01 The story begins with a white-faced pot helmet
Every time sichuan noodles are mentioned, friends in the north will always shake their heads, jokingly saying that Sichuan has no noodles to hand in addition to dandan noodles.
Admittedly, Sichuan's cuisine is not known for pasta, but it is not useless. People who don't know the inside story will always have many misunderstandings about Sichuan's pasta.
One of the cognitive misconceptions of the people at that time was that the Sichuan region did not produce wheat. In fact, whether in history or now, Sichuan has always been an important area for wheat cultivation. At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, wheat from the Bashu region even appeared in spring and winter, and there was a saying that "Sichuan fields are all planted with wheat".
However, due to the short sunshine time in Sichuan, it is not suitable for growing soft wheat. As a result, the flour made of Kawachi wheat is mainly low-gluten, which is not as good as the pasta tendon made from high-gluten flour in the north.
(Image from the Internet)
There is a saying in making noodles, "Salt is bone alkali is tendon". Most of The noodles in Sichuan are salt and alkali added to make the noodles more powerful. In order to deal with the live
The peculiar smell of alkali noodles, Sichuan people also follow the trend to find a way on the seasoning, cheeks, and taste. In the past, Kawachi made noodles mostly with this idea.
Let's go back to today's protagonist pot helmet. There are three versions of the birth of the pot helmet in Chuandi, including the version of the gift given by her grandmother to her grandson He Miyue, the version of the helmet baked cake that Zhuge Liang ordered soldiers to use during the Three Kingdoms period, and the version of the military food of Qin Shi Huang.
In the version of the legend of the origin of the three pot helmets, the version that Grandma gave to her grandson He Miyue is well understood. Zhuge Liang's version of the soldier's helmet flapjack is also a household name in Sichuan. However, Zhuge Liang's pot helmet is specifically for the military tun pot kui. There is still some difference between the Juntun Pot Kui and our common white-faced pot helmet, which is a kind of "mille-feuille crispy pot helmet".
Legend has it that during the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang ordered Jiang Wei to recuperate and train troops in the town of Junle in present-day Pengzhou, Chengdu, from which the name "Juntun Town" was derived, and today's Juntun Pot Kui was gradually evolved from the dry food in the army at that time. It is said that the practice of military food at that time was made by soldiers using helmets to bake cakes.
Compared with the legend of Zhuge Liang, the version of Qin Shi Huang's military food is more rooted. After the Qin state annexed the land of Bashu, it used the Bashu region as a rear area for providing supplies and taxes. At that time, the shape of the pot helmet was called a pier cake because it resembled the cross-section of a tree stump.
According to historical records, the military food distributed to soldiers when Qin Shi Huang went out to conquer the Six Kingdoms was dun cake. A mound weighs five or six pounds and is about 15 centimeters thick. At that time, the soldier drilled two eyes on the mound, tied it with a cowhide rope, and then put one on the front chest and back, looking like the pleats we saw in the TV series.
Interestingly, the reason why the mound cake was placed in this way was because Qin Bing used it as a protective gear. The Qin soldiers found that the arrows fired by the enemy army would be stuck on the pier cake, and then the Qin soldiers called the pier cake "pot helmet", which means "hard-faced armor baked out of the pot". Later, the "pot helmet" became the standard equipment when qin soldiers went out on the expedition.
In addition to being able to block the sword, the pot helmet can also be stored and carried for a long time, even in the summer, it can be put on for ten days without breaking. This characteristic of the pot helmet is inseparable from its materials and production methods.
The pot helmet seems to be simple to make, but the production process is very exquisite when studied in detail. Needless to say, the best wheat flour naturally adds water and stirs and forms a dough before fermentation. After fermentation, roll out the round cake and place it in a large flat iron pot, and then slowly cook it over low heat. Wait until the moisture in the kang dry dough cake, the skin of the dough cake is slightly browned. Among them, whether it is the time of fermentation, the heat of the fire and the time of the flapjacks, they are very exquisite.
The development of this small cake of pot helmet has long been no longer the appearance of Qin Bing's dry food. With the circulation of various forms, the shape and practice of the pot helmet have also changed in various ways. Zhuge Liang and Qin Shi Huang certainly did not expect that a small white cake would play so many tricks in the hands of future generations.
However, the changes are inseparable, and the next story about the pot helmet begins with a white-faced pot helmet.
