"This cake is made: fine white noodles, rubbing seasonings, oil, salt, and the cake embryo is thick and thin with copper coins. The washed pebbles are heated in a pot, the cake embryos are placed on the stone, covered with a layer of stones, and baked. Its color is like a cloud, and the oil is crisp and salty. ”
——Jia Pingwa, "Stone Cake"
In the days when I have to go out less because of the epidemic, every time I go to the supermarket to buy, like many people, I will try to buy as much dry food as possible that is resistant to storage. However, potatoes, sweet potatoes and instant noodles and other things to eat too much, inevitably a little boring, who knows, unexpectedly found a unique Guanzhong cuisine - shizi steamed buns.
After feasting on the golden color and crispy oil, we should take the opportunity to tell the history of stone steamed buns. Don't underestimate it, this oval "small golden basin" originated from the Stone Age floats in the long river of history, and has been passed down from generation to generation, which can be called a living fossil of ancient Chinese food.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > from "stone cooking" to soup cake</h1>
Before they had mastered the skill of making fire, the ancestors could only "eat the fruits of grass and trees, the flesh of birds and beasts, drink their blood, and rue their hair", that is, eat them alive and peel them, which is not only not delicious, but also the utilization rate of nutrients is not high.
It was not until they learned the "benefits of cultivating fire" that primitive humans lived a happy life of "using cannons, burning, and burning, thinking that they were liquor cheese". According to the "History of Xuan" quoted in the "Ancient History", "When Shennong was born, the people ate the valley, and Shimiga burned the stone and ate it." This account is very important, in the absence of containers, the grain and rice are put on the stone and cooked and eaten, which is a very clever alternative, so it is also called "stone cooking".
Later, this practice of cooking grain stones and eating them spread to the Zhou Dynasty, and was called "burnt rice" (burnt rice also means roasting, that is, roasting rice on a hot stone).
However, from stone cooking to stone steamed bread and stone cake, there is a very important thing, that is, cake. You know, the original cake is not baked, but rice, wheat or millet is ground into a powder, then added water to knead into the shape of a cake, and then cooked or steamed.
Fu Fan He Lang in the film and television drama
The history books record that during the Three Kingdoms of Cao Wei, Emperor Wei Ming, in order to test whether the beautiful man He Yan had rubbed powder in the end, deliberately gave him hot cakes in the summer to see if he would sweat and take off his makeup ("Uncle He Ping's beautiful posture, the face was white, and Emperor Wei Ming suspected his Fu powder.") It's the summer month, with hot soup cakes. Both, sweating profusely, wiping himself with a vermilion coat, and turning color to bright"). The cake here is naturally a boiled soup cake, similar to the current Shanxi boiled nest. Otherwise, He Yan would not sweat easily after eating.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > from soup cake to "stone cake"</h1>
So, when did people start experimenting with baking dough blanks on stones?
According to the history books, the earliest known record is the Tang Dynasty. Since ancient times, flapjacks and buns are inseparable from a round tool made of cast iron - tweezers (that is, cake bells), and the northern people who love pasta can be described as "family branches tweezers, household pancakes". However, during the Tang Dynasty, the people of Tongzhou (present-day Dali County, Shaanxi) invented a kind of cake cooked with ancient stone, called shizheng cake (stone blocks instead of iron hammers, so called stone chains).
How to make stone cakes
This kind of cake has its own humor, and once had an alias - the cake. What's going on? It is said that the same state is fierce in nature, has a big temper, and is prone to contention, "good contention", if you can't get a result, you will often fight a lawsuit.
In order to prevent starvation in prison, people "will go away with this bread and use the food of the prison", so it is also called "the cake". This kind of cake is regarded as a must-have in prison, which shows that it is easy to carry and durable.
What is even more interesting is that although this kind of prison dry food is very down-to-earth, the local officials will let people elaborately make, package, and then offer it as a tribute to the imperial court, which shows its delicious taste.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > from stone cake to stone bun</h1>
After the Tang Dynasty, with the change of dynasties and the change of the capital city, the Tongzhou stone cake was no longer used as a tribute, but the Shaanxi people who were officials and merchants began to flow out, bringing various local cultural elements out of the province. In the Ming Dynasty, according to the "Chronicle of Fanzhi County", during the Zhengde period, Ming Wuzong once went out to Beijing to inspect and taste the "scar cake" (the stone bun has a concave and convex scar, also known as the "scar cake"), indicating that this object has appeared in Fanzhi.
By the time of the Qing Dynasty, there were several professional workshops dealing with stone steamed buns, which were circulated in the north and south of the great river. Yuan Ming's "Suiyuan Food List" of the Qing Dynasty praised it as a natural cake:
"Jingyang Zhang Lotus Pond Ming House, homemade natural cake, with white flying noodles, add slight sugar and fat oil for the crisp, feel free to roll into a cake, such as a bowl large, informal, thick two points. Lined with clean small goose stones (han yin han, meaning to burn), it is concave and convex, and the color is half yellow, and the pine beauty is abnormal. Or with salt. ”
In Yuan Ming's pen, this kind of thick bowl of cake can be described as full of color and fragrance, and it is not difficult to see from the text description that the "natural cake" at that time and today's stone steamed bun are no different.
Today, Shizi bun is still popular in the north, from Shaanxi Dali across the Yellow River to Shanxi and radiating, not only daily food, but also a good gift. Over the past thousands of years, what has changed a little is the shape and taste of the cake, and what has not changed is the diligence and feelings of the cake makers.