According to legend, when Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang was a child, due to his family's poverty, he used to herd cattle for the rich man's family, and every time after herding cattle during the day, he would get up in the middle of the night to help grind tofu with the long-term workers. Although he was young, he was very diligent and fast,quite liked by the long-term workers. Therefore, the long-term workers tried their best to take care of him and not let him do heavy work. Later, the rich man knew that he was very dissatisfied, so he resigned him and returned home. Zhu Yuanzhang had no choice but to mingle with the little beggars in front of a nearby temple. The long-term workers took pity on him, stealing some meals and fresh tofu from the rich man's house every day and hiding them in the haystack of the temple, and Zhu Yuanzhang would quietly take away and share food with his partners. Soon, his parents and brothers died one after another, and Zhu Yuanzhang was even more lonely and lonely, so he entered the temple and became a monk. Because Zhu Yuanzhang liked to eat tofu the most, at the beginning, the long-term workers still sent it to hide in the grass pile. Once the temple was busy doing temple fairs for several days, the long-term workers saw that the tofu that was hidden was intact and did not send it again. When the temple fair was over, Zhu Yuanzhang remembered to get the tofu and found that the tofu was covered with a layer of white hair. He took it back to the temple and secretly fried it in oil, thinking that the taste was even more fragrant. Since then, he has often used this method to make tofu to eat.
After the Red Turban Rebellion broke out, Zhu Yuanzhang defected to the rebel army, and a few years later he was promoted to the left deputy marshal of the Red Turban Army, then king of Wu. In 1357, when he led a large army to the local camp in Huizhou, he specially ordered the cooking kitchen to make this dish, which has been passed down in the local area ever since. Later, Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, and fried edamame tofu became a must-have dish in the imperial dining room. Nowadays, it is named "Tiger Skin Hair Tofu" and has become a world-renowned dish.