You don't need a knife

Cooking cake, originally not called this name, is called steamed cake. Because Zhao Zhen's taboo changed his mouth, he called it cooking cake. If you look at the literal interpretation, you will know that he is steaming food, but don't be deceived by the word "cake", because in the Song Dynasty, as long as it is made of flour, it is called "cake". According to the literature records at that time, "Anyone who uses flour as a utensil is a cake: so those who eat on fire are called baked cakes; Those who eat water are called soup cakes; "Those who eat in a steamer are called steamed cakes."

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So you should understand that the noodles we are talking about now, if you cross back, you must not say a bowl of noodles or noodles, you have to call a bowl of "soup cake", because that's what it was called at that time.

To understand the concept of cake in Song Dynasty, let's take a look at several steamed cakes mentioned in Water Margin, and I sorted them out.

On the 26th occasion, Uncle He Jiu paid homage to Wu Da and said, "I bought Dalang a cage cake the day before yesterday, but I didn't get the money back. I specially burned this strange paper to Dalang.

In the fifty-third episode, one of them, Dai Zong, teased likui jy and "pulled out some kitchen cakes from his arms to eat."

Back to the 56th, Xu Ning's breakfast "wash, call some hot wine. "Ya Huan arranged for meat and cooking cakes to be served to Xu Ning.

The seventieth time, later in Yan Qing and likui jy, "I asked them to cook dry meat, make steamed cakes, bag the ingredients, tie them around, and leave Liu Taigong Village."

Many people have verified that steamed cakes are steamed bread, but there are also records of steamed bread in the Water Margin, and according to legend, steamed bread was created by Zhuge Liang as early as the Three Kingdoms period. So whether steamed cakes are steamed bread or not, we will compare some records of steamed bread in the Water Margin.

In the book, I mentioned that I said in Sun Erniang's shop: "We have good wine and meat, and when we want snacks, we have big steamed buns. Yes, there are steamed buns here.

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Wu Da's cooking cakes are probably not steamed bread, because at that time, Wu Da was peddling along the street. Steamed bread is not delicious when it is cold, and needs to be kept warm. However, after reading the above paragraphs, it is obvious that steamed cakes are carried by customers, but they are just common things, which are not elegant and are not worth a few dollars.

For example, the man who tipped off Wu Da was rewarded with ten cooking cakes. People disliked this "cooking cakes are useless" and insisted on eating meat and drinking. It can be seen that cooking cakes are not high-grade food.

Of course, some people will say that, after all, the Water Margin was written by the Ming Dynasty. Let's look at the records of people in the Southern Song Dynasty. There was once a poem "Eating Steamed Cakes", saying, "He Jia's cage cakes must be crossed, and Xiao Jia's cooking cakes must be broken four times." In the Dongpo Zhilin, it is recorded that "when the deep water retreats in autumn, the silt can't be thick, which is called steamed cake silt."

According to all kinds of records, steamed cakes are indeed a civilian food in the Song Dynasty, and they are liked by the bottom people. They are also necessary dry food for traveling abroad. But what is cooking cakes here?

The Ming Dynasty is not far from the Southern Song Dynasty, so personally, this kitchen cake should be close to the existence of Qi Jiguang's light cake, or similar to Shaanxi's pot helmet, because this kind of thing is very consistent with the characteristics of kitchen cake, that is, it is soft and soft when it is made, but it can be carried for a long time, and it doesn't occupy an area, so it is easy to pile up. When you see that Wuda is a kitchen cake, you know that it is not heavy, but it is estimated that it is only ten. In Wuda's view, it can be taken.

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As for the food similar to cooking cakes, as the method of steaming dim sum became more and more developed, there were many steamed cakes such as similar steamed cakes, which may be steamed cakes, but it was more troublesome to carry than light cakes, and it was not very full.

Based on this analysis, cooking cake can be said to be a branch of dry food such as light cake, but its name is different, but it is definitely not steamed bread, because people refuse to escape from a few steamed buns in their arms, but the cake is ok, and whenever it is, it can be used as light cake for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dry food, which is really closer to the characteristics of cooking cake.

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Whether the light cake is delicious or not depends on individual's taste. I have been to Fujian on business for several years, and I have eaten the local light cake, which tastes ok, but it must be better with soup.