☀ Ancient emperors ate a meal, dozens of dishes at every turn, how to deal with the leftovers that were not eaten?
In ancient China, emperors were revered as the "Son of Heaven", representing supreme status and power, and their daily lives were naturally extremely luxurious, especially in terms of food.
The emperor's meal is regarded as the supreme treatment, symbolizing the dignity and wealth of the imperial power, whether it is in film and television dramas or historical records, the emperor's food always gives people the impression of abundance and luxury.
Flying from the sky, running on the ground, swimming in the water, everything, these delicacies that ordinary people can't eat once in their lives are commonplace here for the emperor.
For example, the Empress Dowager Cixi during the Qing Dynasty, it is said that she had 108 dishes at each meal, which makes people wonder how the emperor enjoyed so many dishes and how to deal with the unfinished meals.
But in actual historical records, the emperor's meals were not as extravagant as imagined. In fact, their diet is not much different from that of ordinary people, only more elaborate in their practices and more refined in taste.
Take the emperor Song Xiaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty as an example, Song Xiaozong chose to prefer crabs because he loved mutton very much, but mutton was rare, and he got the reputation of "crab idiot".
Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, because he was born poor and knew the sufferings of the people, stipulated that future generations must eat some folk wild vegetables and porridge, so as to experience the life of the people and be an honest and loving emperor.
Of course, this did not mean that the emperor's meals were no different from ordinary people, and even if some ordinary dishes were added to the table, the vast majority of the dishes on the imperial table were those with fine workmanship.
For example, Emperor Xianfeng once used green vegetables and pork to entertain ministers, this pork is made by a special method, but its pork is made of the backbone meat of more than a dozen pigs, and the essence of the whole body is gathered in these dishes, so the taste is extremely delicious, so that every courtier present can not help but admire.
It can be seen that even ordinary ingredients can become extremely delicious through superb cooking skills, and the different tastes of the emperors of the past dynasties make the cuisine of the imperial cuisine have their own merits.
But no matter how it changes, the purpose of the Imperial Diet has never changed, the pursuit of delicacy and freshness of ingredients, even ordinary things, in the hands of master chefs can also glow extraordinary flavors, can enter the palace chefs, undoubtedly have otherworldly cooking skills, each has its own specialty dishes, can make a grass and a tree decay into magic.
However, in the face of the chefs, the emperors often only taste a few bites of each dish after carefully preparing the imperial meals, is it true that these exquisite dishes are actually difficult to swallow?
The reason for this was closely related to the emperor's own safety concerns, and in ancient times, the emperor was often threatened with assassination, and poisoning his diet was a very common method.
Therefore, the royal imperial diet must go through layers of checks, from the purchase of ingredients to the harem meal, every link is as anti-death as a thief, each dish must go through strict inspection before being served, including silver needle poison test and special person tasting and other procedures, to ensure that nothing goes wrong, nevertheless, for the sake of insurance, the emperor can only taste a few bites and stop chopsticks, because this can minimize the risk of poisoning.
If you eat a lot of poisonous food, even a miracle doctor will be unable to save your life, of course, there is another important reason, that is, the emperor can't eat so much in his stomach, so where will the emperor's uneaten imperial food end up?
In fact, the emperor's leftover meals were disposed of in a variety of ways, and they could be given to his subordinates or concubines in the palace, a seemingly insignificant reward that was a great honor for these recipients.
The emperor's leftovers could also be sold to the people, and if the emperor did not specifically designate who to be rewarded, then the leftovers would be collected by the people in the imperial dining room and transported outside the imperial city.
They will sort the leftovers according to quality, sell the better quality to the restaurant, and the worse quality to the common people, so as not only to avoid waste, but also to obtain certain economic benefits.
Although the food of the ancient emperors was extremely luxurious to outsiders, in fact, their diet was not much different from that of ordinary people. The emperors' food was more about refinement and innovation than quantity, and while enjoying the food, they had to take care of safety and taste each dish carefully.
As for the leftovers that can not be eaten, they will also be skillfully disposed of, which not only reflects the virtue of frugality, but also increases additional income, which shows that the emperor's table is not only luxurious, but also more intelligent and strategic, this series of institutional design, so that the royal kitchen can run efficiently, has become an important part of ancient court life.
