First, the historical origin of spicy hot pot
In the history of Chinese cooking, hot pot is a traditional way of eating, which didn't come into being until modern times. In primitive times, human beings lived a life of "eating like fur and drinking like blood". With the discovery and use of fire, people gradually changed from raw food to cooked food, and gradually mastered the use of various cookers.
1 Bronze Furnace (Yangzhou Museum) 2 Bronze Furnace (unearthed from the Western Han Tomb of Dong Taibao, Shanxi Province) 3 Longtou Furnace (unearthed from Hepu, Guangxi Province) 4 Animal Head Furnace (unearthed from Shuoxian County, Shanxi Province) The real cooking began after Ding appeared. Ding is a combination of stove and pot, and it is the earliest cooking utensil in ancient China. The period when Ding was widely used was also the period when Ding was cooked. Ding was widely used in Shang and Zhou Dynasties. In the Han and Three Kingdoms period, hot pot began to mature due to the appearance of "five-cooked kettle" and other utensils.
(1. Dongsheng fixed ditch 2. Xiangxiang Honglun Shang 3. Xiangfan Zhengjiashan 4. Hanyang mausoleum 5. Luquan Gaozhuang 6. Tomb of Nanyue King in Guangzhou 7. Fengxiang Eight Banners Electric Power 8. Handuling)
Zhu Wei's textual research in Kao Chi shows that hot pot has been in its embryonic form since the Eastern Han Dynasty, and originated in the Southern and Northern Dynasties at the latest. Pretending to be Yi's famous phrase, "Old bottles are new green, and static stoves stir red". It feels like snow at dusk outside. Can I have a drink? It is said that nothing is written for hot pot. Hot pot is steaming, smoky, steaming, smoky.
1 Pottery jar (Western Han Tomb in Kozanji Temple, Yingjing, Sichuan) 2 Iron jar (Sima Xi Site in Jiangbei District, Chongqing) 3 Copper jar (Han Tomb in Kozanji Temple, Yingjing, Sichuan)
During the Tang and Song Dynasties, due to the development of economy and the increase of human dietary activities, cooking also developed rapidly, and "hot pot" was also enriched and improved.
What is really recorded is the hot pot in the Song Dynasty. Lin Hong, a Song Dynasty man, mentioned eating hot pot in his talk in a mountain house. At present, the earliest recorded hot pot is recognized as washing rabbit meat. That is, "call for summer." Its history can be traced back to the Southern Song Dynasty (1241-1252). Lin Hong, a native of Quanzhou, Fujian, recorded this in the book Shanjia Qing Palace:
Visiting Wuyi Six Songs, visiting teachers all the time, getting rabbits in snowy days, no one can manage. Shi Yun: In mountainous areas, only thin batches are used, and wine, sauce and pepper are used. Azakami is heated by wind and uses less than half of the water. After a cup of soup rings, everyone will be given one track mind. Add soup, cook, spit and provide juice as appropriate. Lin Hong did this, repeatedly fiddling with the meat slices in the hot soup, and the meat slices were as colorful as clouds, so he named this delicious food "Breaking the Work" and wrote a poem: "Surging the sunshine in Jiang Xue, the wind turns the sunset glow".
Hot pot became popular in Ming and Qing dynasties, and the related literature records also increased. Yuan Mei, a scholar in Qing Dynasty, recorded in "Suiyuan Food List":
"Winter banquet, used to eating hot pot, disgusting guests; Moreover, the taste of each dish has a certain degree of heat. It is advisable to be civilized and martial, and it is difficult to make a difference in an instant. Today, for example, the fire is forced, and its taste can be asked. People nearby think it's a good idea to replace charcoal with shochu, but they don't know that things can always taste bad after they are rolled up. Or ask: Why is the food cold? Said: the dishes heated from the pot will not be eaten by the guests, but they can be cooled, so they taste bad. "
Yuan Mei recorded in Suiyuan Food List;
At that time, in addition to folk eating hot pot, from the scale, equipment and scenes, the palace hot pot of the Qing royal family was the most magnificent. The winter food list of Qing emperors includes: game hot pot, mutton hot pot, raw meat hot pot, chrysanthemum hot pot and so on. Pot forms include double-ring square hot pot, egg ball fish round hot pot, round fire and so on. On the tenth day of the first month of the forty-eighth year of Qing Qianlong, Emperor Qianlong hosted a banquet for 530 tables of palace hot pot. 1796, when Emperor Jiaqing of the Qing Dynasty ascended the throne, he once held a "Thousand Banquets" and used 1550 hot pots!
