Author: Yao Yufei
(Qu Hongyu)
In the thirty-fourth year of Guangxu (1908), the military minister Qu Hongyu (1850-1918) was deposed by the imperial court and returned to his hometown of Changsha, where he had been away for a long time. Qu Hongyu, who temporarily put up the mountain forest, built a super view building by the Xiang River, calling for friends and companions every day, drinking and writing poetry, and from time to time climbing to WangyueLu. State affairs could not be asked, and for Qu Hongyu, reorganizing the internal affairs of the family was put on the agenda. The Qu clan was a member of the Changsha Wang clan, and Qu Hongyu's father, Qu Yuanlin, was also the head of the official department. For the Qu family, which has been an official for generations, the most important family activity is undoubtedly sacrifice. To this end, Qu Hongyu personally formulated a full set of regulations for the ancestor worship of the Qu clan in Changsha. This statute covers the order, timing, sacrifices, and offerings of sacrifices, and more details the many names of late Qing Xiang cuisine.
This menu of sacrifices, hidden in volume VI of the Changsha Qu Family Ride, contains a list of sacrifices for two important festivals, the Winter Solstice and the Zhongyuan Festival, of which the Winter Solstice Festival is a single day, and the Zhongyuan Festival is from July 10 to July 15, with nearly 1500 words and nearly 200 dishes. Although the dishes of the sacrifice are for the enjoyment of the gods, Chinese accustomed to enjoying these leftovers after the sacrifice, so the menu of this sacrifice can still be regarded as the precious Changsha menu of 1908. The Hunan cuisine menu that was so completed was unprecedented 110 years ago, as far as I know. In order to preserve the literature, here is a list of all the menus:
Winter Solstice Full Table Menu:
Sixteen: steamed ham, sauced duck, marinated chicken, crispy crucian carp, red shrimp, winter shoots, mixed leeks, peeled eggs, honey plums, mountain cake, almonds, melon seeds, green vegetables, kumquats, oranges, sugar cane;
Eight plates: red simmered shark fin, yellow braised mandarin fish, eight treasure fruit rice, winter vegetable fat duck, squid fillet, rotten chicken, stewed lamb, sauce elbow;
Eight bowls: red simmered ginseng, tiger skin pigeon egg, dried fried shrimp, braised wild duck, red simmered abalone, money chicken, water chestnut cake, stuffed morel mushrooms;
Four plates of dim sum: fried spring rolls, fried rice balls, large buns, roasted wheat.
Mid-meta section menu:
On the evening of the 10th day of the first month, it is
Sixteen seaweeds: steamed ham, crispy crucian carp, red shrimp, smoked chicken, stinging, peeled eggs, mixed leeks, fried water chestnuts, almonds, melon seeds, honey kumquat, dates, apples, pomegranates, jade belt cakes, Taishi cakes;
Six small bowls: osmanthus shark fin, fish fillet, embroidered sea cucumber, slippery chicken, bamboo vegetables, yellow fungus;
Dim Sum: Nine bowls of marinated noodles.
Eleventh Day:
Eight bowls of early serving: egg dumplings and sea cucumbers, steamed crucian carp, shrimp bean sprouts, ginger sprouts fried chicken, Yaozhu kale, ham winter melon, leek fried cuttlefish shreds, cabbage fungus roasted meatballs;
Eight bowls for lunch: duck in sauce, squid fillet stew, steamed pork with lotus leaves, braised mandarin fish with salt and pepper, lamb stew, fried chicken and duck offal, stir-fried pork with ling'er, Shaoxing tofu;
Evening offering: sauce elbow, sausage, smoked fish, fried chicken, sea shrimp, scrambled salt eggs, dried incense, mixed beans, baked green beans, sugar walnuts, bergamot slices, winter melon dumplings, diamond horn, lotus root, lotus flour cake, jade dew cream;
Dim sum: dumplings.
12 days:
Eight bowls of early serve: sea cucumber, chicken stewed with diamond horn, shredded squid with golden hook, braised flat fish, dried clams and simmered radish, shrimp scrambled eggs, mushroom roasted gluten, leek roasted tofu;
Lunch is fully served.
