the Stone Age
People in the Stone Age could not know how to cook with a pot, but when they knew how to barbecue food with fire, they were waiting for the gift of nature-thunder and fire. After the forest fire animals were cooked, they went to find the dead animals to eat. After knowing how to drill wood for fire, fire changed human civilization. Up to now, most people know how to barbecue food with fire to make it more delicious. Therefore, the basis of promoting human civilization is food.
No pot does not affect appetite, but the cooking method of food is relatively simple. But with the development of civilization, people have mastered at least three cooking methods of food:
Barbecue is a cooking skill that has never been forgotten since ancient times, and now the ways of barbecue are more diverse. Our compatriots in Xinjiang should be the first to make the barbecue more delicious. If you haven't eaten Xinjiang mutton kebabs, you really can't say that you have eaten barbecue.
Hot brand, using slate, heating ingredients. In ancient times when there was no pot, in order to prevent food from burning, someone came up with the idea of processing food on slate. This is also a kind of ancient pot.
How to drink hot water and soup without a pot when cooking soup? Find a flat and sunken ground or dig a pit, spread a hide on the pit, add raw meat, and then add red-hot stones, so you can make a pot of hot soup. Some people say, why not make a fire under the skins? Because the skin is not hot!
How did the earliest pots come into being?
In the process of barbecuing food for a long time, some people find that the soil next to them will be hard after burning, so they burn it with soil, and then it will be as hard as a stone, which will not be destroyed by fire and will not be easily melted by water. Then, pour water into it and put meat. You have to take it off the shelf and put it on the fire. This simplest pot is formed.
At that time, pottery was made into pots in large quantities, and there were three styles:
Wei: The earliest rice cooker was Wei, made of clay. When people have this pot, they throw everything into it and stew it in one pot. Wei's shape is the following three legs, similar to a marching pot. When in use, a fire can be made directly below.
Kettle: "Boil beans and burn beans, beans cry pot" is this thing, and it is also an upgraded version of Wei. But its shape is more like a pot without legs.
Zan: The upgraded kettle is the earliest steamer. Just add a kettle on top of the kettle, and there is a hole under the kettle. Boil water below and the food in the steamer above. The appearance of retort is that people know that after planting grain, they cook it and take it out for steaming, thus forming dried rice.
Pots in the Bronze Age
The previous clay pots were formed in the Stone Age, and entered the Bronze Age after human beings invented metals and knew how to refine them. With bronzes, there will be copper pots made of bronzes
However, although metals have been discovered, the output is not high and ordinary people can't afford it. Ding made of bronze can only be used for sacrifice. It is used to cook meat in large-scale activities and then distribute it to participants.
For example, Dayu Jiuding, Dakeding, Maogongding, Siyang Fangzun and Simu Wuding. They are all sacrifices made of bronze. At that time, only princes and nobles could afford bronzes.
Iron age pot
The earliest ironware in China is recorded in Zuo Zhuan. There is a cast iron tripod in Jin State and a book of salt and iron in Han Dynasty, which is about the state's control of salt and iron. This shows that iron utensils appeared in the Han Dynasty, so it was normal to have iron pots at that time. Because the output of iron is very small, mainly because the smelting and mining technology is immature, and the iron pot is also a royal thing, the people mainly use casserole as kitchen utensils.
In the Tang Dynasty, the pot was officially called "pot", and the embryonic form of cooking began to take shape. Of course, compared with the cooking in Song Dynasty, there is still a certain gap. Because of the limitations of pots, the Tang Dynasty basically boiled, fried, stewed and braised, and there were fewer stir-fried dishes.
The poet Chen Yu wrote in "Passing through the Old Residence": "In the past, Yan returned to the house, but now it is rice packaging. I didn't smell the words, but I saw a horse in the south. The soy sauce pan is boiling and the cake is on the table. I only feel that getting up early in the morning, the eaves are self-contained. "
Because of the rapid development of metallurgical technology in Song Dynasty, iron pots officially entered people's homes. After the advent of iron pots, various cooking methods began to be popular among the people. In the first year of Yuanfeng in Song Shenzong, the annual output of iron reached 6.5438+0.5 million tons, exceeding the sum of Europe before 654.38+07 century, so it is not surprising that every family in Song Dynasty had iron pots.
At most, from 65438 BC+0400 BC to 960 AD, there was a mutiny in Chen Qiao, Song Taizu, China, and people seldom used iron pots for more than two thousand years. After all, the ancient iron production was too small, mainly used to make weapons and farm tools.
Before the Song Dynasty, the royal family used bronze or copper pots, while the folk basically used casserole and crock to cook. It was not until the middle of the Song Dynasty that people used iron pots more because of the increase in iron production.
Before the Song Dynasty, there were no iron pots. How did the ancients cook? The king regards the people as the sky, and the people regard food as the sky. China's food culture has a long history and is profound, such as Beijing Roast Duck, Lanzhou Lamian Noodles, Xi 'an Mutton Paomo and so on. You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Food manufacturing needs not only good materials, but also good tools, such as good pots. But there were no iron pots before the Song Dynasty, so how did the ancients cook?
Let's look at the evolution of cookware in the history of China. Humans learned to use fire for the first time, baking food on branches before eating, and the first generation of cookware-"barbecue grill" was born.
Wei is a very representative ceramic cooker in Longshan culture period. It has three "short legs" and is very cute, but it just shows that people are not limited to "barbecue" and have already started cooking.
