Recently, buying vegetables and hoarding vegetables has become a concern for many people, and many places advocate fast entry and fast exit, less shopping and fast buying, and reducing the frequency of purchase.
However, what if you buy too many dishes? Some people will definitely say, put the refrigerator. Five points for correct answers! It does make sense. The large-capacity refrigerator is really a savior for hoarders.
Recently, some families have begun to stockpile fruits and vegetables. Source/Pea Mama vlog screenshot
But here's the problem, the refrigerator didn't appear until the last hundred years. In ancient times, when encountering food that could not be eaten immediately, how would the ancients solve it? What are their methods of storing grain and preserving food?
Text | Yun Chuan
This article is reproduced from the WeChat public account "National Humanities History" (ID: gjrwls), the original article was first published on April 16, 2022, the original title is "Pickling, canning, freezing, compressing vacuum... How to scientifically store food for a long time? , does not represent the view of the Lookout Think Tank.
1 Everything can be pickled
Pickling was one of the common methods used by the ancients to store food.
Let's take a look at the sauerkraut that has been mentioned frequently recently. The history of pickled sauerkraut by the ancients can be traced back to the pre-Qin period, and the literature refers to the pickled dish as "菹", and the "Book of Poetry, Xiaoya Xinnanshan" has a saying: "Nakata has a lu, Xinjiang has a melon, is peeled or peeled." "In the map of Chinese sauerkraut, the northeast region deserves to be the golden source of sauerkraut. Due to the cold climate and short frost-free period in the northeast region, many local people generally choose to use pickling methods to preserve vegetables.
Pickled sauerkraut is about methods and techniques, and the most important thing is to marinate thoroughly. Around the middle of October every year, people start preparing pickled sauerkraut. Generally speaking, Chinese cabbage with more leaves and fewer leaves will be preferentially selected into the raw material team. After the sun washing process, the cabbage is laid into the vat layer by layer. Lay a layer, sprinkle a layer of salt, and cover the top with a large stone.
This is not the end, in the tank to add cool white open, sealed storage, sauerkraut pickling is considered to be the end. Finally, after more than a month of patient waiting, the aromatic and appetizing sauerkraut can be served on the table.
Northeasterners pickle sauerkraut. Source/Screenshot of the documentary "China on the Tip of the Tongue"
In addition to cabbage, eggplant, garlic, buckwheat, radish, beans, soybeans, cucumbers... Almost all of the long in the field can be incorporated into the pickled raw material detachment. Perhaps with a sharp mind, other countries have also adopted pickling methods to store vegetables. Korean kimchi is famous in large part because they are good at marinating with different condiments. Germans also love pickles, but they rarely pick cabbage and more cabbage.
In addition to pickled vegetables, meat that is temporarily uneaten can also be pickled. Among the cured meats, Jinhua ham is the most famous. According to legend, Jinhua ham was born in the last year of the Northern Song Dynasty. The general Zong Ze led the army to resist Jin. To replenish their strength, soldiers carried salted pork legs with them. I thought that the marinated pork leg meat would be safe, but after many soldiers ate it, they were weak.
Now we can probably guess that the soldier in the story is food poisoning (only salted meat, which produces Clostridium botulinum during the marinade process). Later, Zong Ze found that the soldiers' consumption of pork produced in his hometown of Jinhua would not affect the body, so Jinhua ham became popular. The truth of the story is no longer true, but there are some scientific truths in it. The reason why Jinhua ham does not produce bacteria during the pickling process is because the local people will not only put salt in the salting process, but also set fire to ingredients such as salt. Fire nitrate can effectively inhibit Clostridium botulinum. In modern times, the method of making Jinhua ham has become more scientific. With its unique taste and aroma, whether it is boiled soup or steamed, Jinhua ham is a delicacy on the tip of the tongue.
Jinhua ham. Source/Screenshot of the documentary "China on the Tip of the Tongue"
In general, pickling mainly uses the antiseptic effect of table salt and the fermentation effect of microorganisms, thereby inhibiting harmful microbial activities. Although the ancients did not understand chemistry, they found scientific storage methods in practice.
