What did ancient people eat? It is clear that the ancients could not even eat enough to eat, why can they develop a food culture?
Chinese food is one of the important components of Chinese culture, also known as Chinese food culture. He is known as one of the world's three major cuisines (Chinese, French, Turkish), and has a profound impact on East Asia. The recipes come from the dishes of various regions and ethnic groups in China. Chinese cuisine pays attention to rituals and the four seasons. It not only pays attention to the matching of color, aroma and taste, but also pays attention to the beauty of neutralization of the combination of food and medicine. Today, Chinese cuisine is mainly divided into "eight major cuisines", and the taste of cooking varies from region to region. The current cooking methods of Chinese cuisine include 108 techniques such as "cooking, frying, frying, frying, soy, boiling, stewing, and baking". So what were the eating habits of our ancestors in ancient times?
During the Qin Dynasty, the staple foods at that time were millet (yellow rice), millet (millet), rice (rice), sorghum (glutinous millet), wheat (wheat), sage (barley), and glutinous rice (soybean). Liuzhong is also known as "Liu Valley". The staple food in the south is mainly rice, while the staple food in the north is mainly rice and wheat. In addition, the old Qin people in the northwest also eat millet (yellow rice), as well as Shu (soybean), hemp, wheat, etc., but the cooking method of grain processing is relatively simple, most of which are boiled into a paste, and the poor people actually The most commonly eaten is Shufu (soybean). As for the cooking of dishes, by the time of the Qin Dynasty, there were already three cooking methods: steaming, boiling, and roasting.
Vegetable ingredients are relatively rare, and the ones that are often eaten are sunflower, radish, scallion, green onion and leek. Sunflower is now called mallow or winter amaranth, and it was the most important vegetable at that time. Huo is the leaf of soybean; scallion is the pit head used to pickle pickles in the south today, so onion and leek are the green onions and leeks that people have been eating today. Chinese chives.
As for the edible fruits, there are pears, peaches, plums, apricots, persimmons, oranges, pomelo, and unknown mountain fruits, such as watermelons, grapes, apples, strawberries, etc., which were definitely not edible in those days.
As for meat ingredients, the more common ones are chicken, fish, pork, mutton, beef and so on. But beef was not something that ordinary people could eat. As the main labor force at that time, no one was willing to eat cattle, and if they slaughtered privately, they would be punished by criminal law.
For example, the types of condiments are relatively rare. First of all, there was no vegetable oil in the Qin Dynasty, and the only way to obtain fat was the fat from animals. The extraction of salt is more difficult, and only natural salt products can be collected, and the output is relatively low, so it is not cheap in our current society. As for other condiments, ginger, cinnamon, honey, plums, and sauce (they used the fish they caught as the main ingredient and added salt or plums to make them. There are many flavors, and they are different) at the time, but Chili is a no-brainer at that stage.
In general, the food culture of the Qin Dynasty was relatively backward, the cooking methods were monotonous, and the types of ingredients were also very limited. Moreover, the people are more miserable, and most of the food they eat is only coarse grains. Even in the house of a prince, in the absence of condiments, even if he often eats meat, the taste of what he eats is really unflattering.
During the Han Dynasty, the five grains of rice, millet, millet, wheat, and Shu were widely cultivated. Moreover, with the development of grain processing technologies such as pestle, mortar, and mill, grains can already be made into flour. In the Han Dynasty, there were still various kinds of pasta, which were called "soup cakes" when boiled in water, "steamed cakes" when steamed in a cage, and "furnace cakes" when they were baked with fire. Among them, "soup cakes" include pig (pig) skin cakes, thin ring cakes, cut cakes, chicken and duck cakes, boiled cakes, etc.; "steamed cakes" include white cakes, scorpion cakes, etc.; "furnace cakes" include sesame cakes and hu cakes , pith cake, etc.
