Not far from the shark’s fin stall is the pork stall, a small but not too small meat case, behind is a wooden post fixed with a one-metre six-seven long shelf, on the shelf hangs a fan of different sizes of pork, the oily and fishy meat case on the two pig’s head.
Hanging on the wooden post was a wooden rectangular meat stall signboard with the words “Zhang Fei Meat Shop”, the ancient and atmospheric seal script appeared to be from the hand of a famous artist, and instantly attracted Zhu Pingan’s eyeballs.
This signboard was passed down from his ancestor, who was now in his third generation, and it was said that his ancestor had a stroke of luck when an official forgot to bring money when he bought meat, and gave his ancestor this signboard in exchange for the money for the meat.
“With fat and lean, health and longevity.””Lean meat fried vegetables, husband and wife love.””Bone soup, health le …….”
Behind the meat case stood a bare-shouldered butcher, looks like a standard ancient butcher appearance, fat head, ears and beard, shoulder with a towel, left and right hand each holding a meat knife, one is a boning knife, one is a thick knife chopping meat, spirit full of soliciting business, and people answering from time to time issued a cheerful laughter.
“Zhang Tu, give me three pounds of five-flower meat, wrapped in lotus leaves, today is my father-in-law’s big birthday, I want to take it back to my relatives.”A man in his forties carrying two fish came to the meat stall and said to Zhang Tu.
Zhang Fei meat shop ……It turned out that the owner’s surname was really Zhang, Zhu Pingan couldn’t help but smile at his words and stopped to stand in front of the meat shop.
“Oh, well le. Brother Liu often come to take care of my business, today my old Zhang give you two more cuts of two, it is also considered to be some of my thoughts.”Butcher Zhang replied, while smiling and talking to the man surnamed Liu, his hand movements were non-stop, and he cut a piece of five-flower meat with a single cut.
After cutting, Zhang butcher hooked on the meat with a weighing scale, and weighed three pounds and two taels not more, not less, just right.
Then he skilfully wrapped it up with lotus leaf, then tied it up with thin hemp rope and handed it to the man surnamed Liu.
“Then I will thank Zhang Tu for my father-in-law, next time I buy meat also come to you.”The man surnamed Liu took the meat and thanked him.
“That’s a good feeling, thanks for taking care of the business, Brother Liu.”Zhang Butcher smiled and sent the man surnamed Liu away.
“This gentleman, what kind of meat do you want home to go?”
When the man surnamed Liu left, Butcher Zhang enthusiastically solicited Zhu Pingan and his entourage who were standing in front of the meat stall.
“How do you sell pork now?”Zhu Pingan asked.
“20 Wen for a catty of five-flower meat, and 18 Wen for a catty of foreleg and hindleg meat. If you want more, it’s still cheaper by a couple of Wen per catty.”Butcher Zhang explained.
Well, Zhu Pingan nodded slightly, it was similar to what he understood, one catty of five-flower meat was almost equivalent to RMB 12 yuan, and for the front and back leg meat, it was almost 11 yuan, which was by and large a lot cheaper than the modern price.
However, the price of pork parts, in ancient times and modern times is very different, modern then the price of pork to be cheaper, the front legs and rear legs to be more expensive, but in ancient times is exactly reversed, pork to be more expensive than the front and rear legs.
That is to say, in ancient times, fat meat is more expensive than lean meat, no matter whether it is pork or lamb, beef or, are fat meat is more expensive than lean meat.
Water Margin” has recorded such a scene: Ruan’s three brothers once in a tavern to invite the master Wu with dinner, into the shop and asked the shopkeeper what the dishes, the shopkeeper replied: “Newly slaughtered a yellow cow, the flower cake is similar to a good fat meat.”Ruan Xiao Er heard that there is fat meat, immediately excitedly slapped the table, instructed the shop assistant: “Large cut ten pounds to!”
The Qing Palace Archives recorded in the Emperor and Consort’s recipes, which generally recorded ingredients for fat chicken, fat sheep, fat ducks, fat geese, etc., basically the menu of the famous imperial meals are inseparable from the fat meat.
In addition, “the book of rites” recorded hospitality said: “winter right fat, summer right fins”. Said the winter ear when the fish belly fat meat, to the fish belly towards the guests; summer when the fish fins there fat meat, to the fish preparation towards the guests.
Records such as these, to name a few, all show that the ancients to fat meat is expensive.
This is because the eating habits of the ancients are different from modern people, the ancients like to eat fat meat, that fat meat is more valuable than lean meat. This has a lot to do with the standard of living of the ancients, not the deceased do not pay attention to health, but because the ancient standard of living is not high, and the shortage of materials, most of the people are struggling on the breadline, naturally, will not consider health, weight loss, these high-level pursuit. From the point of view of taste, fat meat is more fragrant than lean meat, more gluttony, so the ancients favoured fat meat. From the calorie point of view, fat meat than lean meat contains more calories, eat a catty of fat meat than eat a catty of lean meat to take in more calories, more anti-hunger.
Another point is that fat meat can practice meat, the ancients like to buy fat meat, the market determines the price, fat meat is naturally expensive.
“Hmm, that’s fine, give me four pounds of five-flower meat and one pound of hind leg meat.”Zhu Pingan nodded.
“You give it cheaper.”Liu Dazhou immediately followed and said to Zhang Butcher, “We are big patrons in the future, if you are affordable, we will often come to take care of your business.”
