Chinese food culture has a long history, among which there are many varieties of Chinese dim sum. After thousands of years of innovative development by pastry chefs, their basic forms are also colorful and realistic, such as geometric shapes, pictograms, natural shapes and so on. Baked goods were imported from the West, and although they are easy to eat and nutritious, they are still different in terms of shape compared to Chinese dim sum.
First, the shape of the dim sum
1． The bun category mainly refers to various types of buns, which belong to the fermented dough. There are many kinds of patterns, which are divided into large bags and small bags according to the degree of fermentation; according to the shape, they are divided into pleated bags, such as three-ding buns, small dumplings, etc.; fancy bags, such as: shou peach buns, goldfish buns, etc.; seamless bags, such as: sugar packets, crystal buns, etc.
2． Dumplings are an important form of pastry in China, and their shapes are: wooden fish shape, such as dumplings, wontons, etc.; crescent shape, such as steamed dumplings, pot stickers, dumplings, etc.; comb back shape, such as shrimp dumplings, etc.; cow horns such as pot stickers; finches such as small wontons, etc.; there are other hieroglyphic varieties, such as fancy steamed dumplings. According to its ingredients, there are: water surface dumplings, such as dumplings, steamed dumplings, pot stickers; oil noodle dumplings, such as: curry dumplings, eyebrow dumplings, etc.; others such as cheng noodle dumplings, corn flour steamed dumplings, red and white dumplings made of rice flour, etc.
3． Cakes are mostly made with rice, flour, eggs, etc. as the main ingredients. Rice flour cakes include: pine cakes, such as five-color small round muffins, red bean lard muffins, etc.; sticky cakes, such as lard sugar rice cakes, rose hundred fruit honey cakes, etc.; fermented cakes, such as cotton cakes. Flour cakes include mille-feuille cakes, bee sugar cakes, etc. Cakes include clear cakes, fancy cakes, etc. There are also yam cakes, horseshoe cakes, chestnut cakes, peanut cakes and other cakes made with fruits, dried fruits, miscellaneous grains, vegetables, etc.
4． The dough is often called a cake ball with a cake, and is generally made of rice noodles as the main raw material, mostly spherical. Varieties include: corn flour balls, such as soup balls, pigeon balls, etc.; cooked flour balls, such as double filling balls. There are also varieties of fruit filling Lantern and Hemp Ball.
5． The range of coil materials is wide, and the varieties vary widely. Varieties are: yeast rolls, which can be divided into roll rolls, such as four joy rolls, butterfly rolls, chrysanthemum rolls, etc.; folding rolls, such as pig's claw rolls, lotus leaf rolls, etc.; cutting rolls, such as silver wire rolls, chicken silk rolls, etc. Rice (powder) rolls, such as: ruyi sesame rolls, etc. Puff pastry rolls, such as olive rolls, etc. Crust rolls, such as sesame fresh milk rolls, etc. There are also special varieties such as spring rolls.
6． The cake category is one of the varieties with a long history in China. According to the different skins, it can be divided into: water cakes, such as pancakes, clear oil cakes, etc.; yeast noodle cakes, such as Huangqiao baked cakes, sake stuffed cakes, etc.; shortbread cakes, such as shallot oil shortbread, Su-style mooncakes, etc.; other fried rice cakes made of rice noodles, steamed meat pancakes made of egg noodles, water chestnut cakes made of fruit and vegetable multigrains, osmanthus corn cakes, etc.
7． Most of the puff pastries are water and oil dough puff pastries. According to the way of expression, there are: bright pastry, such as Mandarin duck ghee, lotus crisp, etc.; dark crisp, such as double hemp shortbread, etc.; semi-dark pastry, such as apple crisp, etc. There are also peach crisp, lotus nectar crisp and other mixed pastry varieties.
8． Strips mainly refer to noodles, rice noodles and other long strips of pastry. The noodles are: sauce noodles, such as dandan noodles, fried sauce noodles, beaten noodles, etc.; soup noodles, such as clear soup noodles, flower color soup noodles, etc.; fried noodles, such as vegetarian fried noodles, Yifu noodles, etc.; and other varieties of cold noodles, braised noodles, braised noodles and so on. Fritters, Yunnan bridge rice noodles, etc. also belong to the strip products.
9． Rice is a staple food for the broad masses of the people of our country, especially the people of the south. It can be divided into two types: ordinary rice and fancy rice. Ordinary rice is divided into steamed rice, stewed rice, etc., and fancy rice can be divided into fried rice, rice bowling, vegetable rice and eight treasure rice.
10． Porridge is also one of the staple foods of the vast number of people in our country, which is divided into two categories: ordinary porridge and fancy porridge. Ordinary porridge is divided into boiled porridge and stewed porridge. Fancy porridge can be divided into sweet porridge, such as mung bean porridge, laba porridge, etc.; salty porridge, such as fish fillet porridge, peeled egg porridge and so on.