According to Yuan Mei's records, hot pot was very popular in Qing Dynasty. People have not only mastered a variety of ingredients with different physical properties, but also mastered the cooking method of cooking in the same pot. They can also make the hot pot ever-changing and colorful through the temperature and ingredients.
2. Did the spicy hot pot originate in Chongqing? It is said that spicy hot pot originated from the catering mode of boatmen and trackers on the Yangtze River and Jialing River. These boatmen take wooden boats as their home, a wok and several pairs of chopsticks, all of which are cooking utensils. Therefore, cooking food is very popular, that is, cooking all kinds of food in one pot, and then the whole family gets together to eat food. In fact, this is the continuation and simplification of ancient cooking and eating methods.
Sichuan writer Li wrote in his book Local Scenery that spicy hot pot originated in Chongqing. He wrote:
"The hot pot that eats buffalo hairy belly originated in Jiangbei, Chongqing. At first, ordinary retailers bought buffalo viscera, washed and cooked them, then cut the liver and stomach into small pieces, put a mud stove on their shoulders, and put a dry pot and iron basin on the stove, which was filled with spicy and salty gravy. So friends who sell labor by the river and the bridge benefited from the baggage. It is not only economical, but also can increase calories ... It was not until 23 years of the Republic of China that a small restaurant in Chongqing upgraded it, and the earthen stove was still there, but the pot was replaced by a small copper pot, and the marinade and dipping sauce were also changed by the diners themselves, so that it was clean and suitable for people's tastes. "
3. Did the spicy hot pot originate in Sichuan?
Some scholars believe that spicy hot pot originated in Sichuan, especially Xiaomitan hot pot in Luzhou, Sichuan. It is said that boatmen on the Yangtze River used to sleep on Xiaomi Beach when they were running, and made a fire to cook in the interval between stops. In order to drive away the cold and dehumidify, they will add all kinds of peppers and peppers to the dishes when cooking. The cooker they used was just a crock filled with soup. After a bad meal, it tastes delicious. This appetite was inherited, spread to Chongqing to take root and sprout, and gradually enriched, becoming a unique food in Sichuan and Chongqing.
However, the author does not agree that spicy hot pot originated in Luzhou. Because Luzhou, Sichuan is not a salt-producing area, it is difficult to preserve meat products in a humid and sultry place, so there is no condition to produce beef omasum hotpot and other diets.
Zigong area in Sichuan has been rich in salt wells since ancient times. As early as the Eastern Han Dynasty, the first salt well-Fuyi Salt Well was dug. When the Taiping Army was raging in the Qing Dynasty, the salt produced in the Huaihe River could not be transported to Hunan and Hubei, so the Qing court put forward the plan of "saving Chu with Sichuan salt", in which the salt produced in Zigong was an important source.
Fourth, summary.
The author believes that Zigong is known as the "Millennium Salt Capital" and is rich in salt resources, which leads local salt workers to eat a lot of meat to supplement their physical strength. Over time, a spicy hot pot represented by cooking method was created. Since then, with the development of Bashu traffic, boatmen circulating on the Chuanjiang River spread spicy hot pot to Luzhou, Chongqing and other places. From then on, spicy hot pot became famous all over the world and became a favorite food of China people.