China specialty food. Also known as jiaozi. It is a folk staple food and local snacks, and also a holiday food. There is a folk song called "Xiao Han, eat jiaozi in the New Year." Jiaozi is made of flour, leather bags and stuffing with boiled water. Jiaozi originated in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Jiaozi mostly uses cold water and flour as agents, rolls it into a round skin with a slightly thicker middle and a thinner periphery, wraps it with stuffing, kneads it into a crescent shape or an angle shape, and cooks it in boiling water. Dumpling skin can also be hot noodles, crispy noodles or rice noodles; The stuffing can be vegetarian, sweet and salty; Mature methods can also be steaming, roasting, frying, frying, etc. Meat stuffing includes three delicacies, shrimp, crab roe, sea cucumber, fish, chicken, pork, beef and mutton. Vegetarian stuffing can be divided into mixed vegetarian stuffing and ordinary vegetarian stuffing.

origin

Jiaozi originated from the ancient trough. As early as the Three Kingdoms period, this kind of food was mentioned in the book Guangya written by Wei. According to textual research, it was developed from the "Crescent Wonton" from the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty and the "Double-horned Dried Meat" in the Southern Song Dynasty, with a history of 1400 years. According to the historical records of the Qing Dynasty; During the Chinese New Year, everyone will go together when they are happy, such as eating flat food and becoming famous. He added, "Every year on the first day of the Lunar New Year, people, rich or poor, use white bread to jiaozi. This is called cooking cakes, and it is the same all over the country. A rich family is hidden in gold and silver treasures. If it succeeds, those who have food to support their families will be lucky in the end. "This shows that people eat jiaozi during the Spring Festival, which means saying goodbye to the old year and welcoming good luck in the new year. In the "Notes on Clearing Barn" edited by a close friend Tsui Hark, he said: "There is stuffing in it, or powder horn-it can be steamed and fried, and boiled dumplings are called dumplings. "For thousands of years, jiaozi, as a New Year's food, has been loved by people and has been passed down to this day.

Jiaozi all over the world

During its long development, jiaozi has various names, including ancient prison pill, flat food, jiaozi bait and pink horn. In the Tang Dynasty, jiaozi was called "Tang Zhong Prison Pill"; The Yuan Dynasty was called "Shiluojoule"; In the late Ming dynasty, it was called "powder angle"; The Qing Dynasty called it "Pingshi"-now, the north and the south have different names for jiaozi. People in the north call it "jiaozi", but many areas in the south call it "Wonton". Due to different fillings, jiaozi has various names, including pork jiaozi, mutton jiaozi, beef jiaozi, three fresh jiaozi, red oil jiaozi, glutinous rice balls, flower jiaozi, fish jiaozi, crystal dumplings and so on. In addition, due to different ripening methods, fried dumplings and steamed dumplings are still used at present. Therefore, on New Year's Day.

The Legend of jiaozi

Jiaozi, formerly known as Joule, was first invented by Zhang Zhongjing, a doctor in China. The story of his "Quhan Joule Decoction" has spread among the people to this day.

According to legend, at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Zhongjing, a "medical sage", served as the magistrate of Changsha, then resigned and returned to his hometown. Just in time for the winter solstice, he saw that the people in Nanyang were hungry and cold, and their ears were frostbitten. At that time, typhoid fever was prevalent and many people died. Zhang Zhongjing summed up the clinical practice of the Han Dynasty for more than 300 years, so he set up a medical shed in the local area and set up a cauldron. He made mutton, pepper and herbs for dispelling cold and warming up into ears with flour bags, cooked them and gave them to the poor together with soup and food. People eat from the solstice of winter to New Year's Eve, fighting typhoid fever and curing frozen ears. Since then, villagers and future generations have imitated it, calling it "jiaozi Ear" or "jiaozi", and some places called it "flat food" or "instant noodle jiaozi".

People in northern China have a custom. On holidays, we always eat jiaozi. Especially on New Year's Day, when the whole family pays New Year's greetings, they sit around and chat with jiaozi, and they talk about everything, which leads to laughter from time to time. It's fun. Everyone likes to eat jiaozi, especially the rice in jiaozi. When people eat this smooth and delicious water cake, if they know more about its origin, who will not marvel at the pasta garden with a long history in our ancient civilization!

