Shuowen said, "The sheep are auspicious." "Zhou Li? Summer view? " "Shepherd" Note: "Shepherd holds the sheep and sacrifices everything.
, decorated with lambs. In ancient times, sheep were given auspicious symbols and important sacrificial food. Compendium of Materia Medica also says that mutton is a tonic, which can be compared with ginseng and astragalus.
Grasping mutton has a long history. It is a traditional food loved by Mongolian, Tibetan, Hui and Uygur people living in the northwest of China, and it is essential in daily life. This has a lot to do with their harsh living environment and unique living habits. Going out to live a nomadic life and not coming back for a few months, mutton has the effect of being full and not hungry all day.
Many provinces and cities in China have their own world-famous cuisines or famous foods, such as Beijing cuisine, Shandong cuisine, Sichuan cuisine and Cantonese cuisine. As far as mutton series is concerned, there are instant-boiled mutton in Beijing, mutton buns in Shaanxi, mutton skewers in Xinjiang and roast whole sheep in Inner Mongolia. In Gansu, Dongxiang people's hand-grabbed mutton is a famous thing and is deeply loved by people. The hospitable Dongxiang people live a poor and simple life. Whenever festivals or guests come, the most solemn ceremony for hospitality is to slaughter sheep, and it is essential to grab mutton at the banquet. Grasping mutton by hand and eating mutton by hand are also very particular. Mutton with bones should be chopped into strips or blocks two fingers wide, put on a big plate and eaten together. Breast stubble and rib meat are the most delicious and precious, so they should be given to distinguished guests and the oldest people first. Living in Lanzhou, you can't help eating mutton. Historically, it has always been a place where ethnic minorities live in compact communities. In terms of diet, the legacy still exists.
In the long years, hand-grabbed mutton was originally eaten by herders only in tents on the plateau and grassland where ethnic minorities live in northwest China. It is rare in the city, and celebrities regard it as embarrassing and dismissive. Hand-grabbed mutton really became a famous national cuisine more than 20 years ago. It is said that in a remote alley in Linxia City, a courageous Dongxiang man took the lead in putting up the sign of "Dongxiang people grabbing mutton". For a time, Malik was so excited that the smell of hand-grabbed mutton floated around the surrounding counties and became popular in Lanzhou, Xining, Yinchuan, Urumqi, Hohhot and other cities.
Town restaurants cook mutton by hand. Chop the ribs of mutton into large pieces, cook them in a pot until they are half cooked to remove the floating foam, then take onions and peppers, leaving a large piece of onions, and chop the rest into powder; Chop pepper, put the meat on a plate, put onion slices and sprinkle a little salt, take it out in a cage, pour the soup, put the soup into a frying spoon, bring it to a boil, add onion powder, pepper powder and salt, adjust the taste, and pour it on the meat for guests to enjoy. When eating meat, you either scratch, tear and eat it with your hands or cut it with a Tibetan knife, hence the name. Generally, it is slaughtered on the spot, peeled into the pot, cooked and taken out for consumption. The meat is red and white, fat but not greasy, oily and crisp, tender and soft, and very delicious. Usually go to the collector, the owner gives the sheep's tail to the guest first, and others can grab it. There is also the custom of "son-in-law eating sheep's neck".
In pastoral areas, the cooking of hand-grabbed meat still maintains its original flavor: fresh mutton is stewed in a pot, some only put pepper and ginger slices, some don't put salt, and some don't put any seasoning. Stew the meat until it is 70% or 80% ripe and take it out for consumption. The host put the steaming mutton in an exquisite big plate with a meat cutter about 15 cm long on the side. This knife is full of national characteristics, and the handle is inlaid with carved patterns. Among them, Ingisha Dao is the most famous and extremely sharp. It cuts the meat with a knife and then dips it in salt. Some people give their guests a small dish and ask them to put the sliced meat in a small dish and dip it in salt. This quaint, unique, primitive and interesting way of eating meat will remind you of the ancient customs in northern Jiangnan, stir up ripples in your ocean of thoughts, and lead you to daydream, nostalgia, yearning and intoxication, thus making you nostalgic for the richness of Xinjiang grassland and the hospitality of people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang.