There is a saying that to test whether a Beijinger is really indigenous, give him a bowl of bean juice. If it can be served with inby and spicy pickles, it will be qualified. If you can drink it for nothing, it will be several generations of old Beijing. However, now this test has failed. Since the 1970s, many people, including me, have stopped accepting soybean juice.

In fact, I think it is another kind of food that can better represent the taste of Beijingers. Almost everyone likes to be untested. Can be used for dipping, mixing and seasoning, and is suitable for almost anything. It occupies an irreplaceable position in the hearts of Beijingers. Yes, it is sesame paste that can be used to "soak the world".

Just like many Beijing snacks, foreign friends can't understand the beauty of sesame sauce, which tastes greasy and even a little sticky. After many foreign snacks were introduced into Beijing, they were also captured by it. Shaanxi cold rice noodles should be poured with sesame sauce, and Sichuan mala Tang should also be poured with sesame sauce. The locals will collapse when they see it. However, Beijingers do not accept all kinds of refutations about sesame sauce. It is omnipotent, ubiquitous and unreasonable.

Three meals a day in Beijing can be wrapped in sesame sauce. A bowl of hot noodle tea must be drenched with a spoonful of sesame sauce and sucked back and forth; Come to a bowl of cold noodles with sesame sauce at noon and wrap the noodles with cold water with sesame sauce. You can't eat it at all. In the evening, I invited my friends to have a mutton hotpot. I picked up a chopstick and threw it in the water a few times, and my head sank to the bottom of the sesame sauce bowl, just as Lao She said, "That is the essence of the combination of animals and plants!" Look, how happy it is to have sesame sauce!

Today, we will discuss sesame sauce in depth. Sesame is an exotic product, which Zhang Jian brought back from Alakazam in the Western Regions in the Han Dynasty. At that time, it was used to extract oil, and it has always been the main oil crop because of its high oil yield. Although it is impossible to prove when sesame paste will appear, I believe it will not take long for sesame oil to appear.

In the Song Dynasty, sesame paste appeared in the formula of "water-slippery noodles" recorded in Jinhua local cookbook "Wu's Feed Record": "Knead with extremely white flour, make a dozen pieces per catty, put them in water, and wait until the noodles are very satisfied, pull them out one by one and cook them into soup. Just draw it wide and thin. Take hemp greasy, almond greasy, salted dried bamboo shoots, pickled melon, rotten eggplant, ginger, pickled leek and shredded cucumber as the head. Or add fried meat, which is especially wonderful. " It smells good at first sight, and the "hemp greasy" in it is sesame sauce.

Yuan Mei's "Suiyuan Food List" mentioned the method of making noodle tea, and there is also sesame sauce: "Boil the tea juice, stir-fry noodles, add sesame sauce, milk and a pinch of salt. If there is no milk, you can add souffle and milk skin. " The word sesame paste has finally entered celebrity recipes.

Sesame paste has left such a deep impression on Beijing people's lives, which may be related to the "happiness of the poor" in the era of material scarcity. Since 1954, sesame paste has been supplied in a planned way, managed by the grain department, and limited to one or two per person per month. Because it is difficult to see oil and water in daily life, going to the state-owned grocery store to "play sesame sauce" and licking bottles on the way home became the collective memory of children in that era.

At that time, there was a widely circulated joke that an adult sent a child to a grocery store to play sesame sauce. When I came back, I found that the weight was not enough, so I went to the grocery store and asked for a new weighing. The salesman said, you'd better weigh the child first, because the short sesame paste has entered the child's stomach.

Sesame paste also had an interesting story with writer Lao She. One summer, the supply of sesame sauce in Beijing was in short supply, and that limited amount was simply not enough to eat. As a representative of the people, Mr. Lao She proposed to the Beijing Municipal Government that the government should solve the supply problem of sesame sauce. He said: "Beijingers love cucumbers in summer and can't live without sesame sauce!" Soon, non-staple food stores in Beijing began to sell sesame paste, and each household also increased the supply of 1 2. Mr. Lao She really knows Beijingers and knows that sesame paste is the "life" of Beijingers in hot summer.