11． Frozen jelly is a summer seasonal variety, mainly sweets, such as watermelon jelly, almond tofu and so on.
12． In addition to the pastry forms mentioned earlier, there are also some common varieties such as steamed buns, twist flowers, rice dumplings, and roasted selling, which are also loved by people.
Second, the appearance characteristics of the pastry
There are many kinds of shapes of pastry in China, different varieties have different shapes, even if the same variety, different regions, different flavor genres will be ever-changing, the shape is realistic. But in general, the shape of the pastry has certain characteristics, which can be summarized in the following aspects:
1． Geometric form Geometric form is the basis of plastic arts. Geometric forms are heavily used in pastry modeling, which are made by imitating various geometric shapes in life. Geometry can be divided into monomer geometry and combined geometry. Single geometric shapes such as the circle of tangyuan and lotus flour dumplings, the triangle and trapezoidal shape of zongzi, the square shape of square cake, the rectangle of pot cake, and the diamond shape of mille-feuille oil cake. The three-dimensional mounting cake is composed of several pieces of geometry of different sizes, coupled with the combination of various mounting shapes, forming a beautiful three-dimensional shape. In general, this cake is a combined geometry.
2． It can be divided into plant-like and animal-like forms.
(1) Imitation plant shape is a common shape in the production of pastry, especially some fancy pastry, pay attention to the form, often imitate the plants in nature, such as flowers, like the moon flowers in the boat point, peony flowers; lotus crisp, lily crisp, begonia crisp in the puff pastry products; orchid dumplings, plum dumplings, etc. in the water blended products, there are also imitation fruits, like pomegranate bags, shou peach bags, gourd buns, etc. in the yeast noodles, and there are more in the boat point, persimmons, snow pears, grapes, oranges, apples, etc.; imitation of vegetables are green peppers, radishes, broad beans, peanuts, etc.
(2) Imitation animal shape Is also a more extensive shape, such as hedgehog bags, goldfish bags, bat clips, butterfly clips, etc. in the yeast noodles; dragonflies dumplings, swallow dumplings, zhi dumplings, pigeon dumplings, etc. in the water noodle point; there are more in the boat point, goldfish, jade rabbits, chicks, blue birds, jade geese, white pigs... These are faux animal-shaped pastry.
3． The natural form adopts a relatively simple modeling technique to make the dim sum mature and form a non-regular form, such as flowering buns, which are steamed and naturally "flowered". Others such as laughing, court peach crisp, honeycomb egg yolk horn, hibiscus pearl cake, etc. are also naturally formed during the ripening process.
Third, the pastry shape requirements
The forming of pastry in China has three kinds of hand forming, impression forming and machine forming from the forming means, but from the actual situation, it is still mainly hand-formed, and it is shaped into various shapes by the dexterous hands of the pastry chef. A series of operating techniques and processes in the pastry modeling should be carried out around the purpose of eating and increasing appetite, first of all, it is delicious, and secondly it is good-looking, which can not only satisfy people's desire for food, but also make people feel beautiful. However, the pastry, which is mainly delicious, also has a specific form as a basis. Therefore, the shape requirements of the pastry are mainly manifested in the following aspects:
1． The shape strives to be simple and natural. When we make pastry, we should strive to be concise, bright, and develop in the direction of abstraction. On the one hand, because the primary purpose of making pastry is to eat, not to watch; on the other hand, it is too realistic, time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the food is easily contaminated, which does not meet the needs of modern fast-paced life. Concise, bright, natural, both to satisfy the appetite, but also hygienic, is the direction of the pursuit, that kind of cumbersome decoration, deliberately realistic approach to resolutely abandon.
2． Pay attention to vivid image. The shape of China's pastry is mainly manifested in the dough and the skin, and the pastry chefs have always been good at making flowers, birds and animals, fish and insects, melons and fruits of different forms, which has increased the appeal and edible value of the pastry. The good taste and shape of the pastry can not only give people artistic enjoyment, but also create better economic benefits.
For the selection of the theme of pastry modeling, it is necessary to combine time factors and environmental awareness, and it is advisable to use objects that people like to hear and have a concise image, such as goldfish, white rabbits, jade geese, butterflies, mandarin ducks, etc. We must be good at grasping the main characteristics of objects and images, and extract the artistic shape suitable for the pastry point from life. By using omission, exaggeration, deformation, addition, geometry and other techniques, it is possible to create vivid pasta and concise and rapid. For example, the moon season used for decoration in the decorated cake is often omitted to a few petals, but still does not lose the characteristics of the moon flower; the "goldfish dumpling" focuses on the exaggeration of the goldfish eye and tail is more graphic. The "butterfly roll" treats the complex patterns on the butterfly into symmetrical geometric shapes, which is both vivid and simple