There are many famous products in jiaozi in China, such as Guangdong's powdered shrimp dumplings, Shanghai's fried dumplings, Yangzhou's steamed dumplings with crab roe, Shandong's small soup buns, jiaozi in the northeast and Zhong jiaozi in Sichuan, all of which are popular varieties. Xi 'an also created a feast in jiaozi, hosted by dozens of jiaozi with different shapes and stuffing. There are many historical records and folklore about the origin of jiaozi.

make dumplings

New Year's Eve dinner includes jiaozi. It is one of the most important contents of folk New Year in northern China. In jiaozi on the 30th, because it is an important part of festivals, many rules and established customs are stipulated. These customs are designed to cater to the needs of the New Year atmosphere.

Pay attention to the stuffing in jiaozi.

Jiaozi is first mixed with dumpling stuffing. Jiaozi is full of meat and vegetables. Strictly speaking, it is different in some places, but it is more a mixture of meat and vegetables. Jiaozi in 30 years should be enough for the whole family to eat for 30 nights and the first morning. On New Year's Eve, jiaozi is usually mixed with meat and vegetables. Cut pork or mutton into small diced meat, marinate with seasoning, then chop the tender leaves of Chinese cabbage into coarse grains with a knife, squeeze out some water, and add human flesh and seasoning to mix. In the process of stuffing, the most important thing is chopping stuffing, that is, chopping Chinese cabbage with a knife. When cutting vegetables, the knife collided with the chopping board and made a powerful "bang" sound. Because of the constant change of force, this sound gives people a rhythmic change of strength and rhythm, like a particularly beautiful music, which spreads to all neighbors. People hope that the chopping sound at home is the loudest and longest in the village. Meat and vegetables are mixed with stuffing, which is homophonic "rich". The stuffing has the loudest sound and takes a long time, which means "more money takes a long time". The longer you cut vegetables, the more jiaozi you have, which symbolizes the abundance of life.

Jiaozi's exquisite shape

The jiaozi shape of the New Year's Eve dinner is also exquisite, and most areas are used to keeping the traditional crescent shape. When wrapping this shape, fold the dough in half and knead it along the edge of the semicircle with the thumb and forefinger of your right hand. You have to knead carefully and evenly. This is called "kneading happiness". Some farmhouses pinch the two corners of jiaozi, which has been pinched into a crescent shape, into an "ingot" shape and put it on the door curtain, symbolizing wealth everywhere and gold and silver all over the house. There are also some farmers who pinch jiaozi with grain-shaped patterns, like plump and huge wheat grains, symbolizing a bumper harvest in the new year. But more is to wrap jiaozi into several shapes, which indicates that the coming year will be rich in financial resources, delicious food in Man Cang and prosperous life.

Jiaozi's arrangement is exquisite.

Jiaozi, 30, not only pays attention to shape, but also sets rules for placement. First of all, you can't put it anywhere. As the saying goes: "Busy, don't let Jiao Zi mess around." Daily package jiaozi, horizontal pendulum vertical pendulum, all with its meaning, 30-year-old package jiaozi is not. In Shandong and other places, curtains should be round. First, put a few jiaozi in the shape of an ingot in the middle, and then place them neatly around the ingot layer by layer. This is the folk saying that "a circle is blessed". Some people even stipulate that no matter the size of curtains, only 99 curtains can be placed on each curtain, and they should be covered with curtains. Therefore, it can only be achieved by adjusting the spacing and row spacing of the intersection, which is the so-called "endless happiness". There is also an interesting story about this custom in folklore: a long time ago, in a poor mountain village, there was a poor family who often ate the last meal without the next one. On New Year's Eve, there is no white flour and vegetables at home, and I am worried when I listen to the neighbors cutting vegetables. Helpless, I had to borrow rice noodles from relatives and friends. After mending the noodles, I made some miscellaneous vegetables, stuffed them into the stuffing, and wrapped jiaozi. Because the noodles are borrowed, the wrapped jiaozi is particularly precious. When placed, it is circled from the inside out, which is very neat and beautiful. Kitchen God, who just came back from heaven, was very happy after seeing it. There is a rich man in the same village, and his family is very rich. He is used to eating delicacies on weekdays and doesn't care about jiaozi at all. On New Year's Eve, stuffing is made of meat, eggs and other materials, wrapped into jiaozi and placed on the curtain. Jiaozi, a small material, tastes completely different after being cooked in the pot. Pork stuffing became a radish dish. And the poor family's jiaozi turned into a stuffed egg. It turns out that the Chef God is not satisfied with the attitude of the rich man's family, jiaozi. In order to punish him, he secretly switched the two jiaozi. The next day, it spread in the village. From then on, no matter how busy people are, 30-year-old jiaozi should be neatly arranged to win a "happy circle". But in some parts of Heilongjiang, jiaozi can't be put in a circle. It is said that putting jiaozi in a circle will make the days go by and die. It must be arranged horizontally so that financial resources can flow in all directions.