2 Isolated from air
After talking about the dish and meat, let's look at the fruit. If you ask how to store fruit better, I believe that the first reaction of many readers is - canning.
The history of canning dates back to the napoleonic crusades of the early 19th century. It was invented not just to preserve fruit freshness. At that time, the soldiers were busy fighting, and often could not eat fresh vegetables and fruits, which was very detrimental to the health of the soldiers. How can soldiers eat vegetables? There was a chef named Nikolai Appel who thought of a good way. They first put the food in a glass bottle, put it in a pot to heat, and then tighten it with a cork and seal it with wax. This bottle is probably the earliest can.
Later, the canned food gradually became richer, not only fruits and vegetables, but also sardines, lunch meat and so on. At the same time, the material of the cans has also changed, in addition to glass cans, there are also iron cans, aluminum cans. The change in material has greatly improved the sealing of the can, and the shelf life of the food has been longer.
Wartime cans in film and television dramas. Source/Screenshot of the TV series Gun God
Although the birthplace of cans is not China, the technology of sealing and storing has long been spread in China.
More than 3,000 years ago, ancient ancestors began to use pottery to seal food. The Northern Wei Jia Sixun 'Qi Min Zhi Shu' records the practice of sealing pears in a bottle:
"Little pears, water stains in the bottle, mud, from autumn to spring." It can also be used in winter. Again Cloud: Available on January day. It will be used, peeled, thinly cut throughout, laid, and poured with pear juice to throw less honey, make it sweet, and seal it with mud. ”
In the Song Dynasty, Su Shi recorded his story of storing cherries with live bamboo in the book "Rough Talk on Gewu":
"Dig a hole in the ground, pick a cherry full, still seal the mouth, and the summer is not bad."
This method is very clever, and can be used not only to store cherries, but also to store peaches or apricots.
Whether sealed with glass cans, tin cans, or sealed with live bamboo or jars, these methods of processing vegetables and fruits can be summarized by sealing and storage.
The principle of the sealed storage method is that by sealing the container, the food is isolated from oxygen, so as to achieve the purpose of preservation. In the 1940s and 1950s, with the invention and promotion of polyethylene films, vacuum packaging began to become popular in the market. Vacuum packaging is also a way to reduce oxygen concentration and delay food deterioration.
Vacuum-packed pickles. Source/Screenshot of the TV series "Ancient Village Woman"
3 Cherish freshness and stay away from moisture
Moisture and moisture resistance are valuable experiences summed up by the ancients in the process of storing food.
Guan Zi said: "The warehouse is practical and knows the etiquette." "Ancient rulers have always paid attention to the storage of grain. The Book of Rites and the Imperial System contains "Cultivating Three More Than One", and during the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, people already realized the importance of grain. In the Han Dynasty, the state established a more formal warehousing system.
In the 1960s, archaeologists discovered the largest granary in ancient China, The Hanjia Warehouse. The ruins of Hanjiacang are located in the northeast of Luoyang City in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. The archaeologists who excavated Hanjiacang were very excited, and they found that after digging up the soil layer of the warehouse cellar, a lot of the grain presented in front of them was intact! The method of preserving grain in Hanjiacang can be summed up in four words - mat chaff. Specifically, the cellar is dug in a higher place, the cellar is dried with fire, and then the grass and wood ash is laid on the cellar step. After that, it is necessary to lay wooden planks on top of the grass and wood ash and wrap the grain with mats.
Contains the ruins of Kacang. Source/Screenshot of the documentary "General History of China"
Vegetables can also be processed by drying. The ancients used this method to make dried vegetables. The ancients dried beans, mustard greens, rapeseed and other vegetables, and took them out to foam their hair when food was insufficient, which cleverly solved the problem of eating vegetables in winter. Of course, not only vegetables, but also some fruits can also be eaten longer by drying.
Pilaf made from raisins brings a rich layer of taste to the pilaf. Source/Screenshot of the documentary "China on the Tip of the Tongue"
Although on the surface, the grain silo hoard rice and dried vegetables and fruits are quite different, but the practices of ventilation and drying, moisture and moisture are the same. This method of storing food is based on the principle of inhibiting microbial activity by reducing water.
