There are three big cold drinks shops in Kaifu, one is called "Cao Restaurant", which is outside Zhuquemen and the other two are outside Laosongmen. The name of the shop is missing. All three stores sell ice and snow, cold syrup, licorice soup, medicinal papaya, water papaya, cold water litchi cream and other cold drinks.
"Ice and Snow" is the Song Dynasty version of sorbet, "Liangjiang" is iced fermented rice soup, "Glycyrrhiza Decoction" is iced licorice water, and "Medicinal Papaya" is a cool drink made by pickling honey and several Chinese herbal medicines, then boiling in boiling water until it turns white, mashing it into mud, and mixing it evenly with ice water. "Water papaya" is relatively simple. Peel papaya, remove pulp, cut into small squares and soak in ice water. "Cold water litchi paste" basically has nothing to do with the net branches of litchi foreign slaves. The main method is to boil ebony into gum, and then melt the gum into ice water.
These cold drinks are inseparable from ice, but there is no modern ice-making equipment in the Song Dynasty. Where did you get the ice on a hot day? The answer is: when there is ice in winter, store it in advance. Where does it exist? Underground ice chambers and ice wells. There were many ice rooms in the Song Dynasty, and there was a big one in the court. In summer, ice is given to the queen and ministers. There is a small folk freezer. When it is cold, people will be hired to break the ice in the river and carry it back to the freezer to collect it. When it heats up, it will be shipped out for sale.
There was no refrigerator in the Song Dynasty, and the ice would melt as soon as it left the igloo. In order to solve this problem, the cold drink shop in Song Dynasty has two barrels, with a base at the bottom and a round cover at the top, and the interface is plated with copper. The ice cubes placed in the interlayer will not melt for two or three days.
When the cold drinks are ready, refrigerate them in this vat. When not refrigerated, you can also call wooden barrels in the air-one in each of the four corners of the room. As soon as the lid is opened, cold air will come out to cool down.
Cold drinks in the Song Dynasty did not contain pigments and preservatives, and they could not make fake juice and fruit granules at that time, so they should be safe. But as mentioned above, the ice used for cold drinks in the Song Dynasty is all natural ice, which is taken from rivers and contains many impurities. It's okay if it's cold. Drinking it directly may upset the stomach.
Recorded a dialogue between Xiaozong and Assistant Minister of Rites in the Southern Song Dynasty. Song Xiaozong said, "I drank too much ice water before, and suddenly it was very violent. Fortunately, I am very calm. " I ate too many cold drinks the other day and had diarrhea. Fortunately, I don't have diarrhea now. Shi Dian said: "You are the supreme ruler of the country, and your every move is related to the life of the country and the people." Never eat cold drinks according to your own preferences. "Song Xiaozong" deeply "agree with him.
"Ice and snow" is similar to the present sorbet. In the Song Dynasty, in winter, people took a pot of water from a copper pot, put sugar in it, or put some juice and pectin in it, and then put it outside for freezing. After the whole basin of water is frozen, it will be transported to the freezer, cut into small pieces next summer and sold in cold drinks shops.
"Cold paste" is made of rice, whether it is rice or millet. Boil in a thick half pot, add half pot of cold water after boiling, mix well, pour into the jar, cover it and let it ferment naturally. After five or six days, the rice is saccharified and poured out, and the thick rice juice is filtered out; Put the rice juice into a small porcelain bottle and put it in an ice bucket for cooling. Sweet and sour. In the past, when Tomb-Sweeping Day went to the grave, he would not only offer sacrifices to his relatives, but also sprinkle some "cold water rice" on ghosts. Cold rice is actually semi-fermented rice juice, but it is not an unfrozen cold drink.
In addition, there are two kinds of cold drinks, namely "sharbat" and "boiled water".
The production process of sharbat is particularly troublesome: find a bunch of litchi, or a bunch of apples, plums, oranges, bayberry, grapes and so on. In short, all juicy fruits can be washed, peeled and pitted, leaving only juice and pulp to pour into the pot. Add water, bring to a boil, and then simmer. Filter it again when it is almost sticky, filter out the dregs that have not been selected just now, and continue. Filled with pectin and sealed in a small porcelain jar. When you want a cold drink, scoop a little out of the porcelain jar and mix it with ice water evenly, which is sharbat.
Compared with sharbat, making boiled water is very simple. As the name implies, boiled water must be boiled, but it can never be called boiled water, only boiled water. When people in Song Dynasty boiled water, they washed bamboo leaves, rice leaves or orange leaves, dried them in the sun, put them in a pot for a while, then boiled a pot of water, put a handful of leaves in it, covered the pot, stewed for a while, fished them out and threw them away, added some sugar, and finally put the water in a crock and hung them into a deep well. This drink is healthy, cool and has a faint natural fragrance.
When I was a child, farmers in my hometown in eastern Henan harvested wheat. Every household likes to pick a few bitter bamboo leaves from the newly bought agricultural broom, wash them, bake them on the fire and make tea for the summer. I think this habit was handed down from the Song Dynasty.
Excerpt from History of Song Dynasty/Times Culture Publishing Company