02 A pot helmet that can be clipped to everything
How many kinds of changes can a white-faced pot helmet transform in Sichuan?
Judging from the production process of pot helmets, most pot helmets will go through the process of making oil and noodles and making them on a low scale. Next, some pot helmets will become hollow, crispy, and inner layers, and some pot helmets will become solid edges thick, sucking juice without leaking filling.
I divide these two types of pot helmets into two names: "clipable" and "meltable".
The shape of a pot helmet that can be clipped by all things, the most famous of which is the brine meat pot helmet.
Now the noodles of the marinated meat pot helmet are mostly hollow pot quipped. This pot helmet is made of a hot pot to dry and crispy, and a small opening is cut on it. Marinated meat should be selected half fat and lean pork belly, fatty meat is more refreshing to eat, lean meat is more fragrant to eat. The marinated meat is cut into thin slices and then desperately stuffed into the belly of the pot helmet. Until it can't be stuffed, pour a spoonful or two of marinade on it. After waiting a few moments, the marinade soaked the inside of the pot and took a big bite. The aroma of the noodles of the white noodle pot helmet, the meat aroma of the marinade, and the strong aroma of the marinade all burst out in the mouth, and the more you chew, the more fragrant it is.
In the early years, the Chengdu marinade pot helmet would also choose a slightly softer pasta. This white-noodle pot helmet has a soft skin and does not seek crispness. When the marinade and marinade are added, the soft dough will absorb the marinade as much as possible, and the pot helmet that has sucked the full marinade is more fragrant than the marinade.
Chengdu's brine meat sandwich pot helmet is said to have arisen in 1925 from the "Panyi City" behind the current Wangfujing. Later, ten passes, ten passes a hundred, and the brine pot helmet is popular in Sichuan. Sichuanese who can eat and understand how to eat have invented a variety of ways to eat meat and vegetables according to the idea of brine pot helmet.
The taste of this old-fashioned brine pot helmet is really difficult to say, and the marinade poured on the back is too salty (picture from the Internet)
Chicken slice pot Kui, beef pot Kui, steaming pot Kui, pork head meat pot helmet, lung slice pot Kui, ear slice pot Kui, three-wire pot Kui, bamboo shoot pot Kui, Sichuan people will be all kinds of things that can be clipped into the pot helmet. Later, there was a period of time back to the pot meat pot helmet, fish fragrant meat silk pot helmet, and even mapo tofu pot helmet was still popular for a while.
If I had to choose one of them, I would recommend the Ear Pot Helmet. Cut the pig's ears into strips, add various spices and red oil to make red oil ear shreds. The red oil ear wire is sandwiched into the white-noodle pot helmet that has just come out of the pot. The white-faced pan helmet will suck away the excess grease in the ear wire. One bite down, fragrant, crispy, crispy, spicy, complex and multi-layered taste makes the ear silk pot helmet quite chewy. The sound of crispy ears and the crispy pot helmet echo each other, which is very interesting.
Next to Wenshu Monastery, this lady pot helmet can only be eaten while it is hot, and when it is cold, it is much inferior. As for the price, we will not comment (image from the Internet)
However, if I want to talk about the peculiar taste, I will definitely nominate Nanchong's cold powder pot helmet.
The biggest feature of the cold powder pot helmet is the taste. A small pot helmet is hot on the outside and cold on the inside, the outside and soft on the inside, the pot helmet is crispy, and the cold powder is spicy. The extreme combination of one soft and one hard, one cold and one hot is combined to give people a strange taste in heaven and earth.
The appearance of the cold powder pot helmet is also quite attractive, a roasted pot helmet that is slightly browned, with a knife cut in the middle, and a bowl of mixed is full
The cold powder quickly poured into the stomach of the pot helmet, and it was loaded without leaks. Spicy salty and fresh cold powder and crispy pot helmets keep popping up in their mouths, and when the diners are "clicking and rubbing" and eating happily, they suddenly feel the soup flowing through their hands. Only then did I realize that my hands were full of greasy red oil.
If you're going to ask the old Sichuan people what's best to put in the pot helmet, I think there must be a place for brine meat and brown sugar.
