The popularity of bear paw comes from Mencius. Mencius said, "Fish is what I desire, and bear paw is what I desire. You can't have both, and the one who gives up the fish and takes the bear's paw is also the one who takes the bear's paw." Nowadays, eating fish is a matter of lifting one's hand, but in ancient times, it was difficult to catch a fish. To travel with a car and to eat fish was a feature of the life of the princes and nobles, and to have a bear's paw was to give up the fish, so that the bear's paw could be seen to be precious.
When the Cultural Revolution was about to begin, Lin Biao made a long speech. He used the idea of class struggle to remind everyone to prevent palace coups, for which he cited many examples of coups. One of them was a story: In 626 B.C., the son of King Cheng of Chu wanted to kill his father in order to seize the throne. King Cheng of Chu made a request: I have already arranged for the cook to cook a bear's paw, so can you let me eat the paw before I die? The son poked holes in his father's attempt: Bear paws can't be cooked in one go, are you trying to stall for time? So King Cheng of Chu was not even able to fulfill his request to eat the bear's paw, and was sent to the netherworld. The saying "bear's paw is hard to cook" has spread.
Twenty years after the death of King Cheng of Chu, a man named Duke Ling of Jin, who was brutal in nature, killed his cook with a single blow of his sword because the cook had not cooked the bear's paw thoroughly. This incident was recorded in the Zuo Zhuan (左传), which objectively reinforced the publicity of the bear's paw.
Why are bear paws so valuable? It turns out that bears hibernate in the winter before, with the front paw trampled honey and ants, fully stored food for hibernation licking. Ming Li Shizhen "Compendium of Materia Medica" Volume 51, said: "bear ...... winter hibernation (hibernation) when not eating, hungry lick its palm, so the best in the palm." Nearby Tang Lusun also said: "The black bear can stand and walk, the forepaw is particularly flexible, hibernation, with a forepaw against the Valley Road (anus, editor's note), another palm for licking and sucking, this year with the left forepaw, next year must be changed to the right forepaw ...... a palm of the winter does not move, a palm every day to lick the non-stop, saliva The essence of day and night moisturizing, this palm fat and thick and moist is natural."
The Spring and Autumn period of the lords pay attention to eat sizzling bear paw, sizzling method has long been lost, the descendants eat bear paw to stew mainly.
Newly cut bear paws can not be eaten immediately, at least one year until thoroughly dry to cook. Collection of bear paw also has a set of methods: cut down the bear paw after the cloth or paper to dry the blood (can not touch the water), and then prepare a large mouth porcelain altar, the first lime bottom, and then lay a thick layer of fried rice, into the bear paw, surrounded by fried rice plug tightly, and then put on top of the lime sealing, set aside one or two years, take out of the wash and cook.
Bear paws cleaned after the hair, the method is to use wet mud to the bear paws, put into the stove fire, and so the mud is dry and peeled off, the bear hair will be clean. Bear paw cleaned up, to be first smeared with a thick layer of honey (so that it is easier to cook), and then in the fire on the boil for an hour, this time the bear paw will be more than twice as big as the original, and become soft, at this time, and then take out of the skin to take the meat. Bear paw skin is difficult to peel, peeling is a major test of the chef's skills; take out the palm meat in the pot with a slow fire to cook, such as cooking some of the soft, and cease fire to let it cool completely, cold and then cook, cook and then stop. After three or four times, you can add ingredients such as mountain chicken, quail, harvest bird, mushrooms and asparagus, and the whole bear's paw stew; you can also slice the bear's paw and these ingredients together with the cooking pot. The bear's paw itself has no flavor and must be flavored with these ingredients. After about eight or nine hours of stewing, the meat of the paw is almost melted, and this famous dish is finished.
Said here and then recalled the year Chu Cheng Wang proposed to eat the bear's paw requirements, it is not difficult to understand: the bear's paw from raw to cooked to more than ten hours, by then not only to feast on, may be the rescue army also came. But it's a pity that his plan didn't work out.
Not to mention King Chucheng, just the bear's paw. The fact that people take such pains to cook the bear's paw shows that it tastes very good and has a very high nutritional and health value. Indeed, the bear paw taste sweet fat, gelatinous very rich, like cooking enough fire of fat pork, and slippery and soft, but no fat pork greasy. Guangdong good feast only heavy shark's fin, no bear paw, Beijing cuisine to bear paw for expensive. Bear paw is the most nourishing, with the autumn wind, eat a few bear paws, a winter do not feel cold. However, bear paws can only eat the forepaw, but also to eat licking honey of the forepaw. Therefore, when cooking bear paws, must be two separate pots and stew, it is said that the one against the Valley Road, stewed always with a little stink.
However, in reality, bears are already very rare, and bear paws are even more scarce, and for the average person, the bear paws with the odor can not be eaten.