“Alright. I’ll give you 1 wen cheaper per catty for the five-flower meat, and 2 wen cheaper per catty for the hind leg meat.”Butcher Zhang quickly answered.
“So-so.”Liu Dagger casually said.
“One catty of five-flower meat is 19 Wen, four catty of 80 minus four is 76 Wen, one catty of hind leg meat is 16 Wen, adding up to ……92 Wen, you guys are taking care of my old Zhang’s business for the first time, so I’ll just erase the change and charge you 90 Wen.”Butcher Zhang was a bit slower in his calculations, but accurate, and after calculating, he wiped out the change of two more Wen.
Hearing that the change of two more Wen had been erased, Liu Dazhou was satisfied and said to Butcher Zhang, “We will come back to take care of your business in the future.”
Zhu Pingan also nodded with a smile.
“Thanks.”Butcher Zhang smiled broadly and thanked him, then turned around and cut off a large piece of five-flower meat on the hanging meat fan, and cut off another piece of lean meat.
After cutting the meat and weighing it on a scale, he turned the scale towards Zhu Pingan and turned it towards them, and the star of the scale showed that there were enough catties and pounds. After confirming that there was no mistake, Butcher Zhang skilfully wrapped it up in a lotus leaf, and Zhu Pingan was about to take it over, when Liu Dazhou and Liu Dahammer on the side grabbed it first and smiled, saying that the rough work should be handed over to them.
There was no one else at the meat stall, so chatting would not delay the business, so Liu Dazhou praised Butcher Zhang’s knife skills, and Butcher Zhang proudly laughed and said that he had been cutting meat for twenty years before he had honed his skills.
Zhu Pingan observed Zhang Butcher’s meat stall while Liu Dazhou and the others were chatting with him, there was a pile of big bones piled up on one side of the meat stall case, the meat on it was picked clean, on the abandoned lotus leaves on the ground below the meat stall, there was a pile of pig’s offal, which was obviously thrown down to the bottom casually.
“How do you sell this big bone?”Zhu Pingan asked, pointing to the large bones on the meat case.
“It’s not worth a few bucks, originally this bone I was as a hitchhiker, there’s no meat on it, the soup still makes it. Your honour has bought so much meat from me, if you are interested in the bones, you can take a few more, the money will not be accepted.”Butcher Zhang shook his head and said cheerfully.
A few is not enough, the taste of the soup made from the big bones is also very good, in the future there will be a lot of big bone soup used in fast food restaurants.
“I want more, and I will come often in the future, so I can’t take advantage of you.”Zhu Pingan shook his head slightly.
“Sir, you see this is good, if you still come to my old Zhang to sell meat in the future, this big bone, you only need to give on ten Wen, the big bone on my stall will all belong to you, you see how good.”Butcher Zhang added.
Well, this can be, Zhu Pingan is very satisfied with Zhang Butcher’s offer, ten Wen can buy all these big bones on Zhang Butcher’s stall, it is very cost-effective, if it is a normal buy then it is definitely much more expensive than this.
Of course, Zhang Butcher also had an additional small gain, the bones that were originally made to be hitchhikers were also sold for ten Wen. Although it is not much, but the price is long-lasting ah, day by day, this is also an income.
“Still ten Wen, it’s better to be cheaper.”Liu Dazhou interjected from the side.
Zhu Pingan was satisfied with Butcher Zhang’s offer now, but did not rush to state his position, making a show of inadvertently seeing the pig’s offal under Butcher Zhang’s meat case, and asked casually with an air of carelessness, “How do you sell that pig’s offal?”
“Well, let’s do it this way, you can pay 15 cents for a pair of pig’s offal, and I’ll give you all the big bones in this butcher’s shop for nothing. To be honest, pig liver and pig heart are better and can be sold on weekdays, but the pig intestines are too difficult to clean up, even if they are cleaned up again, there will be a piggy flavour, basically no one wants them, and they are usually thrown away if they can’t be sold.”Zhang Butcher thought about it and said.
“Zhang Butcher you’re not real ah, you’re selling this pig offal to catch up with pig hind leg meat. What’s there to eat in this pig jowl thing, pig liver and pig heart don’t have much flavour, as for pig intestines that smell, who eats it.”Liu Dazhou shook his head.
“See brother you say, then this way, a pair of pig’s jowl charge you 10 Wen, my big bones on this stall or all for free to you okay?”Butcher Zhang smiled shyly, then added.
Liu Dazhou still wants to negotiate the price, but Zhu Pingan on the side is already very satisfied, and has greatly exceeded expectations.
It was almost all for nothing.
This ten money alone, basically can support the fast food meat dishes.
There is money to be made by everyone, and Zhu Pingan has a good feeling about Butcher Zhang, and he can be a long-term co-operator in the future.
“Then it’s done.”Zhu Pingan nodded.
With a smile on his face, Butcher Zhang gave Zhu Pingan and the others the big bones tied up with ropes, and wrapped the split pork jerky with lotus leaves, tied it up with ropes again, and handed it to Zhu Pingan and the others.
Just in case of accidents, Zhu Pingan again proposed to make a pledge contract under the witness of the petty officials at the entrance of the vegetable market place. Butcher Zhang was happy to co-operate, as this was a guarantee of his power to sell the pork jerky that he could not sell in the past.
Thus, the two parties together, witnessed by the petty official, made an agreement of 10 wen for a pair of pig’s jellies and a free gift of all the big bones, with a special agreement in the contract on Zhu Pingan’s right of first refusal.
