Originating from Futan Village, Chendian Town, Chaonan District, Shantou City, the sugar onion pancake was founded in the Ming Dynasty during the Wanli Dynasty, which is a unique craft of the Chaoshan people, which has been spread in the Chaoshan folk for hundreds of years, and is a very long and very authentic Chaoshan snack.
Legend has it that in ancient times, there was a deep pool in the east of the village, there were a group of golden ducks in the pool, and the golden duck protected the village, and this pool was deep and did not see the bottom for a long time, so it was called "Duck Pond", and when the Chaoshan area was standardized after liberation, it was considered to be indecent to the name of "duck", so it was renamed "Futan", so some people also called the sugar onion pancake "Duck Pond Sugar Onion". Futan Village still makes and sells sugar shallot pancakes.
Sugar onion pancakes, as the name suggests, are made of "pancakes" wrapped in "sugar onions".
"Sugar onion" is a white sugar block with a patchwork of onion-like holes on the side rows, so it is called "sugar onion", which was called "shallot candy" in ancient times. The ingredients for shallots are simple – white sugar and maltose are processed by a special process, but the production process is elaborate. First, the sugar and maltose are steamed to remove their moisture to make a dish, cooled to the right temperature, and then repeatedly beaten. The pulling action is quite similar to the northern pull Kanto sugar. The yellow syrup is repeatedly pumped and beaten until it becomes a milky white sugar strip. Then put the sugar strips on the charcoal fire to bake soft, and carry out the most critical step of making sugar onions, and the number of holes must be eight times, which is not much or less.
Due to the entry of air when turning sugar, qualified sugar onions must have sixteen large holes, and there are sixteen small holes around each large hole, that is, sixteen large holes and two hundred and fifty-six small holes. Because of these holes, the sugar onion tastes crisp and non-sticky. Finally, sprinkle the sautéed dried flour on top of the sugar shallots and cut into cubes. This completes the preparation of the sugar shallots.
Guo Zizhang, the prefect of Chaozhou in the Ming Dynasty, described the sugar onion in the Miscellaneous Records of the Tide as follows: "The sugar of the tide, the extremely white pole pine, and there is no dregs." Qu Dajun, a famous scholar in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, also wrote in the "Guangdong Xinyu" that "onion sugar is called Chaoyang, extremely white and slag-free, and the entrance is crisp and melted like woe snow."
To make sugar onion pancakes, first stack three pancakes in the shape of the finished glyph, put two sugar shallots in the middle, and then sprinkle a handful of fried crushed peanut rice and black and white sesame seeds to make it. Cai Lan, a famous foodie, said: "It is a piece of dried sugar, a snack wrapped in a thin pie crust, which is the unique craftsmanship of the Chaoshan people." This craft, passed down from generation to generation, has become art.
There is also such a legend about the sugar shallot pancake.
During the fourteenth year of the Qing Kangxi Dynasty, Zheng Chenggong's son led troops to besiege the city of Zhangzhou in southern Fujian, and the Qing army defender Huang Fangdu sent troops to resist, besieging the city for several months, and the residents of the city starved to death, and the corpses crossed the streets and alleys, and the survivors were buried with straw mats. In October of the same year, the Qing army surrendered, and the people of Zhangzhou, in order to mourn the dead relatives and friends, rolled thin cakes like straw mats to sacrifice the dead, and this custom has been passed down from generation to generation.
Sugar onion pancakes may be to transform the thoughts of loved ones into a touch of sweetness in this world, soothing those lonely souls.
The material comes from the Chendian Micro Gang
This article does not represent our views, the copyright belongs to the original author, hereby acknowledged, in case of infringement immediately deleted.