Chapter 216 (continued)

Yan Kexing smiled and said, "This is the best time to sleep."

Shi Wen, "Actually, there's never a bad time to sleep throughout the year. Spring brings drowsiness, autumn brings fatigue, summer brings naps, and winter is the best time to sleep. Hmm, is there something else in the hazelnut jam?"

Yan Kexing: "I added a little lemon peel to enhance the aroma and cut through the richness."

Yan Kexing the hazelnut spread, then picked up a tray from the side. "This is the leftover cake base, would you like to try some?"

Shi Wen without hesitation, "Yes!"

Yan Kexing then took a fork from the dishwasher and let him eat the cake scraps while he went out to whip the cream.

The cream is from their own ranch; after whipping, it's exceptionally sweet and rich, melting in your mouth.

Shi Wen watched the whipped cream rise and fall, his mouth watering. He first gave Yan Kexing a piece of cake scrap, and then eagerly stuffed a piece into his own mouth.

The cake is sweet and moist, and you can taste the flavor of eggs inside.

Shi Wen tell from the smell and taste that these are eggs from their ranch. I have to say, the quality of their eggs is really high, and the cakes made from them have a richer flavor and even look much better than ordinary cakes.

On this gloomy, snowy day, Shi Wen ate cake scraps, my lips stained with crumbs, and felt incredibly satisfied.

After taking a few bites and satisfying his craving, Shi Wen said, "The temperature should stabilize after this snowfall."

Yan Kexing: "More or less."

Shi Wen, "Then let's slaughter some livestock. Brother Fu's family has almost finished eating their beef, so it's time to replenish our meat supply."

Yan Kexing: "Okay, contact someone after the snow stops."

After Shi Wen it with Yan Kexing, Shi Wen decided to slaughter three sheep and pigs, five fat-tailed sheep, and several geese, pigeons, and Bresse chickens.

Sheep and pigs are mainly used to make ham, sausages, bacon, etc., and the remaining meat is their monthly food supply.

The ranch has ten dogs, a little fox, White Tiger, Cong Zai, and a prairie eagle named Chasing Clouds. They actually eat quite a lot; if they weren't controlled, all that meat wouldn't be enough for a month's consumption.

It's cold outside, Shi Wen don't want to have to prepare meat every few days, so I'll just do it all at once.

Let's prepare the meat for this month first; we can prepare it for next month later.

For convenience, they sent all the livestock to the slaughterhouse this time.

After the meat is brought back, someone will be called over to handle the internal organs.

These offal items are also delicious; after careful cleaning, they taste just as good as meat.

Shi Wen called out to people in the group chat, Fu Meng and the others were free and lived nearby, so they came over.

Seeing so much meat, Fu Meng asked in surprise, "Why are you processing so much meat at once? Are you having guests?"

Shi Wen, "No, it's just that the weather's getting cold. We can freeze it and eat it slowly to avoid having to deal with it every day, which is a bit of a hassle. Anyway, there's not much difference between chilled and fresh meat."

Fu Meng nodded understandingly. "That's true, you have a lot of little ones, they'll run out of supplies quickly."

Shi Wen, "Yes, winter is coming soon, eat more meat and stock up on fat for winter."

To prepare the internal organs, Shi Wen specially boiled a large pot of water for later use.

Their boiler is already running, and the ranch has no shortage of hot water from morning till night. It's perfect for processing the entrails and plucking the feathers from the chickens, pigeons, and geese.

The people who came to help split into two groups: one group cleaned the internal organs, and the other group plucked the feathers from the chickens, pigeons, and geese.

It was a bit chilly, so everyone sat in a sheltered spot, basking in the sun as they slowly processed the food.

Shi Wen and Yan Kexing have high requirements for meat quality, and it needs to be cleaned very thoroughly, which is quite time-consuming.

Everyone chatted while processing the data.

Shi Wen and Yan Kexing were also among the crowd. They cut the sheep and pig meat into different parts, and then marinated it with coarse salt, spice powder and high-proof liquor for more than a day. Only after the coarse salt, spice powder and high-proof liquor had fully penetrated into the meat could they proceed to the next step.

I'll spend the whole day working on this. Once it's done, tomorrow I'll take Shi Suo and Yan Shi up the mountain to cut some pine trees for smoking meat.

The fruit trees on the mountain need pruning too. Maybe I can go up the mountain tomorrow on my way back and cut some apple tree branches to smoke some meat.

Just as Shi Wen Shi Wen lost in thought, he suddenly heard someone call his name.

He came to his senses and realized that it was Chang Qingqing who had called him.

Chang Qingqing pointed to the fat sheep's rump and asked, "Why didn't you cut off the fat separately? Don't you like fat?"

Fat-tailed sheep are most famous for their two enormous rumps, which are mostly filled with mutton fat.

Ordinary families would cut off the buttocks to render the mutton fat.

Since Shi Wen's family did not have the habit of using mutton fat, they generally did not process it separately.

What he did most often was cut the two lumps of fat into small pieces to feed the little ones.

The little ones seem to really enjoy the plump, juicy cut—if they only eat a small amount.

Shi Wen said, "It's not that I don't like it, it's just that I'm not used to it. What's wrong?"

Chang Qingqing said regretfully, "Such good mutton fat, it's a bit of a waste to see you just piling it into the meat. If you don't want to process it yourself, you can send it to the city to be processed."

Shi Wen rarely discusses these things with housewives, and had never heard of mutton fat processing before, so upon hearing this, he couldn't help but ask, "What kind of processing?"

Chang Qingqing: "It's about processing moisturizing creams or mutton fat soaps. There are specialized shops in the city that can help with this; you can find them by searching on a map."

Shi Wen couldn't help but ask, "Will this even work?"

Chang Qingqing: "It works great! It's a long-standing tradition here—sheep fat soap and sheep fat lotion. If the shopkeeper's skills are good, they can make it much better than what you buy in stores."

Xin Xianghong peeked out from the side and said, "Actually, we wanted to ask if you could sell us some of this mutton fat if you don't need it? Your mutton fat looks much better than regular mutton fat."