◆This newspaper reporter Zhang Jiahui Photography report
Diet is a business card of a city with a life-like atmosphere, and almost every city has its own proud food. For people in Cangxian County, Dingfu Yufeng Qimei Sausage is not only a food artifact on their daily dining table, but also a gift for festivals.
Ancient method inheritance
In the Dingfu Yufeng Qimei Sausage Factory located in cang County Cuierzhuang, more than a dozen workers are working in the process. Here, you can explore the mystery of the circulating sausages for a hundred years.
In the factory, it is the youngest descendant of Chimei Sausage, Ding Kuo, who is familiar with the taste. The pure and thin fresh pork is grinded and finely. Add the exclusive ingredients from Ding’s ancestors to stir thoroughly. The different flavors of various ingredients and between the ingredients and pork are stirred and blended to create the unique flavor of Ding’s sausage. For enema, it is very difficult to fill the stirred meat into a slender casing and must be done manually by an experienced enema master. Subsequently, the intestines with uneven length, thickness and thickness become slim and evenly symmetrical.
Next, the power of nature will take over the human power. The sun is full and hot at noon, and rows of sausages are neatly hung on the shelf. After sun and air drying, the moisture gradually evaporates, and the soft sausages become tight. When the weather is poor, the masters will transfer the sausages to the grill room to dry. At around 2 pm, the sausages began to be smoked. The four large pots were on fire together. The sausages smoked from the dry pot continued to overflow. Before leaving the pot, sprinkle a handful of white sugar, and the red sausages immediately shone golden. After some packaging, the exquisite sausage gift box could be delivered to the diners who ordered that day.
Open the vacuum-packed sausage, the rich fragrance immediately penetrated into the nose and lungs, and the dark red sausage was still covered with a little oil freezing on the surface. After a little heating, the cold and hard sausage became cute, and the face turned red and oily and cute. Pick up the thin and long sausages and bite them down with one bite. They are immediately stunning by the crispy texture. The crispy casing is wrapped in tight lean meat, which is quite chewy. The rich and multi-meat aroma gradually ignites the taste buds. It is delicious enough to eat it alone. If added to vegetables such as garlic sprouts and stir-fry, or paired with light and sticky rice porridge, even if it is replaced by supporting roles, this small sausage can be the mainstay and release its unique salty aroma. As Ding Kuo said, "For so many years, Qimei sausage has maintained the ancient smoke method and retained its original flavor."
Centennial Legend
According to legend, Ding's sausage was founded during the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty. When Emperor Qianlong visited in the southern tour, Ji Xiaolan presented it to Qianlong. Qianlong praised its beautiful flavor and got its name.
Although Ding's skills in making sausages have long been available, when Ding Kuo's grandfather Ding Guifang was young, Qimei sausages were still produced in the form of a small family workshop. "At that time, whenever there were weddings and funerals, many people in Cuierzhuang would buy sausages as gifts, and families with conditions would often choose sausages made of pure lean meat. Later, with the improvement of economic conditions, more and more families bought sausages as engagements and bride gifts, which gradually became a local custom, meaning staying with each other forever." Because of the trust of the people of Cuierzhuang, the Ding family had more stringent requirements for the production of sausages.
After Ding Kuo's father Ding Jinquan took over, a factory was established, and management was reformed, and Chimei Sausage achieved large-scale production. "What everyone values is taste, what we inherit is craftsmanship, and we always retain manual operations that cannot be replaced by mechanical production." Today, Qimei Sausage has 3 stores and one factory in Cuierzhuang, supplying multiple merchants in the city. Ding Jinquan pays attention to production quality and also takes into account brand promotion, and has registered a trademark for Dingfu Yufeng Qimei Sausage. In 2019, Cangzhou Qimei Sausage was listed as the Yanzhao time-honored brand protection project.
stick to
51 years old Ding Jinquan, as the head of Ding Fu Yufeng Qimei Sausage, strictly controls all aspects of sausage selection, production and sales. Every afternoon, when the sausage is out of the pot, he will taste it himself and evaluate it in terms of the taste, color, taste, etc. This meticulous attitude was passed down from his father Ding Guifang.
In Ding Kuo's opinion, grandpa only did one thing in his life, producing one product, and it was this product that poured his grandpa's enthusiasm throughout his life. When Ding Kuo was a child, he always liked to watch from the side when his grandfather made sausages. The prepared sausages should be tied into one handful, so my grandfather taught him to tie sausages step by step. "Grandfather always said that the craftsmanship of our ancestors should be passed on."
Nowadays, although Ding Guifang, who is 83 years old, does not care about sausage sales and other matters, she always attaches great importance to the taste of sausage. He often sits in the store and will guide you when he sees the finished product. When he was free, Ding Guifang would always write the recipe for making sausage over and over again, and let Ding Kuo recite it to him. "Actually, the recipe has stubs, everyone knows. But grandpa has been making sausages for life, and he values this and feels that he cannot forget it."
Under the influence of grandpa and father, Ding Kuo was also full of feelings for Qimei Sausage. He hoped to refine the sausage gift box and promote Qimei's brand. The unchanging taste of Qimei Sausage for a century contains the Ding family's persistence in quality and focus on the brand, and it is also inseparable from the inheritance and persistence of the three generations of grandparents and grandchildren.
