Sauce elbow is a very common folk dish. But it is this home-cooked dish that has appeared in the inheritance of history, two different flavors of the south and the north. Of course, the stories are also very different.
The story of the sauce elbow in the south is generally from the historical story, which is quite thick. Like the "Wansan Hoof" in the Jiangnan region, it is a story of Shen Wansan and Zhu Yuanzhang, while the story of the northern sauce elbow is more legendary and legendary.
In the north, the most famous sauce elbow is Beijing's Tianfu. This 259-year-old long-established shop satisfies the gastronomic desires of the past five generations of Beijing gourmets. Among them, there is also a rather legendary story.
When Qianlong was three years old, there was a man named Liu Fengxiang from Ye County. Learned a set of sauce meat craft, came to Beijing to open a shop. He partnered with a friend in Shanxi, and the two of them found a small door face on the east side of the Xidan Archway, opened a sauce meat shop, and made sauce elbows, at this time in Beijing, there were dozens of shops making sauce meat, and there were more than a dozen characters in the Xidan Arch Building alone. Fortunately, Liu Fengxiang's shop is still quite passable, there is no big money, and it is still no problem to support the family.
One day, Liu Fengxiang went out to deliver goods, passing a market, so he planned to go shopping. At this time, I happened to see an old Daoist priest with a fairy wind Dao bone selling charms at a stall. Liu Fengxiang saw that this Daoist commander had quite a divine temperament, so it was better to let him take the name of his shop, that is, to go forward and talk.
"Daoye, can you ask for a word?" Liu Fengxiang asked.
"Sir, what word do you ask for?" The old Taoist replied.
Liu Fengxiang said sincerely, "The little people sell sauce meat in Xidan, the business is average, and they also ask dao ye to appreciate the name, so that the small shop can prosper." ”
The old Daoist priest pondered for a moment, and the three words "Tianfu" appeared on the paper with a large stroke of the pen. "When you open a shop with a friend, it is two people, that is, for heaven, fuze makes money, and the strokes in this number of words, with the secret of the door, can help you to go well in case of trouble, do not change." 」
Liu Fengxiang thanked the Taoist priest, touched his pocket, found that this went out to deliver, and had not yet cashed out, and asked with a red face: "Dao Chief, can you use your elbow to pay for money?" I haven't opened it yet today..."
The old Daoist was also enlightened, and said, "We have a relationship, so let's use three elbows as a rune money." ”
Therefore, Liu Fengxiang gave the elbow and took the ink treasure to go back happily, and the Tianfu was born.
Making sauce elbows is the "main line" of the people of Yexian County, the recipe is similar, and the taste is generally similar. Therefore, most of the people who do this line are "mixed rice to eat". "Tianfu" was not the top in these many stores at the beginning, and it was not a "big font", but with the three words "Tianfu" given by the old way, the life was not bad.
Until this shop reached Liu Fengxiang's grandson Liu Liming, there was another big event. At that time, the treasurer Liu Zhiming, who had always followed the "old law", was cautious and careful, especially the cooking method of sauce meat, with a board and an eye, and did not dare to "change" a little. At the time, the treasurer had more to do than the guys.
As a treasurer, you must consider the marketing methods on weekdays, enter and exit the accounts, and also take into account the cooking of the sauce meat, so you are often busy until late. One night, Liu Liming was cooking the next day's sauce elbow, but after a busy day during the day, he was already very tired, and finally couldn't help but take a nap on the edge of the stove. When I woke up, I found that the sauce elbow had been "overcooked". Liu Liming thought that the sauce elbow was "wasted", but he was reluctant to throw it away, so he added soup and ingredients to "rework" inside.
It was like this until dawn, fortunately, after the elbow came out of the pot, the appearance could not see any difference, but the taste was very different from before. After the sauce elbow was on the cabinet, Liu Zhiming forgot to tell the guy that the taste of today's elbow would be different from the previous one because he was in a hurry to go out to buy goods.
When he returned, he found that the elbows on the cabinet had all been bought for the eunuchs who frequented them. Liu Liming's head suddenly grew bigger. This eunuch was purchased for the palace, that is to say, this was purchased for the emperor, and if the emperor ate this elbow and felt that the taste was not right, it was the crime of deceiving the king and he wanted to kill the head.
Liu Liming is an honest man, but he feels that he can't sit still, so he quickly packs up and wants to run first. Just as he and his guys started door-to-door, they were stopped. At first glance, it was the eunuch who bought the elbow. "It's over, it's time to behead", Liu Liming's head was full of shots of a large knife slashing at the neck, and he was trembling.
The eunuch laughed at him and said, "How did you make your elbow today, crisp and tender, not greasy and not stuffed with teeth, Lafayette ate it straight and praised, and then you will do it according to this method." When Liu Dengming heard this, it seemed that his life was worry-free, and he couldn't help but breathe a long sigh. Turning around, this "new elbow" is a mistake, so how to fix the taste?
So he hurriedly removed the door panel and ran back to the stove to find the elbow soup left last night. Fortunately, there was still some leftover soup, so Liu Dengming and his guys worked together to study how to fix the taste.
First of all, the choice of ingredients, the ingredients of this dish should choose authentic Chinese native pigs - black hair pigs, the meat quality is good, and it can be matured in about 11 months. An elbow can have five or six pounds. Dehair the pork knuckles, wash them and put them in a pot with fennel, cinnamon, peppercorns, ginger, salt, rice wine and sugar. Bring to a boil over high heat, cook until the knuckles come out of the oil, then remove and wash again. This is to restore the appearance of the elbow overcooked that night.
The remaining broth in the pot is then skimmed to remove impurities. Then add the pork knuckle again, bring to a boil over high heat, turn to medium heat, cook for 4 hours, then reduce the heat, and finally simmer for 1 hour. At this time, the soup in the pot becomes thick, and the elbow can be removed. Changed the knife to the plate. It is precisely because of this series of strict heat that the elbows appear on the skin when they come out of the pot, not broken or scattered when lifting, fat but not greasy when entering, thin but not woody, skin not back, crisp and fragrant.
After such a process, the Tianfu sauce elbow is officially "fixed". At that time, Empress Dowager Cixi especially liked this taste, so she specially gave Tianfu a waist card to enter the palace, and sent it to the palace on time and in quantity every day, so that the sauce elbow of Tianfu suddenly became a "special offering" in the palace, and since then, Tianfu has become famous in the capital.