Sixteen: steamed ham, roasted duck, red shrimp, crispy fish, real pick Yaozhu, salt and vinegar chicken, slippery winter, dried leeks, almonds, spiced melon seeds, honey cherries, plums, apples, pomegranates, bergamots, large persimmons (no or with large peaches, citrons, oranges, grapes);
Eight bowls: stewed shark's fin, Sichuan winter vegetable stewed duck, sweet and sour crucian carp, eight treasure fruit rice, stewed lamb, red stewed elbow, sea cucumber, button chicken;
Eight small bowls: white fungus, pigeon eggs, fried shrimp, gill, chicken, squash, pot sticker fish, stuffed lamb tripe;
Dim sum two (four) road: date paste buns, cakes, crispy seeds, hot dumplings;
16 plates for dinner: meat floss, fried chicken gizzard liver, golden hook shrimp ginger sprouts, mixed with kelp shreds, rotten fish, brine eggs, sweet and sour radish, fried lentils, Da Hong Pao peanuts, fried sycamore seeds, guiyuan, lychee, lotus, flower red, egg cake, walnut crisp;
Dim sum: boiled lilies;
Thirteenth:
Eight bowls of early serving: shrimp sea cucumber, hibiscus crucian carp, orchid mushroom meat slice soup, smoked chicken, radish fried pork liver (or white sliced meat), small stir-fried lamb, hibiscus flower egg soup, golden hook shrimp cabbage;
Eight bowls for lunch: Eight treasure duck, steamed white fish, stewed fish maw, braised turtle, fried waist flower, taro stew, shrimp roasted tofu, dried red pepper meat cubes;
Late 16: sweet wine lees ham, ribs, sautéed stings, rotten fish, marinated chicken gizzards, fried silver fish, spicy cabbage, fried yam, orchid beans, umedin, jackfruit, white raisins, rose cakes, money cakes, water chestnuts, sugar cane;
Dim Sum: Wontons;
Fourteenth Day:
Eight bowls of early serving: sea cucumber with fat sauce, cannon belly tip, dried clams simmered lilies, eel fillets, chicken down taro puree, shrimp curd steamed eggs, Yaozhu roasted radish, olive meatball noodles;
Eight bowls for lunch: butterfly sea cucumber, steamed elbows in soy sauce, braised fish skin, mussel stew, stir-fried shell shrimp, crucian carp tofu, fried water chestnut balls, shrimp roasted Sichuan bamboo shoots;
Evening offerings: marinated meat, duck tongue, fried dried clams, fish fillets, leek scrambled egg skin, golden hook shrimp mixed with moss, fried soybeans, cang peanuts, honey loquat, persimmon cakes, soybean oil rolls, green shoots, mooncakes, cakes, cold dates, pineapples;
Dim sum: tangyuan (if not used, use large buns);
Fifteenth Day:
Eight bowls of braised sea cucumber, green ribbon, ham sandwiched meat, steamed chicken with fragrant lees, salt and pepper mandarin fish, shrimp balls, mushroom winter amaranth broth, golden needle fungus poached egg;
Eight bowls for lunch: 1 poinsettia of sea cucumber, mackerel stew, white sliced chicken, duck in sauce, braised fish lips, steamed fish, lychee squid, braised gluten;
Late 16 canes: honey ham, salted vinegar chicken (or fried chicken slices), fish floss, oil shrimp, rotten crab (no pickled duck, sausage, etc.), fried cuttlefish shreds, bamboo shoots, pickled toon, fried almonds (or pine nuts), spiced melon seeds, southern dates, guiyuan (or preserved fruits), orange cakes, citron strips, oranges, oranges, grapes;
Six small bowls: shark fin soup, sea cucumber shredded, pigeon egg, shrimp cake, osmanthus fungus, fried fish fillet;
Dim sum: Three silk clear noodle soup.
This thirty-four year menu, roughly accurate, so as not to be duplicated. If the appropriate value is not available in the day, it can still be moved and replaced at any time.
On the twelfth day of this year, the festival is held, and in the early morning, there are fishermen who come to the door to sell anchovies, get a tail, very fresh, I am afraid that it will change the taste for a long time, because it is steamed before the main festival. If there is anchovy on the fourteenth day, the same can be done later. New fruits and vegetables are included in the offerings.
