How did the ancients eat "hot pot"?
This article is written by Ni Fangliu
It's the cold winter, and it's hot pot time.
It is common to eat hot pot in modern times, but hot pot is first of all a delicacy eaten by the ancients. How did the ancients eat hot pot? From the analysis of archaeological findings, Chinese eating hot pot is indeed a tradition, as early as two or three thousand years ago in the Shang Zhou Period, it has begun to eat hot pot.
(Hot pot is popular in winter)
If the source of this kind of food utensils such as hot pot is investigated, it should start from the bronze ding of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties.
What is Ding? Now everyone knows that it is a cultural relic, in fact, it is the most commonly used cooking utensils for people to cook and sacrifice during the Shang and Zhou Dynasties - that is, today's pot. The difference between Ding and the pot is that Ding has three legs, no need to put another stove, can be placed directly on the ground, when cooking, the firewood is placed under the abdomen to burn on the line, many Ding unearthed after the discovery, there are traces of smoke and fire under the abdomen, which is the reason, and this is the heating characteristics of the hot pot.
This kind of ding, in fact, is a kind of hot pot, which combines cooking utensils with containers.
In November 2010, a Tomb of Qin dating back more than 2,400 years was cleared at the archaeological site of the second phase of Xianyang Airport in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province. A bronze din, a bronze chunk and a fragment of lacquerware were found in the tomb's niches. It is 20 cm high and 24.5 cm in diameter and has a lid.
(Han Dynasty hot pot - hot stove))
Eating hot pot should have been more common in the Warring States period, and there was a more vivid name at this time - "warm stove". In April 1966, a bronze warm furnace belonging to the late Warring States period was found in Xianyang, which was divided into two layers, with food or wine syrup on the upper floor and charcoal fire on the lower level. After identification, this furnace is a Wei state appliance, which shows that during the Warring States period, not only the Qin people ate hot pot, but also the Wei people also ate hot pot.
In the earlier Western Zhou Dynasty, and even in the earlier Shang Dynasty tomb archaeology, hot pots were also unearthed.
(Traditional hot pot feast)
From 1974 to 1975, two Western Zhou tombs were excavated in Rujiazhuang, Baoji City, Shaanxi Province, and the burial utensils were very rich, with more than 1,500 pieces of bronze, pottery and various jade ornaments unearthed. Among the more than 60 copper containers, there are two hot pots.
One of them was unearthed in Tomb No. 2, with a peculiar shape of a small ding, only one foot, the upper part is a vertical ear drum belly round ding, and the bottom center has a cylindrical ding foot, standing on a three-legged plate. After analysis, this is not an ordinary cooking ding, but a hot pot at that time, and the bottom plate can be heated by charcoal fire, which is convenient for bringing the fire source and dishes to the table together.
(Chongqing hot pot, mainly red soup)
This peak height is 15. 2 cm, caliber 14 cm, belly depth 7. 8 cm, full weight 1. 8 kg. There are also traces of smoke on the bottom and plate, which shows that it is buried with practical utensils. Another hot pot was unearthed in Chamber B of Tomb No. 1, with the same structure and shape, and only the abdominal cavity was shallow.
From the "hot pot" of this product, it is speculated that at least among the nobles of the Zhou Dynasty, it was the beginning of "eating hot pot". Judging from its capacity, the full dish is only enough for one person to eat, and then it is speculated that it is used in the case of a meal sharing system, one for each person, and it is a "small hot pot".
(Pre-Qin dog meat hot pot)
Modern diners generally prefer lamb hot pot, but in the early days dog meat hot pot may have been more popular. For example, in November 2010, the "dog meat hot pot" was found in a hot pot excavated from the archaeological site of the second phase of Xianyang Airport in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province. After opening it, the archaeologists were very surprised that there was even a half pot of bone soup inside. After identification, it was identified as dog bone, which proved that it was a pot of dog broth, which was called "dog meat hot pot" by the circle. After this discovery was disclosed by the media, it caused a great sensation in that year.
When the hot pot was officially established in the Western Han Dynasty, this had a lot to do with the introduction of many ingredients and condiments suitable for hot pot from silk, Zhang Qian brought back garlic, coriander (coriander) and so on from the Western Regions, and these "Hu flavors" allowed Chinese to taste foreign flavors as early as possible.
(Family hot pot)
Different from modern hot pot, the early ancient hot pot soup base was generally white soup, and the taste was mainly sour and salty. The appearance of red soup hot pot after the Ming and Qing dynasties is closely related to the introduction of chili peppers. Chili peppers caused a "taste revolution" in the Chinese food industry - spicy taste has been rampant since then Chinese table, and Chinese has also become a "spicy immortal" nation
Native to the Americas, chili peppers were found by Spanish spicers and moved to Eurasia, and in the late Ming Dynasty, peppers were introduced to China as ornamental flowers. Chinese, who pays attention to taste, soon discovered the edible value of chili peppers, especially in Sichuan, Hunan and other places that have always been spicy, changed their laziness to peppercorns and ginger, fell in love with chili peppers, and "no ginger and no food" became "no peppers and no food".
(Modern red soup hot pot)
Since then, "spicy" into sichuan cuisine, Hunan cuisine and other cuisines of the main taste, changed the traditional flavor of Chinese food, the main spicy taste of the red soup hot pot, since then occupied most of the hot pot of the country, become the mainstream, now on the restaurant will be more red soup hot pot is proof, if you are afraid of spicy, you can order Mandarin duck hot pot, half white and half red, each shabu.
(Mandarin duck hot pot)