Speaking of the Tang Dynasty, it was a period of relatively developed economy and relatively comfortable people's lives. But during this period, meat was always relatively scarce, which was considered a luxury in ancient times. And there are also provisions that eating beef is nominally illegal and subject to heavy sentences. Regarding this eating meat, there is an anecdote that has to be said, that is, Tang Taizong believes that chicken is not meat, what is the logic of this?
1. The staple food of the Tang Dynasty people was mainly pasta.
2. Or more specifically, it is mainly based on cakes, and there are dozens of kinds of cakes (in fact, all kinds of steamed buns are also called cakes, and the categories contained in cakes at that time were more than now).
3. In the Tang Dynasty notebook novel "Record of Words", it is mentioned that "the world is heavy cake".
4. All kinds of history books, novels, and poems often appear in various cakes, such as steamed cakes, pancakes, hu cakes, soup cakes, and so on.
5. At that time, meat was mainly mutton.
6. Eating beef is nominally a crime and is subject to heavy sentences, although there is not too much pork.
7. The problem with lamb is that the taste is large, so the pepper that can be defused is extremely high at that time, and the price is also very expensive.
8. What, you ask why not eat chicken, duck and goose meat?
9. This is an interesting topic.
10. Because in the Tang Dynasty, sometimes poultry meat such as chicken, duck and goose was not counted as meat.
11. It is said that there is also a small story, the early Tang Dynasty once forbade Yushi to eat meat when he went to the place, but the tang dynasty name Soma Zhou was particularly fond of eating chicken, and then he was sued.
12. Tang Taizong said, "I forbid yushi to eat meat, fear the prefecture and county guangfei, and eat chicken." The meaning is probably that I am afraid of extravagance and waste, so I forbid Yushi to eat meat, but how can eating chicken count as meat?
13. In fact, The editor is not only concerned about why chickens, ducks and geese are not counted as meat, but also why Tang Taizong does not give Yushi meat.
14. Can you still make people a good civil servant?
15. Okay, come back. Regarding meat, I would like to add that at that time, the fishing and hunting atmosphere in the Tang Dynasty was very popular, and fishing was very common.
16. At that time, there was a very, very famous dish - "cut salmon", which is actually today's sashimi.
17. Prey obtained from hunting, such as deer, rabbits, wild boars, and bears, also often appeared on the dinner table of the Tang Dynasty.
18. Let's talk about vegetables, now very common tomatoes, potatoes, green peppers, sweet potatoes, onions, peppers, corn, guess how many tang dynasty people can eat?
19. The answer is zero, none of which were available at the time.
20. So it simply can't appear on their home-cooked menu.
21. Even the common Chinese cabbage (then called "pineapple") and spinach (then called "bolly") are not common vegetables.
22. Cabbage is because of poor quality, and spinach is just introduced at a price that is too expensive.
23. So what were the most common vegetables at that time?
24. Okra.
25. Don't get me wrong, it's not the okra that has been very popular lately.
26. In fact, it is sunflower vegetables, called "winter amaranth", Du Fu has a poetry cloud: "Rice cooking can be white, okra boiled and restored." Who is slippery and easy to full, the old is soft and even. ”
27. There is also a very common vegetable called Xue, and Du Fu also has a poetry cloud: "Inside the hermit chai gate, the vegetables go around the autumn." Ying Basket promises to reveal xue, not waiting for the letter to ask. "Now this dish is also available, the name is "Lycamore", but it is also very uncommon, only in some provinces and cities in the south.
28. It seems that Du Fu may be a good man at home, and may even cook.
29. Speaking of methods, the practice at that time was relatively monotonous, basically boiling, steaming, and roasting, and frying had to be only available in the Song Dynasty.
30. This is also the original taste
31. But how can people with heavier tastes bear it? It's okay, and the spices.
32. At that time, there were still many spices, and the commonly used peppercorns, peppercorns, cardamom, cinnamon, and tangerine peel were all there.
