How to eat Ji Ye mutton?

The favorite food of people in western Anhui is air-dried mutton. The production of this kind of mutton is very simple, that is, buy fresh mutton (usually whole sheep or half sheep, the internal organs have been removed) in early winter, unfold its meat slices and hang them in a ventilated place where the sun can't shine outdoors or at home. A month later, the surface of the meat was dark purple, and some parts were even as hard as iron. This is "air drying". When eating, cut off some mutton, wash it, stew it in a pot, take it out when the meat is slightly rotten, tear it into shredded pork when it is not hot, and then fry it. Except oil, salt, sauce, sugar, etc. Add ginger, garlic and pepper, especially red pepper. When eating, you usually put the stewed mutton in a small ear pot. When you stew the mutton, mix it with broth, cook it on a red stove with slow fire, and iron some vermicelli, prickly heat and spinach in the pot while eating. It's really unique and wonderful.

After the festival, fewer people eat mutton. If the weather gets warmer, even the air-dried mutton is not delicious. However, there is a special place in western Anhui that eats mutton all year round. This is Ye Ji.

Ji Ye is located in the west of Anhui Province, at the junction of Anhui and Henan. It is Chenlinzi Town, Gushi County, Henan Province, which crosses the Shihe Bridge in the west of the town. Yoshino originally belonged to Huoqiu County, and was designated as the Ji Ye Experimental Zone by the province, with county-level establishment. When it comes to mutton here, first of all, we should say a popular folk song here: "Ye Jia Chicken, Three Monsters: hemp wall, piles outside, fresh fish for sale, mutton dishes all year round." Ji Ye instant-boiled mutton is a famous dish in western Anhui.

Thanks to the Hui brothers, Ji Ye mutton is well known. Ji Ye is located in the southeast of China, connecting the Central Plains and bordering the wide Shihe River which flows into the Huaihe River in the west. Since the late Ming Dynasty, the Hui people began to move into Ji Ye. Today, garden village, near Ji Ye, is a Hui village with more than 3,000 Hui brothers. Ji Ye is surrounded by the Bay Area. Fertile sandy land and rich green fodder provide natural conditions for Hui brothers to raise cattle and sheep, and also provide support for people to eat mutton and talk about cooking.