After breakfast, Xiao Yu sterilized the bowls and chopsticks by steaming them, then took Yaya to the west wing room to process the crabs.
The fresh crabs needed their shells and stomach pouches removed, the moisture drained off, the gills taken out, and then rinsed with clean water to remove any mud, dirt, and impurities.
Next, they placed the shelled crabs in a barrel, smashed the crab bodies into small pieces – the finer, the better – to speed up the fermentation process.
Then they added salt, and just in time, the salt they had made came in handy. They mixed it well, poured the mashed crabs into fermentation jars, pressed down tightly and smoothed the surface to prevent the sauce from darkening. After about ten to twenty days, the fishy smell would gradually decrease, and the fermentation would be mature.
