black water, the pig’s head completely submerges and turns brown.

A familiar scent rose from the pot.

That’s the scent of pig’s feet.

Because the ingredients for this dish are almost similar.

“It’s all done. Now just boil it gently for half an hour.”

“It smells delicious, Eun-gong. But is this dish the one that represents the number six?”

“Yes. The name of this dish is ‘Six-Combined Pig Head Meat’, which means ‘Six families unite to become the head of the Central Plains.’”

Six-combined pig’s head meat.

It is a dish that is almost the same as Korean pig’s feet, but the difference is that Korean pig’s feet are made with pig’s feet, while Yukhapjeodooyuk of Jungwon is made with pig’s head.

The origin of the name is that in Taoism, the six harmony elements originally meant the heaven and earth, front, back, left, right, up, and down, but this dish was made in a region called Liuhe (Liuhe) in Nanjing, and the name was simply added.

But Soso looked amazed at my explanation.

Well, the interpretation of a dream is more important than the original dream.

“That’s cool, Eun-gong.”