For example, during the Qianlong period, the emperor consumed 22 kg of pork, 5 kg of soup, 1 kg of lard, 2 sheep, 5 chickens and 3 ducks every day. Even in the late Qing Dynasty, the rule of the Qing Dynasty was crumbling. Puyi, Yulong and others still used 3960 Jin of meat and 388 chickens and ducks a month. It can be seen that the amount of meat used in the Qing palace is large.
In addition to these common meats, because Manchu people used to make a living by fishing and hunting, there are also many kinds of game in court food. For example, every year, a large number of delicacies such as venison, deer tail, deer tongue, deer lamb, sturgeon, roe deer and bear's paw are presented to the emperor. In the palace menu, there are often dishes based on game, such as "roasted venison with deer tail" and "roasted venison".
However, with the passage of time, the catering in the Qing palace has become more and more diverse and luxurious, and the consumption of high-end ingredients such as shark's fin and bird's nest has increased day by day.
For example, Gan Long likes to eat bird's nest. According to Wu's research, he often eats more than 32 bird's nests a month, with an average of more than one or two per day. Another famous bird's nest lover is Cixi. When Cixi came to power, her diet was extremely extravagant. It is said that hundreds of dishes should be prepared for a meal, many of which are supplemented by bird's nest. For example, seven kinds of dishes with bird's nest, such as "White Chopped Chicken with Bird's Nest", "Fried shredded duck with a pot of bird's nest" and "Three Fresh Fat Chicken with Bird's Nest Birthday", were included in Cixi's menu on the seventh day of October in Guangxu Decade.
Of course, the saying that Cixi wants a hundred dishes for a meal is just a legend. The daily life of the emperor and queen in the palace far exceeds the normal consumption of a person. Puyi mentioned in his memoir "My First Half Life" that a breakfast served in the Imperial Restaurant shortly before his abdication contained more than 20 dishes and snacks, which young Puyi could never finish. What's more, the chef usually prepares a lot of snacks for the emperor to enjoy at any time and will never starve to death. So the emperor eats a few mouthfuls of his favorite dishes at most every day, how to present most of them or return them as they are, and how to deal with so many leftovers. This problem was mentioned in the memoirs of eunuch Xin in the late Qing Dynasty.
It is believed that after the emperor finished eating, he would reward some of the remaining dishes to his trusted princes and ministers to show his closeness. For these princes and ministers, they usually don't eat less good food, and they don't really covet the dishes enjoyed by the emperor, but this honor is incomparable to ordinary people, so they still pay special attention to it.
After the reward of the princes, the eunuchs around the emperor got a little embellishment, and everyone got different amounts of royal meals according to their levels, which was also the light of the emperor. The dishes left by eunuchs were sent back to the chef. Stewarders, cooks and handymen in the royal kitchen are also popular. They collected the leftovers sent back by the emperor and the empresses, and then divided them. Finally, the leftovers were cold roasted and sold outside the palace together with the leftovers from previous cooking.
Most of these scraps are sold to small restaurants in Beijing, because they are still complete ingredients and are processed and sold later. Because this kind of leftovers are much cheaper than those in the vegetable market, they are still quite popular, and small restaurants that have nothing to do may not be able to grab them.
As for the leftovers, although they are not good-looking, some vendors buy them, cook them and sell them on the street. Ten big bucks can eat a big bowl. It is also a good choice for the poor who can't afford meat, so it has also formed a big market. It is said that there were more than 10 thousand people selling leftovers from the Forbidden City in Beijing at that time, which shows the popularity of these leftovers. Of course, this also avoids the waste of food, which is a good thing.