In the early Shang Dynasty, Tao Ge was a bag-shaped foot, and in the middle period, there were many Tao Ge, which raised the toes of the bag-shaped foot, and some Tao Ge necks were decorated with circular patterns. The number of cookers in the late stage is still the largest, but the difference from the middle stage is that the crotch is lower and no toes are added.
Cooking utensils in the Spring and Autumn Period mainly include boiling pots and kettles. The saggy foot developed from the thick saggy foot in the early Spring and Autumn Period to the symbolic papillary saggy foot until it gradually disappeared. With the development and progress of society, pots were gradually replaced by pots in the Warring States period. The pot shape in the Central Plains is basically the same as that in Tao Ge in the late Spring and Autumn Period, but the low nipple-shaped foot has disappeared. Tao Ge's leg gradually lost its function and became a kettle. The Historical Records of Xiang Yu once mentioned that when Xiang Yu led his troops to cross the river, "all shipwrecks were broken." The kettle and still are complete sets of cookers. The kettle is on the lower floor. It is used as a kettle to hold water, boil water and make steam rise. There are fine holes in the bottom of the retort, so it is simple and convenient to put it in a kettle as a steamer to steam rice and fish. The kettle and the retort are separated by a porous grate, which is not only convenient for steam to rise, but also can prevent rice grains from leaking from the upper layer to the lower layer, which is quite scientific. Putting the kettle directly on the stove to cook food can make more effective use of firepower than tripod and tripod, saving time and fuel, so it gradually replaces tripod and tripod and becomes the main cooker. The appearance and shape of pottery pots have begun to form the pots we use today. From this point of view, no iron pot can stop people from wanting to eat and come up with various cooking methods.
In the existing archaeological research, iron farm tools first appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, so it is inaccurate to say that "iron pots" only appeared in the Song Dynasty. Due to the low output of iron ore in the early stage, iron was directly controlled by the state until the Han Dynasty. Among the unearthed cultural relics of the Han Dynasty, there is an iron pot shaped like a kettle. Although it is far from the modern iron pot, it also proves that there was an iron pot in the Han Dynasty. However, these luxuries belong to the aristocratic class and can only be enjoyed by the court and the royal family. Ordinary people don't have iron pots. It was not until the Song Dynasty that iron production surged and forging technology improved that iron pots became cheap and durable and entered thousands of households. However, it is worth noting that the shape of the iron pot in the Song Dynasty was also different from the past. In the Song Dynasty, a "shallow-bottomed wok" appeared, with a thin bottom, good conductivity and large heating area. Because of this, it was not until the Song Dynasty that China people really realized "frying" in cooking.
Nowadays, our cookware is ever-changing. Ovens, microwave ovens, induction cookers and gas stoves are dazzling. However, many delicacies in the Song Dynasty are still very popular in modern times, such as the ham recorded by Su Dongpo in "A Rough Talk on Diet"-"Ham is cooked in pig pancreas, and the oil is exhausted. Ham in the valley, not oily for decades, a bran cloud. " For example, Lin Hong wrote "Hot Pot" in "Mountain Jia Qing Palace"-"Shi Yun: Only a thin batch is used in the mountains, and the pepper in the wine sauce is alive. Put a stove on the table, use half a glass of water, and when the soup rings, give everyone a stick, so you can put it in the soup and cook it. If you vomit, just give it to everyone. " Wait a minute. Song dynasty was really a food manufacturing camp, a paradise for eating goods, and iron pots were tools. Even if it doesn't exist, it can't stop the wisdom of the people, but the advantages of iron pots make it a historical choice and a historical necessity.
There were no iron pots before the Song Dynasty, so how did the ancients cook? "Food is the most important thing for people", and eating is the first factor for human survival and reproduction. When people eat food, they ingest nutrients necessary to maintain human survival, while human beings can only survive and reproduce organically. Before the use of fire, human ancestors, such as the common big island, would eat fruits and some leaves on trees. If small animals are caught, they will eat blood raw. When our ancestors left the forest and began to walk upright, they had the opportunity to find that their food tasted better and was easier to digest, so "barbecue" was the main cooking method of our ancestors for a long time.
With the development of productivity of ancient murals, people found that clay was used to make various utensils and burned with fire. Clay becomes very hard after treatment and can be well preserved even with water. This is pottery. The first man began to cook with pottery and add water to cook food. With the development of smelting technology, bronzes appeared and people began to cook with bronzes. Gui and Ding were symbols of power in the Zhou Dynasty, mainly bronze cookers, and Ding was used for cooking. However, bronzes can support a noble, and folks also use pottery to cook things.
Judging from the current archaeological excavations, the ironmaking technology in the Warring States period was relatively mature, but it was not universal. Iron is also used to make weapons and even farm tools. Iron corrodes more easily than bronze and is more difficult to preserve. The number of ironware unearthed during the Warring States period was far less than that of bronze wares. Before 20 18, I saw a lot of Warring States in Hebei Museum, including Zhongshan (state) barbecue plates, swallow helmets, various farm tools and iron swords.
There were not many iron pots in this period, and people still used pottery as their main cooking utensils. Nobles mostly use bronzes, but there are also cookers that can be used for steaming. The farm tools, iron swords and iron molds of the Warring States unearthed by Sun Wangcuo further developed with the development of ironmaking technology in the Northern Song Dynasty. A large number of tin cans were found when Nanhai No.1 sank, which further proved that the ironmaking technology in Song Dynasty was highly developed. At this time, all weapons were made of iron, and the export of "iron" was also prohibited. Nanhai No.1 Railway is suspected of smuggling.