33. There are also some more complex spices such as tempeh, bean paste, onion, ginger and garlic are also available, and salt is definitely there.
34. However, MSG and chicken essence, which were only available in modern times, were certainly not available at that time, and there were no peppers.
35. Many ancient poems mention the spices used for cooking at that time, such as "steamed pork with garlic sauce, hot duck with pepper and salt." Boneless fresh fish, and skin cooked meat face".
36. The translation is "pork steamed with garlic paste, roasted duck dipped in salt and pepper, sashimi, sheep with skin or pork head meat".
37. For example, "the scales are as white as snow, steamed with cinnamon ginger" and so on, it can be seen that the Tang people's use of spices is very close to modern times, and the methods are also very diverse.
38. At that time, vinegar was also available, and it was not uncommon to cook with wine.
39. In addition, the Tang Dynasty also had sugar, but at that time the more common name was "dumplings", more specifically it should be maltose, and there were also dumplings added to make drinks, which were called "dumplings".
40. At that time, the process of making dumplings was very exquisite, and the quality of the dumplings produced was very high, as Li Shangyin said, "Porridge fragrant white apricot blossom day".
41. As for the sucrose, it was just emerging, or the production process that Xuanzang brought back from Tianzhu, and since then, granulated sugar has gradually become popular.
42. Specifically, the food customs of all parts of the Tang Dynasty throughout the country were certainly not the same, so let's talk about the home cooking of a Chang'an citizen as an example.
43. First breakfast. Tang Dynasty breakfast, the most common "dumplings (餺飥)". Simply put, it's noodle soup. That's about it.
44. Another common breakfast is "porridge", which is said to be a simple and nutritious thing like porridge, which is also a favorite of the Tang people, such as Bai Juyi's "This spring is cold, ask yourself what you want." Su Nuan Xue baijiu, milk and ground yellow porridge. Another example is Pi RiXiu's "There is wheat food in the morning, and there is cloth cloth in the morning." Among them, the food is also porridge.
45. At that time, the practice of porridge was more diverse than that of contemporary times, and in the Tang Dynasty's medical work "Food and Medicine Heart", there was a special part of the porridge, which mentioned various methods, raw materials from rice to white sorghum rice, corn, barley rice, barley, wheat, japonica rice, accessories from vegetables to meat to fruits to dried fruits, which can be called all-encompassing.
46. Just a few high-appearances.
47. Flax porridge (sesame porridge). At that time, I liked to add sesame seeds to the rice, such as Wang Wei's "royal soup and chalcedony, fragrant rice into the flax", porridge is also indispensable, so there is flax porridge (sesame porridge).
48. Cold food wheat porridge. During the Cold Food Festival, according to the "Tang Six Classics", the recipes of civil servants included cold food wheat porridge. As for the folk, eat more cold porridge during the cold food festival.
49. Cold porridge does not taste very good, so it is very common to eat almond porridge.
50. The method is to "eat three days in the cold, make liquor, and then boil japonica rice and wheat as cheese, and pound almonds to cook as porridge." According to the Jade Candle Treasure Book, today's people know that it is barley porridge, grinding almonds as cheese, and don't take it as a feast" ("Yi Zhongzhi"), which is simply barley porridge plus ground almonds, plus dumplings (maltose).
51. Of course, in addition to the noodle soup and porridge, there are definitely other options for breakfast, such as: steamed cakes. Simply put, all the noodles steamed in the basket can be called steamed cakes. (Of course, this includes steamed buns, but not limited to steamed buns, and some similar buns), some directly steamed, some steamed with oil, and some steamed with dried fruits and fillings (already very much like buns).
52. Pick a famous introduction: Zitui steamed cake, which is also the seasonal food of the Cold Food Festival, can also be eaten today.
