In the sixteenth year of Qianlong (1751), the Qianlong Emperor went down to Jiangnan for the first time, along the ancient canal south from Xijindu to the shore, took an accompanying eunuch, and found the most famous Zhang sister-in-law noodle shop in Zhenjiang to sit down. The sister-in-law Zhang, who moves sharply, works quickly, is polite and dignified, and is serving tea and handing hot towels. Qianlong's entourage passed down the words: "I want to eat Zhenjiang gang noodles!" "I don't know if it was because the Qianlong Emperor came early, or because Sister-in-law Zhang got up late, and after the order was passed down, the inside was not yet jumped."
Sister-in-law Zhang urged her husband, who was still jumping: "Quick, move faster!" The husband was stunned: "Am I not the same as usual?" Over there, Sister-in-law Zhang quickly scooped up the underwater pot and lit a fire into the hearth. But everything seems to be slowing down. The more urgent, the more difficult it is to open the water; the more urgent, the more difficult it is to jump well. The entourage came in again and urged... Sister-in-law Zhang quickly urged her husband to cut the noodles, and she added firewood to the stove herself. Soon, the water in the pot boiled and the husband's noodles were cut.
At this time, the entourage came in again to urge, Zhang Sister-in-law was grabbing a handful of noodles into the pot, while replying to the conversation, she quickly covered the lid of the pot, and in the midst of the chaos, she put the small lid of the soup pot into the noodle pot and fluttered on the water. Before Zhang Sister-in-law put the ingredients in place, the water in the pot rolled away again, turned straight up, and was about to overflow the outside of the pot, Zhang Sister-in-law saw it, and quickly used a spoon to scoop two spoons of warm water in the soup jar and poured it, and the noodle pot calmed down. As soon as the water was boiled again, Sister-in-law Zhang used a small bamboo cage and long chopsticks to fish the noodles into the bowl. Just as it was about to end, the retinue had taken over with one hand. Sister-in-law Zhang, who had been busy for a while, leaned outside the door, wanting to listen to the reaction of the customers outside, until she heard the person holding up the bowl and eating, and said in a loud voice: "The taste is good, the taste is good, it is not rotten, it is not hard, and the fragrance is refreshing!" Sister-in-law Zhang was about to turn around and go to the bottom of the pot again, but Qianlong, who was dressed in civilian clothes, actually paced in, and Qianlong saw the scene and exclaimed: "Ah, how did you put the lid of the pot in the noodle pot and boil it?!" ”
At this call, Zhang Sister-in-law found that she was in a hurry, and suddenly mistook the small pot lid on the soup pot for a large pot lid, and even the pot lid was not known to be in the noodle pot. At this time, the husband also came over and said: "All the customers outside said that today's noodles taste particularly good, what good ingredients did you add?" Sister-in-law Zhang pointed to the small pot lid and said, "I'm afraid it's because the noodle pot is boiling the lid inside, right?" Qianlong patronized the Zhenjiang noodle shop and even said two stories of good taste spread, since then, Zhenjiang's pot lid noodles reputation has been greatly enhanced, and there are large and small pot lid noodle shops in the streets and alleys.
There are four special secrets of Zhenjiang pot lid noodles:
One is to jump
The kneaded dough is placed on the panel, the smooth and smooth coarse bamboo is crossed on the dough, the diameter of the bamboo pole is 6 or 7 cm thick, one end of the bamboo pole is set in an iron ring fixed to the board, and the man who jumps on the noodle sits on the moso bamboo, jumps on one leg and squeezes about a thousand times to press the dough into a thin dough, and then cuts it into a wide and uniform noodle with a large knife.
The second is drifting
The cauldron floats with a small pot lid, the surrounding breathable but boiling water does not overflow, the wooden pot lid presses the tumbling noodles, controls the speed and route of convection, no matter how to cook, the position of the noodles in the pot can remain basically unchanged, the noodles are attached to the pot lid, the water boils around it, there is no gap between the water and the pot lid, and the cooked noodles are very strong. The unique wood aroma of the fir pot lid also adds another umami flavor to the noodle soup.
The third is boiling
Soy sauce boiling is a major essence of pot lid noodle making. Zhenjiang's soy sauce is famous, and the Zhishun Zhenjiang Chronicle records that "sauce neighbors rely on this". The Zhenjiang pot cover noodles are made of Zhenjiang special soybean soy sauce, adding more than ten kinds of condiments, such as earth dragon, cinnamon, vanilla, star anise, wild mushrooms in the depths of Zhenjiang South Mountain, Yangtze River shrimp, chicken bones, etc., first boil over high heat, then adjust to a warm heat for several hours, add an appropriate amount of salt, white pepper, cool and cool, and can be eaten after 2 days.
The fourth is pouring
"Cook the lid inside the noodle pot, first blanch the toppings and then the chopsticks." The raw materials for the pot cover noodles are Zhenjiang Real Estate, there are long fish, waist flowers, dishes, minced meat, cham meat, beef, eggs, pork liver, dried silk, vegetarian vegetables, etc., all kinds of toppings, hot in the noodle soup, but fragrant in the bowl.
Ingredient Recipe (to make 100 bowls):
10 kg of noodles, 2.5 kg of soy sauce, 65 g of cotton sugar, 50 g of monosodium glutamate,
5 g shrimp, 500 g star anise, 500 g fragrant leaves, 300 g salt,
1 kg of green head, 1.5 kg of cooked lard (or sesame oil).
Preparation Method:
1, put the pot on medium heat, add 250 grams of water, shrimp seeds under the pot to boil, after 3 minutes, put in the cotton sugar, dissolve after pouring soy sauce, boil away from the heat, simmer slowly for 1 hour with low heat, cool into the container and set aside, pay attention not to drip raw water (tap water, etc.).
2: Boil water in the pot, put in the number of noodles according to personal needs (but the maximum number of bowls per pot is not more than 15 bowls, and each bowl of raw noodles weighs about 130 grams), cover the small pot lid. Place the empty bowl on the pot table and pour in 25 grams of soy sauce, 10 grams of cooked lard or sesame oil bowl by bowl, plus an appropriate amount of green head and 0.5 grams of MSG. After the noodle pot is boiling, add an appropriate amount of water to make the noodles cook thoroughly, remove the lid when it is boiling, remove the foam, fish the noodles into the bowl one by one, and pour the appropriate amount of noodle soup into it.
3, green head preparation method: green head is made of a variety of vegetables made of noodle brine, divided into raw and cooked two kinds. Raw garlic paste, garlic flowers, bleach (pickled green vegetables in the spring); cooked greens, Sichuan root, green peppers, bean sprouts, dried, these vegetables are washed, blanched with boiling water, cut into shreds or segments.
The pot lid noodles, the noodles used are "jumping noodles". The so-called "jumping noodles" is to put and knead the noodles on the board, by the operator sitting on one end of the bamboo bar, the other end fixed on the board, both up and down, and like dance, like acrobatics, repeatedly squeezed into a thin skin, cut into noodles with a knife, this noodle has pores, marinade is easy to taste, eat in the mouth chewy, unique taste. The bottom material of the pot lid noodles is also very exquisite, and the secret soy sauce juice plus more than ten kinds of condiments makes the taste very delicious.