Before people ate cooked food for the first time in ancient times, people lived a life of eating raw food without utensils and condiments. When they learned to barbecue raw food with fire, they took a big step towards human civilization. They entered the Paleolithic Age and polished stone tools into utensils. After entering the Neolithic Age, people invented ceramic tableware to make and hold food.
After the bronze smelting technology in Shang and Zhou dynasties developed to a higher level, it was not easy to make, and it was generally used by the aristocratic ruling class. Exquisite and complicated bronzes are mainly divided into four categories: ceremony, music, soldiers and cars. Until modern times, Shang and Zhou bronzes also had high historical, academic and artistic value.
At this time, the ancient tableware has been tripod, wok, pot, plate, pot and so on. Originally made of pottery, later made of bronze. Ding is a treasure used to reconcile various flavors, which is equivalent to an iron pot, used to cook and hold food, and also used to build the country. Even the best food in the world eaten by the rulers at that time is not delicious in modern times, because pottery and bronze ware have poor thermal conductivity, the tripod wall is thick, the heating is slow, and the fire burns below, so the food made with this cooker will not be too delicious.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the ancients developed a new "cooking" method. It was recorded in Han Feizi that "governing a big country can cook small delicacies", but the cooking here is different from modern cooking, probably the same as modern fried food, but there is still no big change in general. Pottery was used in the middle and lower classes, and bronze was still used in the aristocratic class. When history entered the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the great integration of the North and South nationalities made the culture diversified, and the cookers at this stage also became diverse. After the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties, ceramics and metal products reached a high level, and the prosperous Tang Dynasty also had gorgeous and exquisite gold, silver, glass and ceramic utensils. Subsequent dynasties were basically based on these cookers, but a new cooker-iron pot was added.
During the Qin and Han dynasties, food was mainly cooked in a tripod, often porridge and soup. They have no concept of cooking, and the food they eat is more like modern mixed vegetables. The ancients ate whole grains, usually referring to rice, millet, millet, wheat and glutinous rice, but how did they come up with the idea of making interview steamed bread? At that time, a man had a whim. He ground wheat into flour to support steamed bread noodles and the like. Until the Tang Dynasty, there was not much food imported from Persia, and people's pursuit of eating became higher and higher, and various dishes and snacks came into being. Potatoes and corn were introduced in the Ming Dynasty, which improved people's diet and quality of life.
Iron smelting made great progress in the Northern Song Dynasty, and people began to use coal to smelt iron. According to records, the output of iron is about 8 million kilograms per year. If all these irons are made into iron pots, one million people can be made. After years of smelting iron, the people in the Northern Song Dynasty basically used cheap iron pots. The appearance of the iron pot is extremely ordinary, and there are no exquisite carvings. They are all black, but no one expected this to be true.
How strange the iron pot in the Northern Song Dynasty is to foreigners can be seen through several stories. At that time, a Persian businessman saw a black thing on the stove of a Song Dynasty businessman's boat and asked what it was. Merchants in the Song Dynasty told them that this was an iron pan for cooking, and Persian merchants paid a high price for it. Because the meals they usually eat are basically made of pottery, now they have a portable iron pot, which makes them very curious. Even European monarchs who are used to treasures will think that iron pots are rare and want to use them as family heirlooms.
Merchants in the Song Dynasty were keenly aware of this business opportunity. They bought a lot of iron pots in China. At that time, not only silk porcelain was well-known overseas, but also its sales in iron pot were very high. 1987, Nanhai No.1, a sunken ship in the Song Dynasty, was found near Guangdong. There were many iron pots on board. After the demise of the Song Dynasty, the Mongols inherited everything in the Song Dynasty, especially the iron pot, which was the most convenient thing for them as nomads. They often need to cook beef and mutton, but clay utensils are not as durable as iron pans, so iron pans solve a great difficulty for them. It is said that Mongolian men don't have pots at home, and Mongolian women don't want to marry.
After the Ming Dynasty unified the Central Plains, the rulers banned businessmen from selling iron pots to businessmen. They are worried that Mongols will melt iron pots to make weapons. Han people really don't know how important iron pots are to Mongols. Even if it is broken, it will not melt. Instead, they will make them up with cowhide and continue to use them. Without iron pots, they went to the border of the Central Plains to rob iron pots, not to rob property, but also caused disputes. When they successfully grab the wok, they will cheer in unison. This scene really makes people laugh and cry.