There are many interesting things to play with sesame sauce. At that time, the bottles of homemade sesame paste were different, and the bottle mouth size was different. The salesman first puts the bottle on the scale, adds the weight of the bottle, and then moves the weight to a certain position according to the quantity. For example, the weight is usually set to a little more than three or two. Then she picked up a big spoon of sesame paste in the shop, and there was always sesame paste in the spoon. Thick sesame paste flows down from a large spoon, forming a light brown thin line and slowly flowing into the customer's sesame paste bottle. As the weighing beam rises slowly, the salesperson should keep turning the spoon to control the flow of sesame paste and cut off the flow of sesame paste at any time. This is a unique skill. Maybe sesame sauce will fall off the scale or overdo it. Finally, the salesman will use the Beijing film to say, "Look, there are more than three taels, and there is no shortage of you."

Li, the shopkeeper who has worked in the state-owned Zhaofu Street grocery store for more than 30 years, still retains this unique skill. This old shop is also one of the few grocery stores in Beijing that can "make sesame sauce". He recalled, "Before 1992, tickets were needed to buy sesame paste. There were two or two people in each family at that time. If there are eight people in this family, it will be more than a catty a month. Not all the year round, only from May 1 day to 1 1 day. When it's hot, Beijingers like this kind of sauce noodles! This is the product of planned economy, and sesame paste can make up for people's lack of taste. Beijing people's habit of eating sesame sauce was formed at that time. A spoonful of sesame paste is enough. It takes three years to practice this craft as an apprentice in a grocery store. "

Sesame paste has various classifications, including pure sesame paste and other ingredients, and the addition ratio is also different. The favorite of Beijingers is "Baer sauce". Because sesame seeds are fragrant and bitter after frying, they are generally mixed with 20% peanut butter, which has a balanced sweetness and becomes a delicate "Bal sauce". Good sesame paste is as thick and pure as pea yellow, warm and transparent, and full of fragrance.

Sesame sauce as the topping of cold noodles, as well as the dipping materials of mutton hot pot and tripe, all need to be boiled. Cooking sesame paste is a technical job, so it must be cooked properly. Take cold noodles as an example. If it is too thin, it will not cover the noodles and become noodle soup. If it is too thick, the noodles will not stir and lump.

Mr. Meng Chunming, a gourmet, described in detail the making process of cold noodles, which are the summer delicacies of Beijingers. "Take a proper amount of sesame paste, add salt, add cold boiled water to sesame paste bit by bit, and stir slowly to fully blend sesame paste with water. At this time, you can't be impatient. If you hurry too fast, you won't mix water and sauce, and it looks bad. Some people bake sesame paste with sesame oil instead of water. I don't think so, because sesame sauce already contains a lot of oil, and baking sauce with oil is too greasy. "

After the sesame sauce is baked, prepare a small bowl of three-in-one oil, that is, a mixture of soy sauce, vinegar and sesame oil at a ratio of 4: 1: 1. First put the soy sauce vinegar into a bowl, cut a little chopped green onion, heat sesame oil and stir-fry a little pepper, take out the pepper, and pour the heated sesame oil into the soy sauce vinegar.

Face codes are not as many as those on the surface of the slag river. Two or three kinds are enough. The standard ones are shredded cucumber, cooked green beans and cooked cowpea segments. Of course, garlic cloves are indispensable. If you have Toona sinensis on hand, it is also a good match to dip it in sesame sauce. Take fresh Toona sinensis, clean it, cut it into powder, add salt, put it in a bowl, soak it in boiling water to stimulate the fragrance, and cover it to prevent the fragrance from escaping. It is a good choice for noodles in summer to mix sesame paste with three-in-one oil or use it alone.

"Take out a bowl of cold noodles, add sesame sauce, three-in-one oil and appropriate amount of dough, stir well, and eat another garlic clove from time to time. Beautiful! The uninhibited way to eat cucumber is not to shred, just grab a whole cucumber in your hand, take a bite of cucumber, take a bite of noodles and have a clove of garlic. Hey, at this time, the water is not acclimatized! " Listen, your index finger moved. Are you drooling?