Jiaozi is very particular about cooking and eating.

New Year's Eve dinner not only includes jiaozi, but also jiaozi. As the saying goes: "Eat jiaozi on New Year's Eve-there are no outsiders." It shows that jiaozi is a symbol of family reunion on New Year's Eve. On this day, jiaozi will eat on New Year's Eve, which not only means family reunion, but also means renewing children. The custom of eating jiaozi on New Year's Eve has a long history, at least in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. The History of the Forbidden City in the Ming Dynasty records the custom of eating jiaozi in the New Year. "Starting from the fifth watch ... eating snacks, that is, eating flat food." After inheritance and improvement, the custom of eating jiaozi on New Year's Eve is formed, which means to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new. On New Year's Eve in jiaozi, accompanied by firecrackers, jiaozi was put into a boiling pot, cooked and fished out for the gods and ancestors to eat first, and then ate jiaozi with other foods.

Jiaozi on New Year's Eve is also very particular. Use beans or sesame seeds as firewood for the fire, which means that the fire will burn more and more vigorously, and the days in the coming year will be as high as sesame blossoms. When cooking jiaozi in a pot, you can't stir it with a shovel. You should move it in one direction along the edge of the pot to form a circle, which means the same as putting jiaozi. In eastern Shandong, jiaozi is usually cooked a few times on purpose, but you can't break the taboo of breaking, breaking and rotting, just say "earning" or "rising". Because there are dishes in jiaozi, the homonym is "wealth", and jiaozi's "earning" means "making money", in order to gain luck and win a favor, so as to increase the joyful atmosphere on New Year's Eve. In some places in central Gansu, when cooking jiaozi on New Year's Eve, add a little noodles to cook and eat together, which is called "silver-wrapped gold ingots". Noodles should be thin, and jiaozi should be wrapped in the shape of an ingot, which means longevity and wealth. It is also a kind of good luck and a good hope for people.

Eating jiaozi is also a custom. The first bowl should be respected first, ancestors and immortals. Jiaozi, who provides this offering, is also particular. There is a saying that there are "three ghosts and four gods" in Hebei folk. Is to offer three bowls to the gods, three for each bowl; Provide four bowls for ancestors, each containing four jiaozi; Only the kitchen god is the least respected. Only 1 bowl of jiaozi was served, and only 1 bowl was served in the bowl. However, some people felt embarrassed and filled in a few. In some places, after jiaozi arrives at the altar, the old people at home will also read a prayer devoutly, such as:

Flat food with two sharp points,

Into the pot thousands.

Gold spoon, silver bowl end,

Respect the old people when you bring them to the table.

The gods loved it when they saw it,

Keep safe all the year round.

The second bowl of jiaozi should be served to the livestock to show their love. In the old society, cattle, horses and other large livestock were the main labor tools of farmers, and people also hoped that livestock would usher in a safe and smooth year like people. A family can only eat the third bowl. On New Year's Eve, there are many kinds of New Year's Eve, but you can't eat any of them. Only jiaozi had to eat them. Remember clearly when eating, it is best to eat even numbers, not odd numbers. Some old people at home say "eat more (wealth), eat more" and other old sayings while eating. After dinner, jiaozi's plates and bowls, and even jiaozi's pots, should be deliberately left on the curtain of jiaozi, which is called "more than one year". Even the stuffing and dough used in jiaozi should have "extra heads".

