According to legend, Shandong Zouping paper bun originated from Gaojia Village, Mingji Town, founded in the Qianlong period, and was passed down from generation to generation by the Zouping Gao clan, with a history of more than 300 years. The biggest feature of the paper skin bun is that the skin is ultra-thin, the filling is oversized, and the filling can be identified by the skin, and the magical thin dough skin is the essence of its circulation for more than 300 years and is deeply loved by diners.
Thin skin is the soul of the paper bun, the paper bun uses the unique sticky juice of the local fine hair yam to make the noodles, so that the dough is as thin as cicada wings, tendons and stretches, and it is tough and soft to eat. There is a lot of attention to the production of paper buns, and the process of filling, buns, frying and other processes in the production process is not much different from the steps of making buns in normal times. But the paper bun was on the noodles, and the juice made of Zouping's local yam was added. The juice of the long mountain fine hair yam is added to the egg whites, salt and noodles, so that the rolled out skin is flexible, transparent and elastic.
When adding hot water to the noodles, half hot noodles and half do not burn the noodles, and the noodles are snowflake-shaped. Knead the hot noodles and knead them slightly, cover them with a layer of cage cloth for the hair, and the feeding time is generally about half an hour. Yam mashed into juice after kneading into the dough after the dough agent, the dough is evenly divided into 18 grams of weight, the bun hair for an hour or so, followed by rolling, wrapping, taking pleats, making Zouping paper buns on the bun craftsmanship is very demanding, need to wrap the large stuffing with thin skin, pleats to pinch small and fast, even and symmetrical, so that the bun skin is transparent, flexible, tendon.
The filling of the buns is all-encompassing and varied: shiitake mushrooms, sour tofu, carrot eggs, celery. Regardless of how the filling changes, the bun always remains in the ratio of 18 grams in the skin and 90 grams in the filling. The traditional cooking method of paper buns is steaming, and the steamed bun filling is full and crystal clear, the outer skin is as thin as rice paper, and the dough is uniform. In the words of comedian Guo Donglin, I can eat such a bun in one bite.
Nowadays, according to the tastes of modern people, paper buns have added the method of frying buns. The wrapped bun is put into the pan, poured with the batter prepared in advance, fried for more than 10 minutes, the filling is large and translucent, the bottom is golden and crispy, and the white tofu, green leeks, red radish, black fungus, yellow eggs in the bun are faintly visible through the dough...
In the bustling bun shop, paper buns are brought to the table by plates, and then they are taken away by the diners who come and go, through winter and summer, through spring and autumn. (NohKofi)