Yangzhou Red Chamber Banquet Jia Fu Cold Sauce · Lees Duck Letter

In the eighth episode of "Dream of the Red Chamber", Cao Xueqin wrote: "Aunt Xue has laid out a few fine tea fruits to keep them for tea. Bao Yu was praised for the bad goose paw duck letter of Zhen's sister-in-law in that mansion the day before. Aunt Xue listened, and she was also busy taking some of her own bad ones to taste with him. Bao Yu smiled and said, "This must be wine." When Baoyu eats bad goose paw duck tongue, it is the time of snow in winter, Baoyu said, "This must be good on wine", people in the dream of the Red Chamber have always loved health, winter naturally can not drink cold wine, presumably drink hot yellow wine, hot wine with cold goose paw duck tongue, it is hot and cold collocation, eating both healthy and refreshing.

Duck letter, i.e. duck tongue. Bad duck tongue is a Jiangnan food custom, which has a long history. The preference for eating animal tongues in China's food culture should start from the Tang Dynasty. According to historical records, after Wei Juyuan's official Bai Shangshuling, in order to show his loyalty to the emperor and Wei Hou, he carefully designed a "Shengping Burning" note: "Cure the sheep and deer tongue mix three hundred." There are as many as 300 sheep tongues and deer tongues in one dish, which sounds really incredible. Wei Juyuan organized the "tail-burning feast", using the tongues of 300 sheep and deer for barbecue for the first time in the world, to praise the peace of the world, the people live and work in peace and contentment, and the emperor governs the country well, no wonder the tao gu of the five generations listed the dish as a "strange" food.

During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, bad duck tongue was a famous dish in Yangzhou. Tong Yue recommended the "Tong's Food Rules" to say: "Bad duck tongue, winter shoot slices wear bad duck tongue", Suzhou also practices this food. Yuan Dong of the Qing Dynasty said in the Shuyin Cong Shu Shu Spring and autumn do not need to be said, the summer meeting, the taste is not the mountain treasure sea mistake does not need to use. There are still many chickens, such as pipa duck tongue, braised duck tongue palm, scoop duck tongue, bad duck tongue and so on. In the "Longevity Feast" of the "Wanshou Feast" on the 60th birthday of Cixi on the 10th day of october in the 20th year of Guangxu, the famous "Hundred Flowers and Duck Tongue" was prominently among them. Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing Dynasty loved this dish, and the female official Deling beside her said in the "Records of the Imperial Fragrance": The empress dowager also has a special favorite dish, that is, the stewed duck tongue. The duck tongue is stewed with the meat of the duck, at least twenty or thirty at a time, floating on top of the soup. Because this was the empress dowager's favorite dish, it was always packed in a special apricot-yellow bowl every time, and it was always placed closest to the empress, of course, for Cao Xueqin, this was something he could not predict. To this day, there are still many famous duck tongue dishes in Yangzhou and Suzhou, such as pipa duck tongue, braised duck tongue palm, scoop duck tongue, bad duck tongue and so on.

The specific method of the bad duck letter in the dream of the Red Chamber can refer to the "Song's Health Department": "Bad: cooked goose and chicken with palms, plantars, wings, livers, lungs, the same animal genus." The goose is all cut into four Xuan, bad sealed, can stay for a long time, suitable for winter moon. "The duck tongue is cooked, deboned, then repeatedly cooked with chicken broth and salt along with the rest of the cooked goose, and then marinated in a mustache sauce or lees wine, sealed in a container that can be left for a long time.