Exotic jiaozi

Many foreigners, like China people, eat jiaozi during the Spring Festival, but their ways and eating methods have their own characteristics.

Jiaozi.

With beef as stuffing, and especially like to add a lot of peppers to beef stuffing, jiaozi stood in a half-moon shape.

Vietnamese jiaozi

Fish is stuffing, and a lot of orange peel, pork and eggs are added to the stuffing, but jiaozi, wrapped in fish, is lying on his back, in contrast to jiaozi in North Korea.

Permeni

Russian jiaozi is stuffed with beef, carrots, eggs, onions, salt and monosodium glutamate, but it also adds some pepper to the jiaozi. The buns are very big. They cooked jiaozi in clear soup made of beef bones. However, boiling jiaozi soup with water is the first course, and eating jiaozi is the second course.

Indian jiaozi

The materials and practices are similar to those of Russian jiaozi, but larger, but not boiled, but baked.

Jiaozi.

They use onions, beef, tomatoes and Dutch celery as stuffing, and the dumpling skin is not rolled up, but pressed into a rectangle by hand. The wrapped jiaozi is not cooked with clear water, but with seasoning soup made of tomatoes, peppers and onions. After eating, jiaozi will drink soup, so that "the original soup becomes the original food".

Italian dumplings

The stuffing is very different from China. The main ingredients are cheese, onion, egg yolk, and sometimes some spinach and beef are added. Another one is based on chicken and cheese, and the main seasonings are butter, onion, lemon peel and nutmeg. They wrap jiaozi by pressing the noodles into long strips, putting a spoonful of stuffing, dipping the edges of the noodles with water, pressing them together with the same noodles, and then cutting them one by one with a knife. Jiaozi's cooking method is the same as that of China.

hungarian dumplings

Strictly speaking, the filling is jam, and even plums, apricots and ebony have been pickled for filling. They used to wrap jiaozi noodles with twice as much mashed potatoes, a lot of lard, eggs, sugar and salt, and sometimes with fried bread.

Jiaozi's invention

Jiaozi is a traditional food that our people love. Its production method is to make a thin and soft dumpling skin with flour, and then chop up fresh meat, cabbage and so on. Mix with seasoning to make stuffing, wrap it up and cook it in a pot until jiaozi comes to the surface. It is characterized by thin skin and tender stuffing, delicious taste, unique shape and wide appetite.

Jiaozi, formerly known as Joule, was first invented by Zhang Zhongjing, a doctor in China.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, disasters were serious everywhere, and many people fell ill. There is a famous doctor in Nanyang named Zhang Ji and Zhong Jing. He studied medical books hard since childhood, learned from others and became the founder of traditional Chinese medicine. Zhang Zhongjing is not only good at medical skills, but also noble in medical ethics. He took the poor and the rich seriously and saved countless lives.

When Zhang Zhongjing was an official in Changsha, he often treated the people. One year, when the local plague was prevalent, he made a cauldron at the entrance of Yamen, giving up medicine to save people, which was deeply loved by Changsha people. After Zhang Zhongjing retired from Changsha and returned to his hometown, he walked to the shore of the Baihe River in his hometown and saw many poor people hungry and cold, and their ears were frozen. He was very upset and determined to treat them. When Zhang Zhongjing came home, many people sought medical treatment. He is as busy as a bee, but he always remembers those poor people with frozen ears. He followed Changsha's example and told his disciples to build a medical shed and cauldron in an open space in Dongguan, Nanyang, and open it on the day of winter solstice to send medicine to the poor to treat their injuries.

Zhang Zhongjing's medicine is called "Quhan Joule Decoction". Its practice is to put mutton, pepper and some herbs to remove cold into a pot and cook them. After cooking, take these things out and chop them up, and make them into ear-shaped "Joules" with leather bags. After cooking in the pot, it will be distributed to patients who ask for medicine. Everyone has two charming ears and a bowl of soup. After eating Quhan decoction, people feel feverish all over, their qi and blood are smooth, and their ears are warm. After eating it for a while, the patient's rotten ears healed.

