In this old yard, the smell of roast chicken is perennial. A big sister is looking at the roast chicken in front of the stewed meat pot. This is where she works almost every day, regardless of spring, summer, autumn, winter, wind, frost, rain and snow. Except for the mid-afternoon of New Year's Eve and the day of Spring Festival, the rest of the festivals work as usual, and the fire in the bottom of the pot stays on all the year round. Business is booming and people are losing more and more time to rest.
The elder sister's husband's family has been making roast chicken since his grandfather's generation. It's the third generation to them. Because her home-made roast chicken is rotten and bony, and has a unique taste, it is well-known in the local area. Since the 1990s, the couple has become the main producer of family roast chicken. Through the inheritance and innovation of the old recipe, they are more adapted to the taste of the current people and have won the recognition of more and more diners.
There are two large pots in the roast chicken workshop. The diameter of the left side is 1 meter. They are used for bringing spicy taste. The diameter of the right side is 1.5 meters. They are used for bringing five fragrances. From this we can see that the five-flavor roast chicken sales are better. Look at these two big pots and over ten pots of roast chicken in the yard. It's really spectacular!
The taste of roast chicken is mainly in the bittern soup, which contains dozens of Chinese herbal medicine spices, such as straw, cinnamon, fragrant leaves, fennel, anise, pepper, etc. The slow boiling of gentle fire makes the roast chicken fully tasty. After the busy business, the family workshop obviously felt too busy. The elder sister hired three workers to help, even so, she still had little leisure time every day.
The brine pot is specially made. There is a simple lifting device on the top of the pot. Under the pot cover, there is a steel bar welded pot cover. With this pot cover, all the roast chicken is pressed into the soup to avoid the uneven taste of the roast chicken due to its floating on the surface.
After several hours of simmering, this pot of roast chicken is ready. The smell of roast chicken floats far away. People in the vicinity will take advantage of the heat to buy freshly salvaged roast chicken, brine pot surface is full of floating pepper and chili pepper, it looks very addictive.
These roast chickens, which have just come out of the pot with heat, will soon be transported to the sales chain. They are 18 pieces of roast chickens per catty. Generally, small roast chickens need more than 30 pieces, and large ones can reach 40 or 50 pieces. They can sell thousands of them a day, of which it is hard to imagine.
Nearby familiar neighbors will come to ladle chicken soup, take a small bucket home, whether stew, fried vegetables or boiled noodles, ladle a spoonful of chicken soup, the taste immediately improved significantly.
It's not a long way from home to the store, but it's only a short way for diners to stop and empty the roast chicken cart.
Handicraft workshops are rare. Specialized instruments and equipment are now replacing manual and simple old tools. However, traditional snacks made by machines under strict and cold procedures are always less tasty. Is there any workshop like this in your hometown?