Taiyuan, 31 Jan (Xinhua) -- In the ancient city of Pingyao, Pingyao beef, as a New Year's commodity, has been "fragrant" for more than a hundred years, and is now a long-established snack sold throughout the country.
In the "Pingyao Beef" shop on the south street of the ancient city, the shopping guide Dong Haifang said: "Pingyao beef has about 10 series and more than 100 specifications of products. ”
On January 27, in the "Pingyao Beef" store on South Street in Pingyao Ancient City, staff showed off a beef product. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Chenguang
The prepared Pingyao beef is tender and delicious, the color is rosy and bright, a change in the characteristics of beef fiber is thicker, even the elderly with bad teeth can chew it, thin and not chai, and the fishy smell of beef has also become a unique umami taste.
In 2008, the traditional processing technology of Pingyao beef was included in the list of national intangible cultural heritage. According to reports, the production process of Pingyao beef has a history of hundreds of years. In the Pingyao Beef Culture Center located in the factory area of Guanyun Beef Group, the history of Pingyao beef is described in detail, and the information reads: The origin of Pingyao beef is unknown, and the production process was very mature during the Qing Dynasty.
Workers are packing prepared Pingyao beef on the production line. Courtesy of respondents
"Pingyao's beef Taigu cakes, Qingxu's grapes are sweet..." A widely sung Shanxi folk song "Kwa Native Products" begins with Pingyao beef. As one of the regional symbols of Pingyao, Pingyao people should buy a piece to eat when they are homesick, and they also need it to decorate the table on the occasion of the Spring Festival reunion.
The strict master-apprentice system has enabled the production skills of Pingyao beef to be passed on from generation to generation. Wang Tianming, the representative inheritor of the 6th generation of pingyao beef traditional processing technology of the national intangible cultural heritage project, told reporters that the production of Pingyao beef is very exquisite, with five processes of "phase, slaughter, pickling, brine and repair", and each step has fine requirements for the producer. The inheritance of skills is passed on by old craftsmen, and must be divided into processes, strictly trained in strict accordance with the training time, sometimes for several years to become a teacher.
The picture shows Pingyao beef. Courtesy of respondents
"Learning crafts cannot be rushed, we must grind our temperament, lay the foundation, and make food more solid and honest", Wang Tianming remembered, and the teacher Fu repeatedly emphasized these words. Behind the pingyao beef processing technology carries the tradition of professionalism and integrity of Jinshang.
Since the 21st century, the inheritors of Pingyao beef have carried out comprehensive inheritance and innovation of cutting knife methods, rapid fire and warm fire, old soup capping and other skills, so that old crafts can be grafted into modern production processes. Wang Tianming said that the Intangible Cultural Heritage Project Protection Unit Shanxi Pingyao Beef Group Co., Ltd. produced more than 20,000 tons of Pingyao beef this year, which was sold throughout the country.
After several years of study, Wang Tianming's apprentice, the 7th generation of heirs, can now make a unique flavor of Pingyao beef.
The Year of the Tiger is approaching, and the beef shops in Pingyao County are even more lively. Tourists packed their bags of Pingyao beef, out of the ancient city, to the south of the sea to the north.