Zhang Zhongjing didn't give up taking medicine until New Year's Eve. On the first day of the new year, people celebrate the new year and the recovery of rotten ears. They cook New Year's food like Joules and eat it on the first morning. People call this kind of food "jiaozi's Ear", "jiaozi" or partial eclipse, and eat it on the winter solstice and the first day of the New Year to commemorate the day when Zhang Zhongjing opened the shed to give medicine and cure patients.

Zhang Zhongjing's history is nearly 1800 years ago, but his story of "Quhan Joule Decoction" has been widely circulated among the people. On the solstice of winter and the first day of New Year's Day, people eat jiaozi, and they still remember Zhang Zhongjing's kindness in their hearts. Today, we don't need charming ears to cure frozen ears, but jiaozi has become the most common and favorite food for people.

Jiaozi proverb

1 October1day, when the solstice of winter comes, every family will eat jiaozi.

This custom was left in memory of Zhang Zhongjing, a "medical sage", who gave up medicine from the winter solstice. Zhang Zhongjing is from Gedong, Nanyang. Treatise on Febrile Diseases, written by him, is a masterpiece of doctors and is regarded as a classic by doctors in past dynasties. Zhang Zhongjing has a famous saying: "if you advance, you will survive;" If you retreat, you will save the people; " You can't be a good doctor and you can't be a good doctor. "When the Eastern Han Dynasty was the magistrate of Changsha, he visited the sick and took medicine and practiced medicine in the lobby. Later, he resolutely resigned and went back to his hometown to treat his neighbors. When he got home, it was already winter. He saw that the villagers on both sides of the Baihe River were sallow and emaciated, hungry and cold, and many people's ears were frozen. He asked his disciples to build a medical shed and a cauldron in Dongguan, Nanyang, and to give up "Quhan Joule Decoction" to treat chilblain on the day of winter solstice. He boiled mutton, pepper and some herbs for dispelling cold in a pot, then took out mutton and medicine and chopped them up, making ear-shaped dumplings with bread. After cooking, he distributed two horns and a big bowl of broth to everyone who came to ask for medicine. People ate "Joule" and drank "Quhan Decoction", and they were all hot, their ears were hot, and their frostbitten ears were cured. Later generations learned the appearance of Joule and packaged it into food, also called "jiaozi" or "flat food". When you eat jiaozi on the solstice in winter, you will never forget the kindness of Zhang Zhongjing, a "medical sage", in "Quhan Joule Decoction".

Jiaozi drinks more and more wine.

It means that the better life is.

Fu Tou and jiaozi are negative.

Dog days are the days with the highest temperature, humidity and sultry weather in a year, and there are "dog days" in a year. It is at this time that the people say "bitter summer". When the wheat harvest is less than a month, people take this opportunity to have a rare sumptuous meal in Man Cang. jiaozi is a top grade that is hard to see at ordinary times, so there is a saying that "jiaozi falls on his head".

Solstice noodles in winter and summer in jiaozi.

On the day of the summer solstice, noodles are widely eaten in all parts of Shandong Province, commonly known as "crossing the water", and there is a proverb "jiaozi noodles on the summer solstice on the winter solstice"

Jiaozi soup is better than prescription.

According to legend, in the early years of the Warring States, Bian Que, an imperial doctor in Qin Cheng, had a wonderful skill of rejuvenation. One winter, the worst cold in a hundred years, many people were frostbitten, and some even froze their ears. What shall we do? Bian Que, the imperial doctor, takes white flour, rubs it into the shape of an ear, sticks it on the roots of those frozen ears, and then restores the original appearance of the ears with luck and strength, and then cooks it with warm herbs for the patients to drink. The patients only feel a warm current flowing all over their bodies, and they are no longer afraid of the cold. Later generations made flour into ear-shaped food and cooked it in herbal soup to keep out the cold, in memory of Bian Que, a god with superb medical skills and a kind heart to relieve pain, so this statement came into being.

Comfortable is better than hanging upside down, not as good as jiaozi.

This famous northern saying proves here that northerners like to eat jiaozi very much. In addition, there are two-part allegorical sayings about jiaozi, such as: blind people eat jiaozi-knowingly commit crimes; Boil jiaozi in the teapot-you can't pour it out with goods in your stomach.