Zigong, formerly known as "Artesian Well", is a famous salt capital in China. The salt produced is extracted from the salt well and then sent to the stove to boil it into salt blocks. In the old days, there were no mechanical applications, and the labor required was done by a huge number of scalpers. A salt well must use a few to a dozen cattle, and even a large salt well needs dozens of cattle. Coupled with the transport of cattle, with the prosperity of the artesian well salt industry, the number of cattle is spectacular. According to the Zigong local chronicle, there are more than 30,000 cattle in the Zigong salt farm all year round, and the locals laugh that "there are many short beef on the street and more cow dung in the mountains", although the words are harsh, but they are also quite expressive. Some people say that zigong cattle are not old and dead, not plague dead, tired, and exercise well, so the beef is particularly delicious. Also because there is a lot of beef, so people are also very particular about eating beef, and they have eaten a lot of famous dishes, such as boiled beef, stewed beef, dried sautéed beef, spicy beef jerky, dragon whisker beef and so on. But among the delicious Zigong beef, the most famous is "fireside beef".
Beef with fire edges
The legend of the delicious beef by fire
In the old Zigong Salt Well, many cattle died of exhaustion every day, pulling and pulling to the knees, seeing that it was not good, quickly loosening the ox noose, taking advantage of the fact that they had not yet swallowed and quickly released blood and peeling to keep the beef and offal fresh. The salt workers unloaded several pieces of the cattle, cut off the soft and moving parts of the meat such as the back of the ridge, beef brisket, etc., sliced into palm-sized flakes, smeared with spices, and baked in the stove next to the pot where the salt was boiled, until the water evaporated, the taste seeped in, and the beef overflowed, that is, it became a delicious taste that filled the hungry stomach, and the salt workers called it "fire edge beef".
"Fire edge beef" is to select the best fine beef to remove the skin mesh, open into more than one inch thick pieces of meat, spread flat on a diagonal wooden board nailed, and then use a very sharp thin knife to cut the beef horizontally into extremely thin slices. This opening is extremely skilled, requiring even thickness when pulled open, and can be faintly illuminated, but it does not allow a little leak. Then these beef flakes are smeared with an appropriate amount of salt, soy sauce, spices and white wine, hung in a ventilated place to dry, and then spread out one by one on the breathable big-eyed fence, which is supported by wooden beams, and the following is slowly smoked with a yin fire burning with beef dung, reaching crisp and not cottony, chewing up the slag into degrees. If you like to eat spicy, chop and mix with a little chili noodles. Some restaurants like to coat this kind of fire-edged beef that is more than a foot wide and more than two feet long with a layer of chili red oil, and hangs a sign on the façade, which looks bright red, oil-soaked, shiny, indeed curious and appetizing. In the eyes of the locals in Zigong, the fireside beef must be baked with beef dung, which is particularly delicious to eat, if it is replaced by bar carbon or something else, the taste is not authentic, and the taste is much worse.
Dry the beef fillets
There are many versions of the Zigong folk legend about the delicious beef by fire. It is said that the fireside beef was invented by the "called Hua Po" (beggar). From the middle of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century (during the Xianfeng and Tongzhi years), in the "Call hua camp" near Gongjing Lei Gongtan, there were many fallen Shanxi and Shaanxi people, who often grilled beef picked up by the fire to fill their hunger. After a long time, they will change the way they eat, meat slices, meat lumps, shredded meat, dipped in salt, dipping sauce, dipping pepper noodles, pepper noodles. "Barking Huazi" all have a dog stick to prevent being bitten by a dog when asking for food, and "Barking Huazi" also has a blade of knife for self-defense. The blade knife called Huazi is well fired and very sharp, so the beef slices are thinly sliced with a blade knife, which is convenient for roasting and easy to chew and digest.
It is also said that in the past, there was a young man named Zeng Shugen in the salt workers, known as Zeng Erwa, who was very agile, and his father was a famous "guy room" (cook) in Da'an, specializing in beef. His mother, Zeng Wang, was industrious and frugal, kind and capable, and well-run the family. Because her family was poor and could not afford firewood, she saw a lot of undigested grain grass and gourd beans in the pile of cow dung, and wondered if she could use it as firewood? So she mixed the thin and wet cow dung with some sticky yellow mud to make a round book with a diameter of about a foot, resembling a large cake, and Wang gave them a nice name, called cow. A few days later, the cow dung attached to the wall or stone wall was dried, she took it home to try to burn, but it was easier to burn than firewood, this cow flame was green and dark, and the stove not only did not smell of cow, but emitted a strange fragrance.
Slice beef competition
Zeng Erwa is also as clever as his mother, he often brings back beef from the salt works, cuts the beef into large knives that do not make pieces, marinates them into a brine tank, carefully cuts the fine beef into a book with a fast knife, and then pastes the pieces on the bamboo fence one by one, puts the seasonings, and lets it dry as soon as possible. After the moisture of this kind of book beef is dried, he thought of smoking like bacon, smoked with pine branches, peanut shells, etc., but the beef itself lacks grease, and the smoked beef always has a smell of smoke, the taste is not good, several experiments are unsuccessful, Zeng Erwa feels a little discouraged.
