Here we will first talk about what "burning white" means, which was originally the main traditional dish in the Field Mat (Dam Dam Feast) in the Bashu region. For most Sichuan people, it is also a meat dish with warm and delicious memories. Whenever you mention this dish, you will remember that when you went to the banquet with your parents when you were a child (wedding and birthday party wine), you would always bring up a plate of black and shiny flesh that was soft and sticky, and the pork belly that was still shivering with chopsticks clipped up, so the folk joke was called "flashing and shining".
Burnt white is also called "buckle meat" or "buckle bowl". The name derives from its processing and cooking methods. Roasted white is a steamed dish, why is it called 'roasted white'? 'Burning' is a special technique used to process white before cooking. That is, raw meat, the skin is placed on the fire downwards, salty, sweet and white if not burned, moxibustion, the resulting dish is cooled, the skin of the meat is hard. Therefore, salty roast white, sweet roast white before cooking should be burned to cure the skin. Over low heat, the skin of the meat is burnt until brown, then the coarse skin and hair piles are scraped off, washed and dried with cold water, and then colored and burned with soy sauce or sweet sauce, sugar color and flaming. In this way, the skin of the meat that has been fired and moxibustion is cooked into salty, sweet and white, and the skin of the meat is not hard and smooth, soft and sticky.
Salty roasted white
Like salty roasted white, in the past, the pork belly with skin was put on the red-hot iron pot to burn the skin until it was scorched, which is called the skin; the skin of the pork belly after the skin was scraped clean with a knife, the skin of the meat was scorched yellow, and then put it in the pot to cook the cold and dry water after the raw, smeared some sweet red soy sauce or sweet noodle sauce on the meat skin, heated the vegetable oil in the pot, put the meat skin down in the pot until the meat skin bubbled into wrinkles, fished up and put the meat into the soup before cooking the meat, soaked it, and then cut the meat into the desired thickness and size, evenly placed in the bowl, and then sprinkled with ginger grains. Peppercorns, pickled peppers, tempeh, red soy sauce mixed with Yibin sprouts or Zizhong dongcai, the meat slices are all covered, steamed and soft in the basket and then buckled upside down on the plate, a plate of bright red, shiny, oily, fat but not greasy, salty and delicious salted roasted white (buckle meat) can be served.
An upgraded version of the salty white, that is, the longan salted white. It is famous for its shape like a "dragon's eye". The color and flavor of this dish are precious, the color is strong, the mellow flavor is strong, the fat is not greasy, the rake is soft and refreshing, and it is suitable for wine and food and all seasons. The key ingredients in the dish are the tender strips, salty and sweet, mellow Taste of Xufu sprouts (Yibin sprouts) or Nanchong Dongjian, which add a unique flavor to the salty white; the flagship store soaked red pepper filled tempeh, tightly wrapped in meat slices, decorated into a lively 'longan', color-enhancing shape, delicious and beautiful.
The 'white' in the roasted white refers to the white meat, that is, the industry called 'white slice meat' and 'white strip meat', and 'burning', in terms of salty and sweet roasted white, is not a cooking method, but a processing method before cooking. Roasting, of course, is also a traditional cooking method, such as char siu crispy square, char siu suckling pig, char siu fish, charcoal roast meat, etc.; as for braised pork, roasted fat sausage, roasted beef head square, etc., roasting is purely a cooking method. Therefore, it is called roasted white instead of steamed white, which reflects the vivid and interesting Sichuan dialect of Sichuan people from another level, such as Sichuan cuisine.
Nine bowls of salty roasted white
A beet corresponding to a salty roasted white is a sweet roasted white or sandy meat. Although these two beets are indispensable in the "nine bowls" of rural Sichuan, many people, including the vast majority of people in the industry, say that sweet roasted white and sand meat are the same thing, but the names are different. In fact, although they are all beets in three steaming and nine buttons, the two are harmonious and different. The "burning white" of sweet roasted white indicates its cooking characteristics.
Sweet roasted white needs to be "burned" like salty roasted white, that is, pork belly is scraped clean with a knife, the skin is brown, put in the pot to cook and dry the water after cooking, and then poke some small holes in the meat skin with a tip cone, and then smear sugar on the meat skin, heat the vegetable oil in the pot, fry the meat skin down in the pot or fry it lightly until the meat skin is brownish red and blistering, and then cut the meat into the desired thickness and size and slice it into the filling. The heart generally uses red bean paste, because the bean paste is dark red, and the feast is quite joyful, so it is also called xisha. Use such red bean paste to make tangyuan, also known as Xisha tangyuan, used to wrap buns, also called Xisha buns; at the same time, the glutinous rice with sweet roasted white bottom should also be mixed with brown sugar (or white sugar) and lard before being steamed in the basket, so it is called sweet roasted white.
Sweet burnt white
The sand meat is the dam feast and family cooking in the city, due to environmental restrictions, it is more troublesome to burn the skin of the meat and boil the sugar color, so it is simply not burned, not colored, and maintain the original color. After the meat is boiled and broken, it is left cold, then cut into thick slices and cut from the middle, filled with filling, usually with black sesame seeds, similar to tangyuan hearts, sesame seeds should be scrubbed in advance, fried dry, and then polished into a fine sand powder, so it is also called washing sand, glutinous rice does not use brown sugar, but add sugar, lard, preserved fruit residue mixed. Two famous sweet Sichuan desserts, although their preparation methods and flavors are not the same, but the palms of the hands and the backs of the hands are meat, both of which are loved by men, women and children, and are indispensable flavor beets in the banquet.
Sandwich sand meat
In the countryside, especially the Chinese New Year's Eve rice, sweet roast white is a must, two pieces of pork belly connected by skin, sandwiched with red bean paste in the middle, glutinous rice base, steamed and sprinkled with a layer of white sugar, served on the table
The shiny glutinous rice soaked in red with red bean paste is lined with transparent pork belly wrapped in thick bean paste, and the white sugar on top of it is particularly festive and rich. The fat meat is rich and sticky because of the delicate moisturizing and bean aroma of the bean paste, and it is preferable to use the sticky rice as a substrate, if you use black glutinous rice, it will be more glutinous and sweet, and the mouth is refreshing. Some places in Sichuan also have a name called "fish meat", and the area around northern Sichuan is also called "buckle meat" due to the influence of northern cuisine.
In addition, the upgraded version of sweet roasted white is longan sweet roasted white, that is, the cooked meat slices and washing sand, wrapped into an inch long cylinder shape, the meat skin stands downward in the steaming bowl, the cooked and mixed with brown sugar, lard glutinous rice evenly spread on the meat roll, basket steamed for about 20 minutes, flipped in the plate, sprinkled with white sugar can be. You can also add some preserved fruit preserves cut into small pieces to the sticky rice, which tastes better.
Longan sweet burnt white
Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Editorial Board of "Sichuan Province Chronicle • Sichuan Cuisine Chronicle" Sichuan Cuisine Culture Person Sichuan Cuisine Contributor
Author of "A Hundred Years of Sichuan Cuisine Legend", "The History of Sichuan Cuisine on the Roadside", and "Three Hundred Years of Spicy Hemp Temptation"
Original Text• Jianghu Gluttony East 2019.07.23 Chengdu