Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People, Volume 9

Essential Techniques for the Peasantry: Volume 9

Use the heads and trotters of cattle or deer. Boil them plainly in water. Slice the meat as finely as willow leaves A culinary term for very thin, tapered strips.. Carefully remove the ears, mouth, nose, and tongue, and discard any poor-quality bits. Steam the meat. Separately, take pig trotters, steam them until fully cooked, and dice them into one-inch squares.

Take cooked chicken and duck eggs, ginger, Sichuan pepper, orange peel, and salt. Mix these together with the meat inside the steamer original: 甑 (zeng). Steam the mixture again until it is extremely tender and soft. For every sheng A unit of volume, approximately 200 milliliters. of meat, you may add three duck eggs.

Steam the mixture once more separately until it becomes firm, then wrap it. Use loose cogon grass original: 散茅 (sanmao). A common wild grass used for its strength and flexibility in binding. to create a bundle, ensuring the grass is attached and continuous to wrap it tightly. Large bundles should be the size of a leather pouch original: 韡雍 (weiyong). An archaic term likely referring to a large storage vessel or a swollen shape., while smaller ones should be the size of a person's foot or a "squatting intestine" Referring to the shape and thickness of a large sausage.. The large ones should be two feet The ancient "chi" was roughly 23–25 cm. long, and the small ones a foot and a half. Use large logs to press the bundles so they become flat and even; a heavy weight is best.

In winter, do not let the meat come into contact with water. If making small bundles in summer, do not [let them sit]; instead, use small wooden boards to sandwich the meat. Place two boards on each side so there are four boards in total. Bind the entire assembly tightly with rope. At both ends, drive wedges pronounced xie original: 蘇結反 (su-jie fan). This is an ancient phonetic guide indicating the word is pronounced like "xie." between the pairs of boards. These wedges should be long and thin so that they cross over each other in the middle, similar to the mechanism of a wedge-press cart.