Wine offering:
Chen Shaojiu fifteen pounds, three times sold;
Mulberry wine, ice plum wine, sand kernel wine, mint wine (or fenjiu), one pound each;
It is often used for shaojiu, and hejiu is used intermittently.
Photocopy of Qu Hongyu's hand-ordered food list
It can be seen from this menu that the main containers for Hunan cuisine at that time were dishes (楪) and bowls, and the dishes mainly held dishes with little soup juice, mostly boiled, stir-fried, steamed and other dishes; Most of the bowls are simmered and stewed into large dishes, often with soup; In addition, some dried goods and desserts are also placed in the dish, of course, this may be related to the way the food is placed during the sacrifice. The dim sum is only fried spring rolls, fried tangyuan, large buns, roasted wheat, dumplings, noodles, boiled lilies and other kinds, which shows that the Xiangdian white case has not been prosperous enough, but in fact has its own origins. In addition, this menu also gives us some tips, some dishes that are considered strange today, but are actually more common, such as braised fish lips.
Overall, compared to the Hunan cuisine that people know today, this menu of Qu Hongyu's family is very unhunished. Chili peppers are rare on this menu. In fact, a thorough examination of the menus of all seven sacrifices shows that there is only one dish containing chili peppers – dried red pepper diced meat. At the same time, there are very few that clearly belong to Hunan cuisine, but there is a case of Sichuan cuisine - spicy cabbage. A poinsettia of sea cucumbers, braised sea cucumbers, ducks in sauce, etc., obviously from Lu cuisine. Honey ham, ham sandwich meat is Zhejiang cuisine, fish stew, crab is Suzhou cuisine, white slice chicken is white cut chicken, is Cantonese cuisine. Other dishes also come from Lu cuisine, Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine and Huaiyang cuisine, and few can be covered by today's definition of Hunan cuisine. Not only is the Hunan flavor in the dishes not obvious enough, even if the wine is used by the Qu Hongyu family: Shaojiu, Mulberry Wine, Ice Plum Wine, Sharen Wine, Mint Wine, Fenjiu, Hunan Liquor has not been able to appear on the table of Qu Hongyu's family. In terms of the standards of hunan cuisine for many people today, can the diet of the Qu Hongyu family 110 years ago still be called Hunan cuisine?
After this menu, Qu Hongyu also recorded an interesting thing, on July 12, 1908 in the lunar calendar, "In the early morning, when the incense is completed, there are fishermen who come to the door to sell anchovies, and they get a tail, which is very fresh, and I am afraid that it will change its flavor for a long time, because it is steamed before the main festival." If there is anchovy on the fourteenth day, the same can be done later. "The anchovy tradition in Hunan cuisine is once again proven here. I wrote about this vanished anchovy tradition in my last column, and interested readers may wish to check it out.
It is undeniable that during the Guangxu years, the nearly 200 kinds of dishes of the Qu Hongyu family were far from today's Hunan cuisine, and the anchovy that was once popular in Hunan cuisine had no place in today's Hunan cuisine restaurant. Or, if people want to fix the concept of Hunan cuisine, the perspective and method of marking out the Hunan cuisine in detail are inherently problematic. As a food tradition and cultural tradition, Hunan cuisine itself needs to be re-recognized. The American sociologist Edward Hills wrote in His Book On Tradition: "Traditions are indispensable, and at the same time they are rarely perfect. The very existence of traditions dictates that people want to change them. ...... It contains the potential to accept change and urge people to change it. "The tradition of Hunan cuisine is not static, but fluid, and even the Hunan cuisine tradition itself, which is well known today, is constructed. The Hunan cuisine of the late Qing Dynasty is different from the Hunan cuisine of the Republic of China, the Hunan cuisine of the Republic of China is different from the Hunan cuisine of the New China, and even the Hunan cuisine before 2010 and the Hunan cuisine of 2018 are very different. Hunan cuisine is constantly evolving, and the concept of Hunan cuisine is also constantly updated and reshaped. Understanding this is important for understanding the traditions of Hunan cuisine and is also very helpful for the development of today's Hunan cuisine.
(Author Affilications:College of Literature, Nanjing University)