Mooncakes
Ham and shallot lard mooncake
Reporter Li Ting Trainee reporter Li Yanyan /Dong Xiaoxiao photo
The Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, and the mooncakes are "rampant". Suzhou people like to eat mooncakes, good at making mooncakes, in a variety of names, genres of mooncakes in the big family, solid appearance, delicious taste of fresh meat mooncakes, is a unique variety of Su-style mooncakes.
The term "mooncake" comes from literature, and the earliest known one is the "Mengliang Record" written by Wu Zimu, a Qiantang man in the late Song dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty. The literature is mostly postponed for the actual life, especially the Southern Song Dynasty capital Lin'an imitates the Northern Song Capital City of Beijing everywhere, so it should be credible that the mooncake has been recorded and passed down for nearly a thousand years from its appearance to the time it has been recorded and passed down. Su Dongpo, a gourmand who preceded Wu Zimu by more than a hundred years, also has a poem that leaves incense in the future - "small cakes are like chewing the moon, there are crisps and dumplings". Su Dongpo ate a round, sweet and soft cake, and it was small, one bite at a time. Therefore, round, sweet, small, may be the original form of the moon cake.
Today's mooncakes have a strong seasonal significance, before the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, it was sold in the market, and after the sixteenth, it basically disappeared, however, the mooncakes recorded by Wu Zimu may not only be the market around the Mid-Autumn Festival. As one of the various colors of dim sum in lin'an city in the Southern Song Dynasty, the mooncake is "city food dim sum, available at four o'clock, let it be called, do not mistake the patron" - this is simply the model of today's express delivery brother instant delivery. The moon cake and the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the full moon gradually associated, should be in the Ming Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival was originally to wish the autumn harvest fruitful festival, the people of Fufu, the full moon, the moon cake became a reunion cake, and gradually had a strong sense of affection and sustenance.
Make mooncakes
That is, the meat mooncake that is ready to eat can be regarded as an improvement in the quality and taste of the mooncake: it is no longer used as a dry snack suitable for storage and carrying, but emphasizes on-site production and instant tasting, which is exquisite, or called enjoyment. The production of such high-grade food has requirements for both suppliers and consumers, and it is not a rich and delicate country that cannot grow. Suzhou's fresh meat mooncakes, if based on the intangible cultural heritage system of Suzhou-style mooncake making techniques, have a history of at least 200 years, and spread to the Yangtze River Delta region, they are all carried forward.
ham
Sweet plate oil (left) and salty plate oil (right)
Wang Cheng, the chief manager of the Half Moon Zhai of Shiquan Street, is the inheritor of the Su bang cuisine production skills, and he is extremely particular about the pork stuffed in the meat mooncake, requiring the fat content to be around 30%-35%, or picking the pig fat is about one finger thick. Ham scallion lard mooncake is a seasonal masterpiece of Wang Cheng's inheritance of Su-style fresh meat mooncakes. Salty plate oil and sweet plate oil used for seasoning and oil supply, to choose fresh fat fat cut into small cubes, respectively, salt, sugar marinade into the taste; ham selectors can wash and remove the taste, is a technical job, into the oven will roast the whole ham until the skin is foaming, in addition to the smell of oil, in order to ensure that the ham meat cubes only have a fresh flavor. Stir the meat stuffing this process, can be manual, can be machine, the advantage of hand is the feel and direction, the moisture of the filling needs to be perceived by both hands, different directions, the strength is light and heavy, "not too balanced" The advantage is that the filling will not be "too strong", "too strong" The filling is easy to "die", the manual is of course defeated by the machine in terms of efficiency, but in terms of vividness, of course, it is better.
Stir the plate oil with ham
Ham meat and sweet and salty plate oil prepared in different proportions need to be refrigerated and left for several days after mixing, so that the flavors between each ingredient can be fully released and integrated, so that the final taste can be left without regrets. Chives are the last franchisee - only green onions, before wrapping the filling, put in and mixed with the meat filling, pale pink meat filling on a piece of green, beautiful color can be eaten. The puff pastry of the Su-style mooncake is very elaborate, and the appropriate amount of water, oil and noodles is timely and manual operation to ensure the final shortening effect. After the dough of the fresh meat mooncake is properly matched with the puff pastry, it is repeatedly rolled out, and when it is filled, it is only a thin layer, which makes the meat filling more and more solid and rich.
Mooncake semi-finished product
Fresh meat mooncake is the most suitable to eat, when on the table can not see the cold and hot, but when lifting the spoon smell a little hot oil aroma, slightly close to the lips, Fang feel a hint of temperature, a bite down, careless people should have been hot. The skin is thin and filling, salty, fragrant, fresh, and when chewed slowly, there is a hint of sweetness. Wang Cheng's proposition is that traditional tastes should keep pace with the times, less salt and light sugar, and be naturally healthy. ——In Suzhou, eating such a fresh meat mooncake can indeed be "fresh grid".
【Source: Gusu Evening News】
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