Mouth full of soup juice fresh meat buns

Wang Liubao

Fresh meat buns, Ningbo people commonly known as buns. It is not only a public early breakfast, but also a must-have for the wedding ceremony of Ningbo people in the early years, and it embodies the wish of the early birth of a noble son. Nowadays, the taste of the buns on the market varies greatly, so if you want to taste the delicious meat buns with a mouthful of soup, you may wish to do it yourself.

Making buns is also a return to my old business. At the end of 1979, I "served as a father" and worked as an apprentice at the Zhusilan Restaurant of Feng'ao Supply and Marketing Society in Yinxian County, where I studied under Master Zhu, Master Ying and Master Dong of Hengjie, all three of whom were well-known local pastry chefs. The work in the restaurant is not easy, every day at 2 o'clock in the morning, I have to get up to fetch water, chop wood, and distribute dough (Ningbo people commonly call "hair cake"). Because of my diligent learning from teachers, in the 1981 "Five Stresses and Four Beauty" activity, I was rated as an advanced pacesetter in the drinking and apparel industry in Yinxian County, which is a proud honor for me. Fast forward 40 years, and "getting back to the old business" has been my dream for decades, but unfortunately these years have not been idle. During this epidemic, I stayed at home all day and had leisure, so I made buns at both ends for three days, in addition to making them myself, I also brought apprentices, and the apprentices were a few foreign boys in the company. If you say that 40 years ago, I learned to make buns to start a family and support my family, and if I remade buns after 40 years, it may be nostalgia.

To make a good bun of fresh meat, the selection of ingredients is the first. One of the ingredients is fresh native pork. Generally, you should choose the front clamp or front leg meat of the meat pig, ningbo old saying: "To eat meat, you must eat the front sandwich meat, and the head should be made up of the old adult." "The front clamp and front leg meat are live meat, and the meat is tender. Go to the vegetable market to buy meat and test your eyesight. A knife of meat is placed on the meat stall table, and you have to pick the soft and collapsed one, not the hard, thick leg meat. The purchased pork is cut off from the lean meat, chopped into minced meat, and set aside; the fat and pork skin are simmered for about an hour and simmered to a frozen state (the soup in the bun is mainly from it). In order to concoct a delicious minced meat, the proportion of the seasoning is key. For example, 2.5 kg of high-grade pork is usually accompanied by a soup made of 2 kg of meat skin and plate oil, plus 400 g of Ningbo traditional brewed soy sauce, 1 kg of green onion, 10 g of ginger shredded and an appropriate amount of salt. The meat filling thus made has the characteristics of freshness, pine and aroma.

The second ingredient is old cakes, refined flour, and they are used to make bun skins. For example, with 2.5 kg of old cake (old cake refers to the leftover dough used in the first few days), it is necessary to add 30 grams of edible alkali, 50 grams of salt, 100 grams of white sugar, 50 grams of yeast, and 5 kg of fine flour. When stirring these ingredients, add hot water little by little and rub it repeatedly on the table. The flour is kneaded into a ball and then proceeds to fermentation, which usually takes an hour. Controlling the temperature is the key to fermentation, and it is best to maintain it at thirty-six or seven degrees Celsius. If there is no incubator, you can take the soil method: put the flour dough in the container, put a large basin with hot boiling water on the top and bottom, and the heat is pinched up and down, and the fermentation speed is fast. Fermentation time should be flexibly mastered according to the season and temperature, can not be moved hard, of course, in the incubator storage for an hour is the most convenient. Here, there is another secret: knead the flour dough on the principle of non-sticky hands, and the surface can also be coated with some rice oil (rice oil is bran oil, which is closest to the taste of flour. Can also be replaced with vegetable oil, soybean oil, olive oil) so that the dough does not crust.

After repeated kneading of the dough, if the amount is large, it can not be done at once, and the surface can be covered with plastic wrap to avoid dry knots due to water evaporation. Next is to prepare the meat filling in the skin. Remove about 50 grams of dough, flatten them into a circle with a rolling pin, and hold the diameter of the skin at about 8 centimeters, with thin edges and slightly thicker in the middle. Then put a spoonful of meat filling on each piece of skin, fold it on your hand, and finally twist it with your fingers to form a circle of even, beautiful pattern. The spiral and radial pattern is a unique symbol that distinguishes buns from pasta such as steamed buns and flower rolls. The skill of wrapping the meat filling, in addition to the shape, must also be wrapped tightly, once there is a gap, the soup will leak out after the bun is steamed.

Finally, arrange the buns evenly in a steamer basket and steam them in boiling water for about 20 minutes. When it comes out of the cage, the fresh meat is slightly yellowish in the white, and the skin is thin and filling, which makes people feel raw under the tongue at a glance. When tasting a large bun of fresh meat, be sure to prepare a small bowl and taste it carefully to prevent the soup from splashing your face.

This year's "May Day" holiday, I tried to make a soup fresh meat bun again, and the big guys ate it and responded well. Next, I want to make a video of the production process, put it in the WeChat circle of friends, and share it with the group friends.