As expected, the smoke from the kitchen shrouded the cottage at dusk, and the stove in the kitchen was bright red, reflecting the hands adding firewood to the stove. The water was boiling, and the heat mixed with the smoke at the edge of the stove. Smoke drifted away, and next to the smiling grandma beside the stove, there was a little boy with a runny nose clinging to her... In my memory, in those days when coal and electricity were scarce and people didn’t know what liquefied gas was, our family relied on firewood stoves for cooking. .

The firewood stove is made of bricks. It is divided into two layers. The upper layer is the stove for burning firewood, and the lower layer is the ash hole for receiving ashes. Two large iron holes are placed in the two round eyes above the stove. The end of the stove is a chimney that leads straight up from the edge wall to the outside of the house. The stove surface is usually smoothed with mud. In addition, a fire tongs and a blowtorch are required. The tongs are used to add firewood and control the firepower; the blowtorch is used to blow out open flames, and must be used when the firewood is not dry yet. When the firewood stove needed to be renovated, the old bricks that were removed were scorched by long-term smoke and smog. After being crushed and applied to the fields, they became the best base fertilizer for crops.

Ever since I can remember when I was four or five years old, I went to the mountains to collect firewood with the children in the village. Every time I carried firewood home, my mother always praised me and allowed me to Turn on the fire and simmer the sweet potatoes, potatoes, etc. in the ashes of the stove. The cooked things will often be charred on the outside and tender on the inside, with a special charred aroma, and taste very delicious.

Every time after school, I trot all the way home. When I reach the entrance of the village, I often stop and look to see if there is any smoke from the roof of my house. If there is smoke from the kitchen, it means that my mother is lighting a fire to cook. I will feel an inexplicable excitement in my heart, and the unique warmth and happiness of home will come over me like a tide. If there is no smoke, I will feel uneasy and find it difficult to move forward. Based on the color, shape and speed of the smoke on the roof, I can roughly judge what kind of firewood was burned in the wood stove and what kind of food was cooked. If there is a wisp of light blue smoke, it must be burning pine needles and dry firewood. I will eat a delicious meal of steamed potato white rice, and the meal must be sweet pumpkin soup; if it is a thick black, The smoke lingering on the roof must be damp corn stalks and sawdust burning slowly in the stove, and my mother must be cooking corn grits.

When you think of wood-fired stoves, you have to mention two delicacies made by my mother: roasted peppers and smoked bacon. Mother selected the purple and red peppers and simmered them slowly in the ashes of the firewood stove. Then she chopped the peppers finely with a knife and put them in a bowl. She added some seasonings and it was done. Although the method was simple, it tasted spicy and fresh. Fragrant and long aftertaste. The making of smoked bacon is much more complicated. After killing the New Year pig in the twelfth lunar month, my mother cuts the pork into long strips, then sprinkles it with salt and pepper and marinates it for 7 to 9 days, then ties it with a rope and hangs it on the wood stove. It is slowly dried naturally by firewood on the wood stove. The bacon after being smoked and dried is burnt yellow, and the strips of meat are golden and shiny. The meat is fragrant and crispy, fat but not greasy. No matter how you eat it, it is delicious, stir-fried, stewed or steamed.

Later, our family moved from the countryside to the county town, and the firewood stove also disappeared from our lives, and we switched to coal for cooking. I asked my mother to make roasted peppers and smoked bacon several times, but my mother always shook her head and said resentfully: "If you don't have a wood stove, what can I cook for you..."

Now for cooking Electricity and liquefied gas are more convenient, and the fragrant firewood rice can only be searched for in memory. Not long ago, good news came from my hometown. The wood-fired stove-smoked bacon in my hometown has registered a trademark, and the products are selling well all over the country. It seems that I can relive the mellow aroma of wood stove food again...