4 Without a refrigerator, you can keep fresh at low temperatures
Although the ancients did not have refrigerators, they had already begun to use low temperatures to preserve food.
The story of the ancient people on the mainland using ice can be traced back to the Warring States period. In the National Museum, there is a very special artifact - the bronze ice book, excavated in 1977 in the tomb of Marquis Yi of Dougudun in Suizhou City, Hubei Province, and many people regard it as the earliest "refrigerator". The Bronze Ice Book is a combiner consisting of two parts, the outer bronze book and the middle bronze 缶 (square pot). In the summer, the ancients installed ice cubes around the bronze silk, and when they drank, the wine in their mouths was cold and very refreshing.
Bronze Ice Book. Source/National Treasure Archives Bronze Case with picture
However, at that time, the ice book was mainly a wine storage vessel, and it was popular among the aristocracy, and there was still some distance from the commoners. If you focus on the countryside, people along the coast have actually begun to use ice to keep fish and shrimp fresh. "Lü's Spring and Autumn" says: "It is the moon, the fisherman who orders the fisherman to start fishing, the son of heaven to go personally, but to taste the fish, first recommend the temple." Ice Fang Sheng, Mizusawa Fu, fate to take ice. The Qing Jia Lu records: "Jun did not see the twenty-four outside the Fengxi Gate, and every year it was specially placed for seafood." "The above materials all prove that the ancients used ice to preserve seafood.
Fruits and vegetables can also be stored by a special low temperature method – cellaring. The low temperature and high humidity of the cellar are conducive to maintaining the moisture of vegetables and fruits. The Northern Wei Jia Sixun's Qi Min Zhi Shu records the practice of cellaring vegetables: "In september and october, a pit was dug in the sun and sun south of the wall, four or five feet deep. Take the miscellaneous vegetables and plant them, one row of vegetables and one line of soil, go to the ridge for a foot and stop, cover it with a thick cover, and get through the winter, you must take it immediately. It is not different from summer cuisine. "In September and October, the vegetables are placed in the cellar, and they can be taken out in the winter and eaten, which is very convenient. Vegetables such as Chinese cabbage, carrots, radishes, and potatoes are very suitable for cellaring.
Cellar turnips. Source/Screenshot of Beijing Satellite TV News
The ancient methods of storing grain seem simple, but they are very practical, they are the wisdom of the ancestors from life. A variety of methods of grain storage reflect the positive and optimistic attitude of the ancestors.
In the list of contemporary hoarding dishes, many hoarding precautions actually coincide with the ancient people's hoarding ideas -
For example, the list of hoarded vegetables mentions that try not to buy washed vegetables, that is, to avoid the breeding of microorganisms with more water;
Another example is that the list also says that some vegetables can be wrapped in a layer of plastic wrap before putting them in the refrigerator, which is to reduce the contact between vegetables and air, while locking in moisture;
Another example is that the list suggests that there is no need to put potatoes, cabbage and other vegetables into the refrigerator to occupy the refrigerator space, because some vegetables only need a low-temperature and ventilated environment to store for a long time.
It is necessary to reserve a certain amount of necessities at the right time. However, everything needs to be measured, and it is not advisable to hoard grain!
Resources:
Tian Qing, ed., "Common Sense of World Culture Knows All", Blue Sky Publishing House, 2008.
Fang Xiaolian and Xie Hujun: "The Discovery and Research of Luoyang Hanjiacang", in Luoyang Museum, ed., Proceedings on the 50th Anniversary of the Establishment of Luoyang Museum, Elephant Publishing House, 2008.
Pan Yingjun: Cantonese Kitchen Treasure Book Series Cantonese Kitchen Treasure Book Cutting Board Article Upgraded Edition, Guangdong Science and Technology Publishing House, 2017.
Xu Hairong, editor-in-chief: A History of Chinese Diet (Volume 4), Hangzhou Publishing House, 2014.
Yu Weijie: A History of Chinese Food, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 2011.
Meng Xianjun, Zhang Baiqing, editors- in Storage and Processing Technology of Agricultural Products, Northeastern University Press, 2010.
"National Treasure Archives" column group editor: "National Treasure Archives Bronze Case", China Democracy and Legal Publishing House, 2018.
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