As for instant-boiled mutton, that bowl of sesame sauce seasoning is simply the soul. I don't know who invented it It's a perfect match However, this is not an ordinary sesame paste, but a complicated preparation. Seasoning is a kung fu of instant-boiled mutton, and the reason why it is so mysterious and varied is mainly the result of the famous instant-boiled mutton restaurant following the principle of "family background is confidential" for hundreds of years.

Master Chen Lixin, the national non-genetic inheritor of Donglaishun instant-boiled mutton technology, once generously introduced the blending methods of seven traditional condiments: "When putting seven kinds of condiments into a bowl, first put cooking wine, shrimp oil, soy sauce and chives, then add bean curd and sesame sauce, and then stir them clockwise with a spoon. Finally, according to the requirements of the guests, add Chili oil. The seasoning blended in this way is stirred evenly, and because the liquid is put first and the solid is put later, it will not touch the bowl when stirring. When stirred clockwise, one of the stirred seasonings will not come loose, and the other means smooth and smooth. " I already told you the order. As for the dosage, that is, "words can only be understood." Why don't you go home and try it yourself?

Let's take a look at the food related to sesame sauce in Beijing. If there is anything missing, you can remind me!

Seasoned flour paste

A bowl of glutinous rice noodles, sprinkled with sesame sauce, sprinkled with salt and pepper, salty and fragrant. When drinking, the old man pays attention to turning the bowl upside down like matcha and sucking it in. Of course, it is understandable if you drink with a spoon. Every time I drink it, I always feel that the sesame sauce given by the waiter is not enough.

Bean soup

One of the traditional breakfasts of Beijingers can also be made of bean flour balls and bean bubbles, which is called "Lianger". The essence of this soup is to put sesame sauce and coriander, and it will be different soon.

Cannabis paste candy roll

Brown sugar is sweet and greasy, and sesame sauce is overbearing. This taste is not what any Beijing child likes to eat. After eating, brown sugar and sesame paste are stuck in your mouth and hands, completely ignoring the image.

Majiang sesame seed cake

Hot baked sesame seed cake has the fragrance of sesame seeds, which is crisp and soft. It is a kind of happiness to add sauce beef and sesame sauce to the gravy after cutting!

Tanghuoshao

Put brown sugar, sesame paste and osmanthus in the flour, and it will be tender and fragrant after baking. Old Beijing is good!

Sweet pancake with sesame sauce

The only way to make sesame paste sugar cakes delicious is to put more sesame paste and sugar! The highest state is crispy skin with sesame sauce flowing inside.

Steamed bread slices with white sugar and sesame sauce

How many people, like me, learned this deadly way of eating from Peace in I Love My Family. Hot flour steamed bread has just come out of the pot. Break the steamed bread, spread sesame sauce, add some sugar, pinch it with your hand and take a big bite. Don't mention how happy you are!

Ma Jiang Weihua

Xiang Tao village sesame sauce Hua Wei hoards goods all the year round, and the sesame sauce tastes thick and does not drop residue, which deeply touched it!

Steak with sesame sauce

Calling Yili's sesame sauce steak, sweet and salty, neither hard nor soft. You can play real mahjong while eating steak with sesame sauce!

Dried cabbage

A dish originally created by Beijing folk, Chinese cabbage wrapped in sesame sauce and sprinkled with white sugar, is not an exaggeration to say that it is "the best kind of Chinese cabbage". But I don't like its name. Why does everything involve the emperor? I also made up a story of traveling incognito, feeling that the emperor finally slipped out and ate everywhere, so how did he meet Xia?

Sesame paste mixes everything. ...

In Beijing, almost all cold dishes can be mixed with sesame sauce. In addition to Chinese cabbage, you can also mix tomato paste, cucumber, spinach, cowpea, oil wheat ... I even tried sesame sauce fruit salad. In short, sesame paste can be mixed with anything.

Among so many possibilities of sesame sauce, you will find that in this city where sesame sauce is everywhere and wrapped in layers of sesame sauce, those foods that were originally really ordinary are only shining because of sesame sauce.

Even though we are poor and short of money, people try to develop a delicacy and delicacy in the limited ingredients. Although it is no longer a rare thing to dip sesame sauce and white sugar into steamed bread in the future, the food memory and culture have survived, which has influenced Beijing's stomach from generation to generation.