The outside is scorched and tender, the heat is cut vertically, wrapped in boiled and cut donkey meat, and a bite is full of aftertaste... The long history of Baoding City, Hebei Province, has bred a unique food culture, and donkey meat fire is one of the characteristic foods.
There is a folk proverb: talking about Baoding must be called donkey meat, talking about donkey meat must be called Caohe. The story of Baoding donkey meat fire should be found in a small town called Caohe - Caohe Town in Xushui District is the birthplace of Baoding donkey meat fire.
"Xushui County Xinzhi" records: Caohe donkey meat production process began in the Song Dynasty, when the Cao Gang and the Salt Gang often fought in Caohe Town, cao gang after the victory of the salt gang to transport the donkey slaughtered and eaten, Caohe donkey meat was born.
In 2013, the processing technology of Donkey Meat in Caohe Was Included in the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Hebei Province. Liu Minying is the inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of Caohe donkey meat processing technology. She recalled: "In 1996, along the 107 National Highway in Xushui County, which is now the Great Wall North Avenue in Xushui District, from the north of the city to the south of the city, there were 57 stalls selling donkey meat on both sides, and the business of each family was good.
This is the Caohe All Donkey Feast Hotel operated by Liu Minying. Wang Xinping photographed
Speaking of the past scenes, she still remembers vividly, "The fire is delicious, and you can't always let the guests eat at the stalls." We have to change the history of the older generation pushing carts to sell donkey meat and burning. So she set up Donkey Meat Food Co., Ltd. to carry forward the processing skills passed down from generation to generation.
In the processing of donkey meat, Caohe donkey meat is made by using ancestral secret recipes, accompanied by old soup, and stewed in a large pot.
The master is adding donkey meat to the fire. Wang Xinping photographed
Stewing is divided into many links: pre-cooking, feeding, high fire attack, low heat stewing, drying meat, oil lid top pressure pot, out of the pot. The important thing is to simmer until the meat is cooked and still not out of the pot, and then heat the oil to cover the top overnight, so that the flavor of the old soup is thoroughly immersed in the flesh, and the meat is crisp and soft. The donkey meat cooked in this way is tender in color, thoroughly cooked, not stuffed with teeth, fragrant and long in the aftertaste.
Liu Minying said that fire production is also technical work. Locally known as "fire burning", the fire is dead noodles, that is, the unleavened dough is made, the reconciled dough is rolled into a one-centimeter thick pancake, rolled with donkey oil into a column, and then rolled into about one or two dough, kneaded into a small steamed bun shape, smeared with donkey oil, and placed on the upper iron plate of the special oven. With a log like a wooden seal, covered with a small steamed bun dough and pressed, the fire becomes a round cake. Wait until the top and bottom sides are eight ripe, then set them on a fork and put them in the oven on the lower level of the oven to cook the round edges around the fire.
Roasted and burned over the whole body, slightly brown, bulging "belly", emitting a faint wheat aroma, then wrap the cooked donkey meat clip into it, bite the lip and teeth to leave the fragrance.
For a long time, Caohe donkey meat was only a kind of fresh food, because it was not easy to preserve, it was difficult for outsiders to feast. In order to make the authentic Caohe donkey meat fire out of Xushui, Liu Minying developed vacuum sterilization packaging donkey meat products.
Liu Minying believes that a local specialty must be integrated into cultural elements in order to have a longer-term vitality. To this end, she took the promotion of donkey culture as a new breakthrough in industrial development and built the country's first donkey meat food culture museum. The museum is divided into 8 exhibition rooms: Zan Donkey Pavilion, Donkey Appreciation Xuan, Sheng Xian Fang, Cultural Garden, Cao heyuan, Huang GongGuan, Materia Medica, and Donkey Academy, which comprehensively and systematically introduce the origin and variety of donkeys, the nutritional value of donkey meat, and cultural works related to donkeys.
Reporter: Bai Mingshan
Editor: Li Zhengyan