The leaves of dumplings in different areas vary from place to place. In the south, bamboo wrapped with bamboo leaves or reed leaves is triangular. In the Central Plains, leaves wrapped in zongzi are mostly mistletoe leaves wrapped in cuboids.

mao bamboo

Stem height 1-3m, diameter 0.5- 1cm, internode length 10- 15cm. When young, it is hairless or setose, and the internodes are covered with a light brown blanket. When the sheath is fresh, it is brown-green, long 10- 12cm, with brown bristles in the middle and lower part of the back; The ears are developed, extending to both sides, sickle-shaped, and most of the hair is brown and wavy; The tongue is truncated or slightly curved, with a height of 1-2mm and fringed brown hair; The leaves are erect, delta-shaped or rectangular in the Yangtze River. The top is tapered and the bottom is round. The leaves are large, long 10-35cm, and 2-5m wide, with hairs on the back.

Reed leaf

The most used is the northern region. Reed leaves in the north are fresh and jiaozi is fragrant. Northerners can use local materials at low prices. The disadvantage is that the leaves are narrow and it is a little difficult to wrap jiaozi.

Tip: Bamboo leaves in the south are wider and easier to wrap, which is more suitable for beginners to wrap zongzi.

Select employment/use

The leaves of jiaozi in old Beijing are generally reed leaves, which are called zongzi leaves when used in jiaozi. People in Guangzhou generally use bamboo leaves to wrap zongzi, and it is better to choose the one with smooth, soft and tough surface. Shantou people usually wrap zongzi with bamboo leaves. Zongzi has the fragrance of bamboo leaves, but it should be cooked until soft. In Shanghai and other places, the leaves collected from Huangshan Mountain in Anhui Province in dog days every year contain a special fragrance, commonly known as "Huizhou Fu Ruo". Generally speaking, the leaves most used for making zongzi in the south are Indocalamus leaves, also called palm leaves, which are leaves of Indocalamus plants, while in the north, there are more leaves of reeds.

How to wrap zongzi with bamboo leaves

1. Select 2-3 zongzi leaves, and stagger and fold them, that is, the upper zongzi leaves press half of the lower zongzi leaves.

2. Fold the leaves into a funnel.

Put half a meter of glutinous rice in this funnel, then put some red dates, and then put some glutinous rice to cover the red dates.

Tips for eating nets in China: Rice and funnel can be flat, too few zongzi are flat, and too many can't be wrapped.

4. Fold the rice leaves so that the rice leaves cover all the rice. Wrap the zongzi with cotton thread for 4-5 times, and tie the movable buckle, which is convenient to untie when eating zongzi.

The difference between long dumplings and four-corner dumplings.

Folding method of zongzi leaves

This is very critical, which is related to the final appearance of the finished product. So no matter what method is used to wrap the zongzi, first of all, the zongzi should be wrapped tightly, and the stuffing should not be exposed, so as not to break into porridge during the long-term boiling process, and the taste will be much worse.

Specifically, the folding methods of the leaves of long-strip zongzi and four-corner zongzi are different. Although both are overlapping leaves, the angle of the long zongzi is a right angle, and this angle should be maintained from beginning to end.

The four-corner zongzi is less than 90 degrees, and the specific angle is uncertain. The smallest angle becomes a cone-shaped zongzi, and the angle at which a strip-shaped zongzi is folded is a right angle, and this angle is always maintained.

Zongzi wrapping method

The four-corner zongzi tube is conical, that is, V-shaped. And the more glutinous rice you put into your mouth, the more glutinous rice you put.

The barrel of the long-shaped zongzi has a large inclination. And the more you get to the mouth of zongzi, the shallower the rice is.

The tying method of zongzi

Four-corner dumplings can be tied with ropes along the diagonal.

Long zongzi should be bound with flowers and tied into a circle.