The difference between meat swallow and wonton lies in the skin. The skin of wonton is made of flour and water, and the skin of meat swallow is made of mashed meat and cassava flour.

Even many people in Fujian and southern Zhejiang who have never eaten meat swallow confuse "flat food" with "meat swallow". Meat swallows and wonton look the same, but as long as you eat them, you will know that they are very different in essence.

The technology of wonton focuses on stuffing, and the meat stuffing is often chopped into pieces. In many places, fresh meat is even chopped into minced meat, and the skin is made of flour and water, which is the most common "bread meat". The essence of meat swallow lies in skin. Swallow's skin is made into a paste with lean meat, and then rubbed with cassava flour. Meat swallow is a kind of local flavor food with meat wrapped in meat.

According to legend, as early as the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, there was an old man who retired from his hometown in Pucheng County, Fujian Province. He lived in a mountainous area and felt dull after eating too many delicacies. So, his chef took the thin pork leg, beat it into paste with a wooden stick, mixed a proper amount of sweet potato powder, rolled it into small pieces as thin as paper, cut it into small pieces three inches square, wrapped it with meat stuffing, made it into flat food, and cooked it with soup.

Lord Yushi only felt his mouth was slippery and crisp, and even called "great" and asked what dessert it was. The chef only said "flat meat swallowing" because of its shape. After the flat meat swallow is cooked with duck eggs, duck eggs are homophonic with "restraining chaos" and "restraining waves" in Fuzhou dialect, which means "Taiping" and is also called "Taiping Yan".

The habit of swallowing meat

Chop fresh fish and pork leg into mud, chop dried shrimp and water chestnut into powder, add appropriate amount of bone soup, egg liquid, monosodium glutamate, Shaoxing wine and shrimp oil (or refined salt), and mix well with chopsticks to make stuffing. Each thousand pieces of meat swallow skins are soaked in water and put into the stuffing. Then pinch the middle of the swallow skin tightly, so that the edge naturally bends and grows into the shape of spring flowers, hence the name "Xiaochangchun" (this is a simplified wrapping method).

The traditional way to wrap meat swallows is to put the stuffing on one corner of each thousand pieces of meat swallows' skins, roll them to the diagonal position with chopsticks, and then pinch the two corners on the diagonal, so that the wrapped meat swallows look like gold ingots.

Put it in a steamer, steam for 5 minutes with high fire, take it out, put it in a boiling water pot, boil it with high fire, pick it up and put it in a soup bowl, and sprinkle with celery powder. Boil the bone soup, add appropriate amount of shrimp oil (or refined salt), stir well with Shaoxing wine and monosodium glutamate, pour it on Xiaochangchun, and sprinkle with sesame oil.