In fact, in thousands of years of history, what is the most remarkable feature of Sichuan cuisine-Sichuan cuisine? Shang taste? 、? So spicy? Combined with the rich local products and delicious ingredients, Sichuanese use Sichuan ginger, pepper and other seasonings in large quantities to make cooked, fragrant and salty dishes. Everything tastes bad, except the heat, the good taste and the five flavors. . Su Shi, a Sichuanese, said in "Pension":? Soft rice, rotten cook the meat. Hot soup, thick felt mattress? Dongpo pork and Dongpo elbow handed down to this day are typical representatives of this kind of dishes. At that time, Sichuan cuisine was mainly seasoned with ginger, onion and pepper, and the spicy taste of dishes was a typical feature of Sichuan cuisine since the Han Dynasty.
Zanthoxylum bungeanum, ginger and Cornus officinalis are also called the three most traditional spicy spices in China, among which Zanthoxylum bungeanum is the most popular. According to scholars' research, about one-fifth of the food was made of pepper in the history of more than 2,000 years before pepper entered China. Zanthoxylum bungeanum is planted in the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and Yellow River in China. In the Tang Dynasty, when Zanthoxylum bungeanum was in its heyday, the proportion of food using Zanthoxylum bungeanum in the menu was 37%, which was well preserved in Sichuan cuisine.
In addition, in ancient Shu and Sichuan, thanks to the prosperity of beekeeping, Shu people have long had a soft spot for sweets. The History of the Three Kingdoms (Volume 6) Cao Pi's Imperial edict and ministers: The new city Meng Taishou said: Shu pigs lick chickens, which are delicious, so Shu people eat them and like to stir honey to help them taste. ? Father Meng introduced in the second volume of Dream in Tokyo, China that it is sold in teahouses and restaurants in Tokyo? Weight loss fruit? Among them are amazing lactose and lion candy.
Tang Shenwei, a pharmacist in the Northern Song Dynasty, said in his Materia Medica of Zheng Zheng that what is the practice of abstaining from lactose? Refined sugar and milk are stone honey, which is lactose. Only Shuchuan did it? . In other words, this candy specialty produced in western Sichuan is actually a kind of milk candy. Including Su Shi, a great writer, also loves sweets. There is a sentence in his poem:? Laced moss, roasted green cattail, rotten steamed goose and duck are pots. Boiled beans make pastry, high-heat oil candles pour honey wine, and poor families have none. ?
Even during the Qing Dynasty, Fu's Overview of Chengdu recorded that Sichuan's sweets included bird's nest with crystal sugar, sugar-roasted abalone, sugar-roasted duck, preserved chicken, Dongpo meat, cherry meat, Korean meat, roast meat with sweet wine and roast elbow with crystal sugar. It can be seen that in a long history, Sichuan's diet and today's spicy flavor are irrelevant.
So, how did the ancient traditional Sichuan cuisine become the familiar Sichuan cuisine today? This should start from the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. /kloc-In the middle of the 7th century, China experienced a long war from the demise of the Ming Dynasty to the reunification of the Qing Dynasty. Among them, Sichuan experienced the longest war, and its economy and people's livelihood were completely destroyed. After the Qing court conquered Zhang and incorporated Sichuan into the territory, the population of Sichuan has dropped from three or four million in the late Ming Dynasty to more than 600,000, while the old Sichuanese in Chengdu Plain in central Sichuan have already? A hundred more than one? Yes Cruel war killings cut off the traditional culture and customs of Sichuan while exterminating the population, and the traditional Sichuan cuisine suffered a devastating blow.
What's next? Huguang fills Sichuan? The population composition of Sichuan has been completely changed, and the huge population movement has brought rich food culture. Sichuan cuisine is eclectic and draws on the strengths of various families. Just at this time, pepper was introduced to China, and it was used as a seasoning with spicy pepper to enter the dining table of China people. Although pepper was first introduced to Zhejiang and Guangdong, it was not widely spread in the local area because of the local people's light taste preference. Since then, pepper has spread upstream along the Yangtze River, spreading to the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, with branches and leaves all over the vast area centered on Hunan. Together with Jiangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Sichuan and other neighboring provinces, it has formed the hottest zone in China. As a result, the spicy elements in Sichuan cuisine began to appear, and until the fourteenth year of Qianlong (1749), peppers were recorded in Sichuan cuisine for the first time.
Sichuanese people keep the traditional habit of eating hemp, but at the same time, they add spicy flavor to their diet, which finally creates a strange spicy feast. There are records of eating spicy food all over Sichuan in the late Qing Dynasty, and today the basic flavor of Sichuan cuisine has begun to take shape. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, according to Fu Chongju's summary of Chengdu, pepper had become the main seasoning in Sichuan cuisine, and Sichuan cuisine was well-known. Sichuan pork? Then he entered the room. Since then, pepper has formed an indissoluble bond with Sichuan cuisine and has become the new soul of Sichuan cuisine.