The "rice-killing hammer" is on the table
From mid-April to early May, cuttlefish enter the Dachen fishing grounds to spawn. In the past, from the beginning of summer to the full moon, cuttlefish thrived in the East China Sea, forming a spectacular cuttlefish season. Fishing boats of all sizes came to the Dachen fishing grounds in unison, using fire to lure, cages to catch, or combs to drag - the locals call it raking cuttlefish, just like raking the valley in autumn.
If you can’t finish eating the cuttlefish, you can dry it in the sun or pickle it with salt. In eastern Zhejiang, lightly dried cuttlefish is called dried cuttlefish, and the one pickled with heavy salt is called cuttlefish date, also called Mingxian. Mingxian is a kind of salted fish. The cuttlefish bones are taken out, the ink sac is taken out, coarse salt is applied inside and outside, and the head is stuffed into the belly, and then coarse salt is stuffed in. The shape is like a round date, and it is neatly arranged vertically in a ceramic jar, sprinkled with coarse salt again, and the rest is left to nature. Marinate for about a week, then put it in the sun for two or three days, and it can be eaten. For those with a strong taste, they will marinate it several times, marinate and dry it, and eat it after more than a month. It is said that long-pickled cuttlefish dates have the effect of reducing internal heat, just like the Chinese medicine tangerine peel.
Cuttlefish dates become hard after being pickled, and their size also becomes smaller due to dehydration. After washing the brine, cut them into slices, pour cooking wine on them, and steam them with bamboo shoots and ham slices. They are salty and fresh and go well with rice. Cuttlefish dates contain cuttlefish eggs, which are as big as eggs and as small as pigeon eggs. Because they come in pairs, they are customarily called cuttlefish pairs in my hometown. There is yellow paste in the cuttlefish pairs, and the cuttlefish with paste is like a beautiful woman wearing a hairpin, which is worth praising. The pickled cuttlefish pairs are amber in color, like white jade, and crystal clear.
Cuttlefish and double steamed eggs have a strong and straightforward salty taste and are the most common "food killer" in my hometown. In the hot summer, when you lose your appetite, soak and clean the cuttlefish in water, change the water several times, remove the salt, arrange them on a plate, pour the beaten egg liquid in, and steam them in a pot. They are salty and fresh. This was a frequent guest on the table at home when I was a child, and its "food killer" was invincible.
Among the salted fish, the most famous one is not the cuttlefish, but the abalone and herring. In the old days, fishermen had to pay respect to the sea god before going out to sea. In eastern Zhejiang, jellyfish dipped in abalone and herring is indispensable. Jellyfish is pronounced the same as "haizuo" in Chinese, and herring is pronounced the same as "laiyu" in Chinese, which means going out to sea to fish and returning with a full load.
The three-abalone bream has nothing to do with abalone, but is related to pickling. In ancient times, the fish processed by pickling was called abalone, and the abalone that "if you go into an abalone shop, you will not smell its stench for a long time" is stinky salted fish.
Sanbao haiyu is salted haiyu three times. When salting, the haiyu does not need to be scaled or gutted. It is salted with heavy salt, compacted with stones, and the brine is drained. If this is done three times, it is called Sanbao.
After four or five months of pickling, a layer of oil floats on the marinade. The pickled croaker is bright in color, firm in texture, and hard as stone, and will not spoil for a long time.
There are many pickled shrimps and crabs, such as pickled crab plates, pickled crab sauce, pickled sand crabs, pickled shrimp lice, and pickled shrimp sauce. The saltiest one is the shrimp lice sauce, which tastes like salt when you pick it up with the tip of your chopsticks.
Snails cannot escape the fate of being pickled. Common ones include pickled mud snails, which are extremely salty, as well as salty clams, salty blood clams, etc.
In the past, when the fishing season came, the fish caught would pile up all over the boat and had to be dealt with quickly. Apart from drying them in the sun or in the wind to make eel, yellow croaker or hairtail jerky, they could also be salted and pickled in wine.
Sprinkle salt on your body, the salty taste is very fresh. Salting is the most common method of processing marine fish. During the Three Kingdoms period, people living by the sea considered salted fish a delicacy. "Records of Strange Things in the Sea and Soil of Linhai" records: "Take raw fish and meat and store them in a large earthenware container, add salt, and eat them after more than a month, which is considered the best food." The strong taste of people living by the sea is passed down from generation to generation through genes.
During the process of pickling salted fish, the enzymes and salt in the fish react wonderfully with the microorganisms in the air. In addition to the salty and fresh taste, it also has a bit of profoundness that comes from having experienced many vicissitudes of life. If light drying and raw sun-drying are the writing style of the Spring and Autumn Period, then this is the kind of salting method that gets straight to the point and goes straight to the point.
Ningbo and Taizhou in eastern Zhejiang have strong flavors, which is obviously related to eating too much salted fish. Ningbo people are particularly fond of salty food. Writer Jiang Menglin once said that the "air in Ningbo is full of the smell of salted fish." Female writer Su Qing ridiculed herself: Because she is from Ningbo, she is often ridiculed as someone who is used to eating salted crabs and fish.
Ningbo people have really strong tastes. When it comes to pickled food, they often use "one pound of water and seven ounces of salt". Ningbo has all kinds of salted fish, as well as yellow mud snails, salty crabs, salty roasted bamboo shoots, stinky winter melons, moldy vegetable stems, moldy tripe leaves, and stinky fermented bean curd. Salty, smelly, and moldy, they are all there. Ningbo people, like Shaoxing people, are very good at being a good person.
Salted fish is called "salty and fresh with rice" by people in eastern Zhejiang. A piece of salted fish the size of a fingernail can finish three bowls of rice. People who know how to live will save the bones after eating salted fish and use them to make winter melon soup or loofah soup. The brine from pickled fish can be used to dip jellyfish, taro and potatoes, and can replace shrimp sauce.
There is a proverb in my hometown, "Buy salted fish and release them", which means it is a waste of effort. As for "Salted fish turning over", it means that a person is at the lowest point in his life and suddenly has a major turn for the better.
Now, fresh fish and shrimp are available at any time, so who would want to eat salty fish all day? Since then, it has been relegated to the cold palace and rarely appears on the dinner table. The only chance for salted fish to turn things around is to make a grand appearance during ceremonies to pay respect to heaven, earth and the sea god.
