Now is the time to eat braised pork in a copper pot. On this cold and windy winter day, I made an appointment with a few friends and went into the alley, holding a small copper pot with two pieces of sesame seed cakes.

In the clear soup base with wolfberry floating in it, add a few slices of mutton as thin as cicada wings. When the meat slices with red background and white stripes gradually curl up, drizzle with some secret sesame sauce. The taste can't be described simply as delicious!

The history of copper pots is very long, from the tripods of the Stone Age, to the bronzes of the slave society, to the dyed cups of the Western Zhou Dynasty, to the jiāo dòu (jiāo dòu) of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and then to the jiāo dòu made in the Tang and Song Dynasties. Porcelain craftsmanship has become increasingly mature, and hot pots are also made of ceramics, commonly known as "hot pots";

Hot pots developed to the Qing Dynasty, and their form has been determined, but the appearance decoration is full of flowers.

First of all, in terms of production materials, hot pot is separated from the original single material. Ceramics, copper, tin, silver, gold-plated silver, enamel, iron... almost all materials that can be used as cooking utensils have been used;

In terms of appearance, patterns, Carving, gilding, and even hollowing, all kinds of gorgeous or elegant shapes were put into battle, showing the exquisite craftsmanship and exquisite aesthetics of the time.

At this time, hot pot has become a cross-class diet. Both the royal aristocrats and the common people love hot pot. It is said that when Emperor Jiaqing succeeded to the throne, the Qing Palace held a hot pot banquet. More than 1,650 hot pots were used, making it the largest hot pot banquet in history.

But now, the hot pot style in old Beijing has returned from the "letting a hundred flowers bloom" to the copper age. What is the reason for this seemingly downhill decision?

Everyone knows that the essence of mutton shabu-shabu in old Beijing lies in the "shabu-shabu".

Shabu-shabu, which means to cut the dish into thin pieces and pass it briskly in the hot pot, then dip it into the food immediately. This has extremely high requirements for hot pot equipment - it must heat up quickly and conduct heat evenly.

Copper is the best in meeting this requirement. And it can retain heat in cold winter days, which is even more popular among northerners. As for brass or red copper? As long as the requirements for eating utensils are met, there is not much difference between the two lambs.

However, with the development of charcoal-fired copper pots, only copper pots remain, without charcoal fire.

Since 2015, shopping malls have expressly stipulated that they do not allow the use of open flames and instead use electromagnetic heating. This regulation has gradually become more widespread, and more and more stores have abandoned the use of electric heating. Although the charcoal-fired copper pot retained its shape, the charcoal heat was replaced by water heat, and a lot of the fun was lost.

For example, old Beijingers are used to scalding the mutton on the chimney in the middle after boiling it. Listen to the "squeaking" sound, and sometimes you can see the sparkling oil. With this change, the chimney is no longer the old smoker with "red and angry eyes", it has become gentle and lifeless.