The Spring Festival is here! Everyone prepares food for the celebration. The tradition in my area is to prepare large amounts of dried meatstuffs. The most impressive among these is the "Stuffed Yu Sausage."
As the named "Stuffed Yu Sausage" suggests, these are yukkuris which are used to contain the sausage stuffing. Preparations begin in my area half a month before the new year.
Healthy koyukkuris are selected, and at two weeks of age they are stuffed into special bamboo tubes or wooden containers. This is so they will grow into elongated shapes. During this period the yukkuris cannot be removed from the vessels. All that's needed is to feed them daily.
After two weeks, they should be long enough to serve as casings for the sausages. At this time, all that's needed is to stuff the nozzle of a sausage grinder into their mouth.
As for the filling, we prefer to use high quality salted pork belly filling.
Please be careful to not exceed the Koyukkuri's limits when stuffing with filling. The filling can easy rupture the Koyukkuri's delicate outer skin.
After the stuffing comes sun-drying. Of course, at this time the Koyukkuris are still alive. This is important as the flavor of the meat increases as the Koyukkuris suffer. Of course, the Koyukkuris' anyarus must be sealed since they will continue to excrete. We're not looking for dried manjuu skins, right? Heh heh.
After drying for around half a month, the end of the year has arrived. Put the delicious Stuffed Yu Sausages and aged wine together, and the troubles of the old year are blown away like smoke. Early wishes for everyone to have a good Spring Festival, heh heh heh heh.