53. Another super super famous staple food with a high appearance rate is the beard cake. Bai Juyi has a poem "Flax Cake Sample Learning Kyoto, Crispy Oil Aroma Newly Baked", which tells the story of Bai Dashi poet who copied a famous hu cake shop in the capital and then made it to send a friend. The method of the hu cake is about white flour cake embryos, sprinkled with sesame seeds, and baked in the oven - considering that this thing comes from the western region, the method is the same as that of the naan. It is also the same origin as the burnt cake.
54. Now it's time for dinner. In the Tang Dynasty's dinner, it is said that meat is of course the first to promote mutton, and the practice of mutton at that time was not very rich, to name a few. Raw lamb, this dish was handed down from the Sui Dynasty, simply put, raw lamb chopped and mixed with spices, the taste of what to imagine it - sorry this really has no picture.
55. Astragalus lamb, which is considered a medicinal food, is astragalus and lamb boiled soup.
56. There is also a dish that can be counted as a famous dish in the famous dishes of the time- "Hun Sheep And Death", and the method is also very strange, as the Taiping Guangji says: "Take the goose, burn the hair, and go to the five viscera, brew meat and sticky rice, and mix the five flavors." Take a bite of the sheep first, peel it off, and remove the stomach. Place the goose in the sheep and stitch it up. If the lamb is cooked, it is a sheep. Take the goose and eat it. "To put it simply, it is to kill the sheep and geese and then go to the internal organs and shed their hair, and then put the seasoned glutinous rice and meat in the belly of the goose, put the goose in the belly of the sheep, and then roast the sheep, and when the lamb is roasted, go and eat the goose." But there's still a place to do it.
57. After talking about lamb, let's talk about beef. Although it is nominally forbidden to eat, since ancient times, our people have the ability to have countermeasures under the policy, and I am not allowed to kill cattle, but if the cow dies accidentally, you can eat it, right? So there are still dishes made from beef.
58. The boiled beef head, in the "BeihuLu" is recorded as follows: "The southerners take the tender bull's head and burn it on the fire, re-use the soup (blanching) hair to remove the roots, wash it again, add wine and onion ginger to cook it, cut it as large as a palm piece, mix it with Su paste pepper oranges and the like, all of which are filled in the bottle urn with mud and mud, and re-burned on the fire, and its name is called praise." The method is very complicated, you can roast the head of the cow first, add a variety of wine, tempeh, green onion and ginger to cook, and then mix with spices and seal it in a large urn with mud, bury it and light it on the fire and slowly roast it. How does it taste? It is said to be more delicious than bear paws.
59. There is also a famous dish "goose and duck burning", which is said to be the favorite of Wu Zetian's favorite minister Zhang Yizhi, but it is very cruel, put the goose and duck in a metal cage, roast it with charcoal, and then put the seasoning sauce, the goose and duck start pouring the sauce as soon as it is hot, until the goose and duck are roasted to death, the taste is also in, and the meat is just cooked.
60. Speaking of pork, which has a less strong sense of existence, the most common practice at that time was to eat it after steaming it.
61. In addition, there is a need to focus on the "fish fish", what is it? As mentioned above, it is sashimi. Yes, Japanese sashimi was passed down from the Tang Dynasty, but today it is passed back from Japan. Sashimi this thing, at home and abroad is also similar, take fresh fish, or cut into slices, or cut into strips, dipped in spices to eat, this is the top dish at that time, because cutting fish fillets on the knife skill requirements are very high.
62. After talking about meat, let's talk about the dish. Let's start with okra, which is also available in contemporary times, and the most common method is stew.
63. There is also a famous dish "vinegar parsley", which is the favorite of Wei Zheng, a famous minister in the early Tang Dynasty. It's now vinegar-stained celery.
64. Finally, the Tang Dynasty people liked to order fruits after eating home-cooked meals, and oranges, lychees, pipa, longan, pears, peaches, dates, apricots, plums, and cherries were all common fruits at that time.
65. Such a home-cooked dish, it feels good to eat.