Compared with the sunflower, radish, scallion, green onion, and chives of the Qin Dynasty, the Han Dynasty had a lot more vegetables, which benefited from Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions. Zhang Qian's journey along the Silk Road in the Western Regions not only carried out economic and cultural exchange activities with Central Asian countries, but also introduced courgette (cucumber), walnut (walnut), coriander (cilantro), flax (sesame), In addition to carrots, pomegranates and other products, it also spread the products and food culture of the Central Plains such as peach, plum, apricot, pear, ginger, and tea to the Western Regions.
The meat and condiments of the Han Dynasty were not much different from those of the Qin Dynasty, but it is said that the people of the Han Dynasty loved to eat dogs, because dog meat was cheaper than mutton and more delicious than fishy pork. As for the cooking method, compared with the Qin Dynasty, there are more wax and preserved meat, both of which are the production methods of dried meat in the Han Dynasty at that time. Bacon is the raw meat that is air-dried after the animal has been dismembered. The preserved meat is cut into pieces, marinated with onion and ginger sauce, then cooked, and then dried in the sun.
In general, there are more and more types of vegetables in the Han Dynasty, and the use of flour has also improved the quality of the Han Dynasty people's diet compared to the Qin Dynasty. However, stir-frying is still not available, perhaps because of utensils restricting development, or perhaps because of the acquisition of vegetable oil.
During the Tang Dynasty, the staple food was mainly pasta, and the original Houto (Pianer Soup) created in the Tang Dynasty was extremely popular at that time. Compared with the previous dynasty, the cooking method has not changed much. The only thing that can be mentioned is that the Tang people like to eat "fish mullet". "Fish" is actually eating raw fish, which is the popular sashimi in Japan today. Unexpectedly, in the Tang Dynasty, Japan learned the law of "fish mullet" and turned it into sashimi, and today it has been passed back from Japan.
During the Tang Dynasty, there were more figs, spinach, lettuce (lettuce), and pistachios than in the Han Dynasty. Among the meat dishes, the Tang people like to eat mutton, but the mutton tastes mutton and needs to be matched with pepper. Pepper was an imported commodity at that time, and the price was not affordable for ordinary people. In the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the prime minister Yuan Zai was convicted and his house was raided, and he actually copied 800 shi (equivalent to tens of thousands of kilograms) of pepper, which shows the value of pepper in the eyes of the upper class at that time.
Although the cooking methods and types of ingredients in the Tang Dynasty did not change significantly compared to the Han Dynasty, the social and economic development of the Tang Dynasty gave birth to the prosperity of the catering industry. Various banquets also came into being.
Official banquets mainly include two kinds of banquets given by the emperor (big ox, banquets on festivals, banquets given by heroes) and banquets. Most of the banquets are temporary, or to show peace, or to reward officials, or to win over heroes; most of the banquets are fixed working meals. During the meal, officials discuss politics, observe ceremonies, and meet friends, and the banquet has become more of a social platform.
It is also popular to hold a tail-burning banquet to entertain the emperor when scholars ascend to the office and ministers are promoted. During the reign of Emperor Zhongzong of the Tang Dynasty, the prime minister Wei Juyuan's roast tail feast included a single cage of golden custard, bright shrimp fried, spring onion vinegar chicken, royal yellow queen mother rice and other high-quality products, covering cold dishes, desserts, hot dishes, meals and other series, extremely luxurious, There are also jinshi banquets, family banquets, tour banquets and welcome banquets.
There are many famous dishes handed down from the Tang Dynasty such as: camel hoof soup, deer tail sauce, wild boar scorpion, Xiaolingzhi, Muddy sheep dying suddenly, burning tail banquet and so on. Staple food: Hundred Flower Cake, Crystal Dragon and Phoenix Cake, Queen Mother Rice, etc. Although I have never tasted it, until today I can't help drooling when I see the names of these classic dishes.
In general, due to the rapid development of the economy and society in the Tang Dynasty, people in the Tang Dynasty had higher and higher pursuit of food, and food was no longer just to satisfy one's hunger.