Speaking of eating brown sugar pot helmets, there is a saying in Sichuan called "eating brown sugar pot helmets to the back". This sentence is very interesting and graphic to elaborate. Hot
As soon as the brown sugar pot helmet was bitten, the brown sugar flowed out of the mouth. The flowing brown sugar is so hot that it sticks to the hand and cannot be shaken off. The brown sugar flowed down the arm, eager to open its mouth to lick, and the brown sugar was thrown on the back.
The brown sugar pot helmet is really the classic in the Sichuan pot helmet, and it is not tired of eating (picture from the Network)
Remember that in the past, the white-faced pot helmet was the earliest 6 cents, the pretzel pot helmet was 8 cents a piece, and the brown sugar pot helmet cost a dime. Brown sugar was a good thing to nourish in those days, and the sweet and greasy taste was more popular and naturally more expensive.
Nowadays, there are fewer brown sugar pot helmets sold on the market, but restaurants can often see small pot helmets selling brown sugar. Unfortunately, this small pot helmet only has the appearance of a brown sugar pot helmet, but it cannot experience the pleasure of brown sugar flowing out and almost scalding the back.
03 The pot helmet that everything can melt
If the sweet Sichuan pot helmet should choose two representatives, I think in addition to the brown sugar pot helmet is the mixed sugar pot helmet.
Mixed sugar pot helmets are now relatively rare, and the reason is that they are too troublesome to do. The ingredients for making a sugar mixer are not complicated, flour, brown sugar, yeast noodles are the main ingredients, plus a little soda and cooked rapeseed oil. The process of making the sugar-mixed pot helmet, like other pot helmets, is also made of oil and noodles, and the trouble is on the noodles.
The taste of the sugar mixing pot helmet is softer, and there will be a hint of sweetness coming out of the fine chewing (picture from the Internet)
The process of making a sugar mixer requires repeated kneading of the dough to thoroughly melt the brown sugar into the dough. In this way, every place of the pot helmet tastes sweet evenly. Such a process is simple to say, but the price of doing it is full of sweat and soreness.
If you find a place to sell sugar pot helmets, remember to buy one more pretzel helmet. The pretzel pot helmet is also one of the representatives of the Sichuan pot helmet, which is formed by smearing and sprinkling the pretzel on the pot.
Every time you pass by the second brother's pot helmet stall, you have to buy a few (picture from the Internet)
Pepper salt is one of the spices with the characteristics of Sichuan cuisine, and the powder made after stir-frying is pepper powder, and if you add the stir-fried salt, it is pepper salt. The taste of pepper and salt is fragrant and salty, if sprinkled on the pot helmet with caramelized sesame seeds, the more you chew it, the more fragrant it becomes.
I personally think that both the beef pot helmet and the pork pot helmet are upgraded versions of the pretzel helmet. Perhaps in the past, when the materials were not abundant, you could only eat the "vegetarian pot helmet", and then the bag head had "bullets", and I also wanted to eat a few bites of the pot helmet with meat, so the beef pot helmet and the pork pot helmet came into being.
If Sichuan wants to say that the representative of the beef pot helmet, the Juntun pot kui must be on the list.
Juntun Pot Kui is also called "Crispy Pot Kui", and the name of "Ghee Mille-feuille Cake" is also on the book, which is a traditional snack in Pengzhou (formerly Peng County) in Sichuan. As can be seen from the name, the characteristic of the Juntun Pot Kui is crisp. Indeed, the freshly baked Juntun pot Kui is unusually crisp, a bite down the "click and rub" taste will come out, to a beef flavored pot Kui with a bowl of fat intestine powder, it is really the heart of the diners.
As soon as it came to the "crisp" in the pot helmet, Nanchong's square pot helmet immediately appeared. This kind of pot helmet can be regarded as breaking the established impression that "the pot helmet must be round". Some places also call this kind of square pot helmet "square crispy pot helmet", and its method is slightly different from the square pot in Nanchong, eating layer by layer, to a feeling of a thousand layers of crisp.
Sichuan's wheat may not be able to make strong pasta, but Sichuanese people have found another way to make a variety of innovative pots and helmets. Which kind of pot helmet do you think is the best in Sichuan?
【Dong La Eighteen Pull 037】
【Selected Past Articles】
The internal organs in the mouth of Sichuan people
The same is a side dish, why Korean kimchi is famous all over the world, but Sichuan kimchi is not famous
If Sichuan cuisine has a spicy taste grading system