We have a long history of using firewood, which also leads to the fact that our current recipes are actually cooked for this heat.
In this way, the combustion time is longer and the heating is more uniform. So it feels more natural to eat.
Of course, another big reason is the unique smell of firewood burning. I don't know if there is any scientific research to confirm whether we have such a habit, but I smell firewood cooking, and even if I don't see it, I feel like eating it.
Perhaps it is because burning plants have a special smell, and human beings have become dependent on this smell in the process of evolution. Of course, I like the smell of firewood cooking, not the smell of burning forest.
The food made by the firewood stove is delicious, and I like it very much, but it is definitely not reliable to say that it is caused by the aromatic substances of the firewood itself. The delicious firewood is caused by comprehensive factors, including psychological factors.
1, stove. The smell of firewood is a psychological symbol, similar to conditioned reflex. Especially for people who lived in the countryside as children, the physical and psychological pleasure brought by that smell is far greater than the "firewood smell" in their mouths.
2, pot. Cooking stoves in rural areas are used to using large iron pots, and it is easy to achieve the feeling of "burning incense" with slow fire-just add firewood. The cooking experts in the village are more familiar with it. While cities, especially some cities, make great efforts to develop natural gas, transform clean heating and cook, but China is a gas-poor country and imports more and more natural gas. Sometimes cooking at home, the gas source is insufficient, and the quick frying is weak. Oh, I went too far.
3. Oil. Vegetable oil is used for cooking in southern rural areas. Traditional pressed vegetable oil has a very special aroma, and people who are used to eating snacks have no resistance to this smell. There are similar feelings in the north: for example, sesame oil in the northwest (that is, linseed oil with a high name now), peanut oil in Shandong, sesame oil in Hebei and Henan, and so on. These oils used in rural areas are generally not refined or over-purified. The smoke point is low and choking, but it is really fragrant.
4. Ingredients. Freshness is on the one hand, self-produced ingredients, especially poultry and livestock, generally do not excessively pursue the input-output ratio, and the probability of eating the "native chicken", "idiot" and "mountain pork" that everyone yearns for is really high.