As far as the catering culture in the Tang Dynasty is concerned, it also presents a pluralistic and inclusive state. In the food culture of the Tang Dynasty, mutton is the most popular, followed by beef and pork. In fact, people in the Tang Dynasty held a contemptuous attitude towards pork, thinking that eating too much pork would make people sick, which was not conducive to people's health.
First, mutton Tang Dynasty officials for the month
The Six Classics of the Tang Dynasty recorded the number of sheep that nobles needed to supply each month, and the number of sheep supplied by officials of different grades was also different. The number of sheep provided by the second-level officials is 20 per month, and the number of sheep provided by the fourth-level officials is 9. Among the sacrifices enjoyed by court officials every month, mutton, beef and pork are the most important in terms of eating meat, which is quite rare.
At that time, there was a folk saying that eating too much beef would be retribution, which was recorded in Taiping Guangji. Of course, these stories have fantastic colors. According to the records in Tai Ping Guang Ji, a county magistrate in the Tang Dynasty was covered with poisonous sores because of eating beef for a long time, and was tortured by the disease 10 years later died.
Second, the general situation of mutton catering in Tang Dynasty
1, street mutton barbecue
In the Tang Dynasty, people liked mutton, but they didn't like pork and beef. There are many ways to make mutton in Tang dynasty, each with its own characteristics, among which kebabs are deeply loved by everyone. The kebabs popular in the Tang Dynasty are very delicious and deeply loved by people from all walks of life. The snack custom of kebabs is still popular among Chinese people, which comes from the Tang Dynasty.
2. What is the great love of the Tang people? Gu Luer?
There were many ways to eat mutton in the Tang Dynasty. Both nobles and ordinary civilians have their own characteristics in eating. However, on the whole, in order to conform to the eating habits and taste preferences of the people in the Tang Dynasty, and to maintain health and strengthen the body, most beef is mainly spicy in winter, mainly sauce in spring and spicy in summer. The best way to eat mutton at this time is to give priority to cold food.
In Tang Yulin, it is recorded that a delicious way for people to eat mutton in the Tang Dynasty is called Drum Tower, which is also commonly known as mutton Hu pie. According to the name, it can be roughly understood that this diet originated from ethnic minorities and was quite popular among Han people, which also shows the cultural compatibility and absorption of western culture in Tang Dynasty.
The method of making Drum Tower is recorded in Tang Yulin in detail. At that time, a good family ate a catty of mutton, spread it on a huge Hu cake, separated it with pepper and black beans, moistened it with pastry, forced it into the stove and waited for the meat to be half-cooked. Gu Luer? . ?
Simply put, it is to use mutton as stuffing, spread the mutton layer by layer on the huge Hu cake, cook it with fire, and then sprinkle with very delicious seasoning, and you can eat it. Of course, in the Tang Dynasty, in addition to the Drum Tower, there was another very popular mutton snack, namely mutton shortcake, which was made of mutton and flour, and ginger juice was used as the seasoning for pancakes. The cake is hollow, delicious and full of fresh flavor of mutton.
3. Sporadic Society and Clever Yangfei Decoction
The catering culture in Tang Dynasty is closely related to the sacrificial culture. During large-scale sacrificial festivals, people often eat mutton to sacrifice to the land god. For example, in the Tang Dynasty, when civilians sacrificed to the land gods, they ate "scattered food". Qiaoyangfei decoction is a very popular nutritional supplement in the Tang Dynasty, which combines the nutrition of mutton and the umami flavor of bean juice in the form of soup. According to the records in Qing Yi Lu, this dish was eaten by people in the Tang Dynasty in the cold season.
Every ten and a half months before the Great Cold Festival, people begin to prepare ingredients, and the most important thing is to prepare sheep lungs and dried beans. Of course, there are many other nutritious ingredients and condiments in this dish. In the cold season, people begin to get together to drink, and Qiaoyangfei decoction is a very attractive famous dish in the banquet.
4. Red lamb chops for barbecue.
In the Tang Dynasty, barbecue was very popular in society. People get together to recite poems and enjoy delicious food. According to historical records, the most famous barbecue in the Tang Dynasty was hosted by Wei Juyuan, who was very famous at that time.
According to Qing Louis, there are 58 recipes for barbecue in his family, each of which is delicious and valuable. Among these 58 recipes, 8 dishes are directly related to mutton, such as the famous red lamb chop, which was a big dish at that time, roughly equivalent to what we now call roast whole sheep. This dish often appears as the finale of barbecue and is deeply loved by diners.
Third, the love between nobles and civilians in the Tang Dynasty is delicious.
People in the Tang Dynasty thought mutton was delicious and had high nutritional value. There are a lot of records about eating meat in Tang Dynasty in Taiping Guangji, among which there are 47 records about eating mutton.
Among these 47 records, most of them are detailed records about royal family members and aristocratic officials eating mutton, and there are about 19 short stories about ordinary people eating mutton in Tang Dynasty. The main force of mutton consumption in Tang Dynasty was princes and nobles and the royal family, but the people's preference for mutton was no less than that of the royal family.
In the Book of the New Tang Dynasty, there are records about officials eating mutton. At that time, there was a performance room called Li Baozhen, who was a very famous sheep eater. According to historical records, he slaughtered more than 65,438+0,000 sheep for banquets and parties in one month, eating more than 30 sheep every day on average. From this data, we can also know the love degree of mutton in the Tang Dynasty. There is no doubt that mutton was a very popular national meat in the Tang Dynasty.
Fourth, summary.
A large number of mutton consumption needs strong animal husbandry to support, and the animal husbandry in Tang Dynasty was relatively prosperous. In the northwest of China, there are large-scale livestock farms, which mainly raise sheep and other animals, such as horses and cattle. In addition to large-scale official farms, nobles with power and wealth and princes of ethnic minorities also have large-scale private farms.
According to historical records, the famous Princess Taiping in the Tang Dynasty kept a large number of sheep, which were the main source of fresh mutton.