While observing, the mother reminded her son, "You try it with cow shit!" The son asked incomprehensibly, "So how not to stink from smoking?" The mother smiled, took her son's hand to the stove, told him to smell the smell from the stove, the son took a deep breath, did not feel the smell of smoke, only felt a fragrance. Zeng Erwa's eyes lit up and rushed out of the door, nailed a grill with 12 wooden sticks, put the cold and dried sliced beef on the sides, entered the house with fire tongs to clip out a few pieces of beef dung that were burning, put it under the shelf and burned, only to see the edge of the cow glowing with a slight green and faint fire, without a little smoke smell, just roasted on the sliced beef, an hour later, Zeng Erwa took off the beef slices that were almost roasted on the shelf, brushed it with a layer of red oil spicy seeds, cut the beef into small pieces, put it in the mouth to taste, and suddenly felt strange I had never eaten such a delicious thing, and my mother also felt that its taste was special, so she gave some to the neighbors to taste, and everyone said yes, and everyone was disgusted. Due to the special fragrance of cow dung, the edge of the fire of cow dung is not high or low, and there is no odor. Therefore, this practice of roasting beef jerky with cow dung spread, and people later called it "fireside beef".
Grilled beef with fire edges
At the beginning of the nineteenth century (the last year of the Qing Dynasty), due to the abundant resources of Gongjing beef and the price was much cheaper than pork, the beef street of Gongjing came into being. The street is not big, no more than a hundred meters long, and there are dozens of shops that specialize in killing cattle and selling beef. Among them, Li Sanxing, a cattle killer born as a salt worker, opened his own shop that sold both cattle and beef. He bought young, strong cattle from the salt mills that were tired alive. These cattle are muscular and tender, and he uses them to roast the fire-edged beef, which is particularly fragrant and soft, tender and tender, and once launched, it is very popular, and the business is hot and makes a lot of money. So many people have followed suit, but the taste is always inferior to Li Sanxing. Of course, such things are legends, although they are not found in official books and historical materials, they are also vivid and interesting, adding a bit of interest and flavor to the unique snack of fireside beef.
Authentic fire-edged beef
Fireside beef specialties and food taste
Originating from the Qianlong era of the Qing Dynasty, Huobianzi beef has become a famous specialty of Sichuan in the late Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic, and together with Daxian Dengying beef, Langzhong Zhangfei beef and Chengdu Pixian Taihe beef, it is called "Bashu Beef Four Perfections". As a Zigong-style snack, although it is similar to the "Dengying Beef" in Daxian County, the Huobianzi Beef also has its own unique characteristics. Its knife skills are amazing, as thin as pieces of paper, long and fragrant, extremely resistant to taste, accompanied by wine and idle eating, delicious taste and full of Chinese reputation.
The selection and workmanship of the fireside beef are very elaborate. Under the careful improvement of successive generations of makers, the traditional production process has been maintained, and the flavor characteristics have been continuously improved. Later, the beef on the fire side was only taken from the "drill beef" (leg key meat) on the hind legs of the cow and opened into large sheets. Then nail the slices of meat to the wooden board reclining on the wall, and then smear a little salt, soy sauce, spice powder marinade, and then spread the slices on the bamboo fence, after exposure to remove moisture, hang in the ventilation place to cool and dry, and then spread on the special mesh fence, the following with dry beef to light a small fire, slowly roasted, while slowly smoking by tobacco, until the beef slices emit aroma, golden red color, eat crispy slag, do not stick to the teeth, and then rub on the prepared chili red oil, pepper oil, sesame oil. The beef roasted in this way with cow dung cake has a clear flavor. However, with the gradual mechanization of the salt wells, the cow dung was gone, and the bar charcoal stove was used to bake, but there was no special fragrance, and the taste was also worse.
Fireside beef in restaurants
Fireside beef is a processed beef food with a unique flavor and taste, which is very different from the ordinary beef jerky casual snacks. It is definitely a delicacy with wine, but it is not suitable for eating, as a snack is the most wonderful, not only the beef is crisp and fragrant, the entrance slag, the traditional fireside beef In addition to the aroma of the meat flavor itself, there is also a fragrance of grass and trees, which makes people want to eat more and more. You see the child and the girl, holding it in your hand, tearing a small wisp into your mouth, chewing slowly, both soft and slaggy, seven tastes and eight tastes, the more you chew, the more fragrant, eat leisurely and comfortable, so uncomfortable.
The fireside beef has been passed down to the present, I am afraid that it has been more than two hundred years, and it is still thriving. In the past, it was mostly made in the traditional craft of family or individual small workshops, although the output was small, but it was very delicately made and the taste was also very exquisite. Today's mechanized mass production, the flavor taste is naturally much less than the traditional handicraft. Manufacturers, shopping malls, supermarkets and those beautifully packaged fireside beef, as a long-established and famous Zigong special snack, is still the first choice for many people to give to relatives and friends.
At the 1983 National Pickled Wax Products Appraisal Conference, Huobian beef scored the highest and was praised as a must in the Chinese national food culture. In 1988, he won the Quality Product Award of the Ministry of Commerce and the Silver Award of the First China Food Expo, and then won the Gold Award of the Bashu Food Festival. China Central Television included "Beef by Fire" as "China's Best". The TV film "Eight Thousand Miles of Clouds and Moons" by the famous Taiwanese artist Ling Feng also introduces this unique Chinese cuisine at considerable length. Fireside beef is also included in the "Chinese Famous Food Dictionary".
A casual snack with beef by fire
Sichuan Cuisine Culture Scholar "Sichuan Province Zhi • Sichuan Cuisine Chronicle" Deputy Editor-in-Chief Sichuan Cuisine "Old Stubborn Family Professor Tang" Consultant "Legend of Sichuan Cuisine in a Hundred Years", "History of Sichuan Cuisine on the Roadside", "Three Hundred Years of Spicy Hemp Temptation" Author Original · Jianghu Gluttony East 2019.12.21 Chengdu