After dinner, Pei Shu'er and the others began preparing to pickle the cabbage.
The cabbages were good, but Pei Shu'er couldn't bear to eat just cabbage all the time.
So, they could try several methods of pickling cabbage.
First, they would make sour cabbage.
Everyone washed the cabbage, cut off the roots, and removed the old leaves. They cut the large heads into eight pieces each.
Yinxing blanched the sliced cabbage in boiling water for a minute, then took it out and cooled it in cold water.
He then handed it to Granny Zhang, who layered the cabbage alternately in a large stone jar.
They pressed it with heavy stones and poured in clear water and a bit of rice soup, submerging the cabbage by 1 centimeter.
This would promote fermentation.
Once there was a strong sour aroma in the jar, it was ready to eat.
They made about five large stone jars of sour cabbage, roughly around 100 kilograms.
Next was the spicy cabbage, which Pei Shu'er particularly liked.
