Dragon Gang air-dried beef
When it comes to Sichuan-Chongqing cuisine, everyone's first impression is spicy. What is less well known is that chili peppers are actually foreign imports, and the history of consumption in China is only about three hundred years. The peppercorn is a native plant in China, after thousands of years of history, it has occupied half of the condiment market, becoming the king of condiments, the first of the "thirteen spices"!
01
Folk love keepsake, royal concubines exclusively favored
With its simple and original sweet smell, peppercorns have successfully attracted the attention of ancients as early as the pre-Qin period.
"The more you pass away, the more you take it." See er like a thorn, muttch me hold the pepper. In the Book of Verses, the pepper is a love relic given to each other by young men and women, symbolizing beautiful, free and romantic love.
"The harem has a teahouse and a concubine's room" (Han Bangu's "Xidu Fu"). Since the Han Dynasty, peppercorns have become a symbol of exclusive favor in the royal family, used to apply to the palace walls where concubines live, named "Pepper Room", which not only describes the strong and luxuriant peppercorns, symbolizing many children and blessings, with strong vitality and fertility, but also shows that craftsmen take peppercorns and mud coatings, which is warm and fragrant.
02
Sichuan-Chongqing since ancient times "still taste, good spicy"
The cuisine of the Sichuan-Chongqing region is famous for its spicy, but many people believe that before the introduction of chili peppers to China, its diet was relatively bland.
In fact, as a native plant of China, peppercorns have been a specialty of the Sichuan-Chongqing region since ancient times.
"There is a bamboo leaf pepper called a pepper among the mountains of JinchengGao, and its shape is also like a Shu pepper, less poisonous and hot, and not a combination of medicine. Can be eaten and eaten. ”
This is a description of the Three Kingdoms Lu Jie in "Mao Shi Cao Mu Shu", which means that as early as the Three Kingdoms period, the sichuan and Chongqing regions of the peppercorns became the benchmark of the industry, and the evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of peppers in other places often takes "Shu peppers" as a reference.
In the Jin Dynasty, the Huayang Guozhi clearly had a record of the Shu people's "still taste, good spicy". According to food classics such as "Wu's ZhongfengLu", after the Tang and Song dynasties, the Sichuan-Chongqing region led the spicy spices based on peppercorns to gradually occupy the kitchens of Chinese, jumping from Sichuan-Chongqing specialties to one of the most mainstream condiments in Chinese food culture.
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Why all chefs love green peppers
Spicy is the most unique taste memory of the Sichuan-Chongqing diet, but for most Sichuan cuisine, "spicy" is only a short stay, and "hemp" is the real taste feast.
In general, peppercorns can be divided into two categories: safflower peppercorns and green peppercorns, and the vine peppers and peppercorns commonly found in Sichuan-Chongqing region belong to green peppercorns. Chefs generally prefer green peppercorns, why is that?
Compared with the mellow aroma of safflower peppercorns, green peppercorns are more primitive and wild, with a unique flavor of rich fragrance and long hemp flavor, focusing on the elaboration of "hemp", only three or five particles are needed when cooking food, and you can smell the hemp fragrance in a moment.
Studies have shown that the green pepper fruit contains more than 120 kinds of aroma components, and by stimulating the nerves on the tip of the tongue, it can simulate a vibration sensation of 50 hertz, thus making people feel crisp and refreshing.
Note: Image source network/intrusion deletion