In the Song Dynasty, mutton has always been the top delicacy in people's mouth. It was loved by everyone from emperors, generals and ministers to common people. At that time, a social food custom of valuing sheep and devaluing pigs even formed.
Take the court of the Northern Song Dynasty as an example. During the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty, the royal chef had to spend 434,463 kilograms and four taels of mutton, 19 mouthfuls of lambs, and 4,130 pork a year.
One kilogram? ("Song Hui Yao Collection"). The Song Dynasty alone had to consume so much mutton in a year. How much would the national consumption be in the next year? This shows the popularity and consumption of mutton.
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How could the Song Ting government ensure supply for such a large consumption?
Of course it has to be raised, but what if the rate of raising it cannot keep up with the rate of eating?
Then trade with the northern nomads.
The government of the Northern Song Dynasty set up grazing bases in Zhongmu, Henan, and Luoyang, places with abundant water and grass. The sheep they raised were supervised by the Cattle and Sheep Department in Tokyo.
The cattle and sheep department must be replenished regularly.
?In April of the third year of Dazhong Xiangfu (AD 1010), the Cattle and Sheep Department was ordered to stack 33,000 sheep every year.
?There are many factors why mutton was so popular in the Song Dynasty.
First of all, from the perspective of historical tradition, after the Jin Dynasty moved south, the north was mostly ruled by nomadic peoples. Their eating habits of mainly eating mutton affected the Han people in the Central Plains.
Secondly, from the perspective of reality at that time, the Song Dynasty had long been neighbors with nomadic peoples such as Liao and Xixia. Various ethnic groups communicated and influenced each other in food. Through qu? (monopoly) trade, the Northern Song Dynasty used silk, tea, etc. to make a living.
Supplies were exchanged for a large number of sheep from Liao and Xixia.
Then, the theory of traditional Chinese medicine at that time played a role in fueling the trend of eating sheep.
In the Tang Dynasty, mutton had long been used in dietary therapy. In the Song Dynasty, the trend of dietary therapy further developed and became popular. This concept has long been generally accepted by people. For example, Tang Shenwei's "Zhenglei Materia Medica" in the Northern Song Dynasty recorded: Mutton? Buzhongyi
Qi, peace of mind to stop panic?.
Finally, the meat consumption habits of the Northern Song Dynasty court were almost always based on mutton.
Successive emperors of the Song Dynasty liked to eat mutton. They never got tired of it no matter how much they ate it, and they all reached the level of "ancestral family law".
"Xu Zi Zhi Tong Jian" records: When the assistant minister Lu Dafang described the ancestral family law to Song Zhezong, he said: "The food is not expensive and smelly, and the imperial kitchen only uses mutton. This is the ancestral family law, so it leads to peace."
?From ancient times to the present, people have tended to have an upward tendency in social activities such as food, clothing, housing, and transportation, that is, imitating the living habits of people with higher status than themselves. In ancient times, the eating habits of the emperors with the highest status often became those of the lower ministers and even common people.
Action plan for the people.
Although the consumption of mutton in the Song Dynasty was large, most of this supply was limited to aristocratic bureaucrats or wealthy businessmen. In ancient times, mutton was not cheap. In ancient feudal society, mutton was always a meat enjoyed by the ruling bureaucratic class. Ordinary people seldom or
Can barely afford to eat.
When Su Dongpo's younger brother Su Che was the deputy prime minister (Shang Shu Zuo Cheng), Emperor Zhezong of the Song Dynasty gave him a sheep every day. Su Zhe ate the mutton until he got tired. At this time, Su Dongpo was demoted to Huizhou, and the whole city only had one sheep every day.
When a sheep was sold, all the citizens and most petty officials were reluctant to buy it. At that time, Su Dongpo was so greedy that he could only chew the bones of the sheep to make tooth sacrifices. He would buy the bones from the neck of the sheep and bring them back, then cook them and use tools to pick out the meat inside.
Eat, I wonder if the later sheep and scorpion hot pot has anything to do with Mr. Dongpo. In short, it can be seen that mutton was usually a delicacy that only rich or status people could enjoy in the Song Dynasty.
In fact, mutton is not cheap now, but now people can still afford it if they want to eat it...because it is scarce, it is doubly precious.
In the development of the Song Dynasty's diet, sheep were put to good use and arranged clearly.
For example, in the therapeutic diet, sheep's offal has always been used as the main ingredient. "Taiping Shenghui Prescription" states: "To treat frequent urination and weight loss, it is advisable to eat sheep lung soup."
?Also recorded in Chen Zhi's "Book of Elderly Care": ?Sheep Liver Soup Recipe, sheep liver, mutton spine, qu min, wolfberry root, right, use wolfberry juice to boil the former sheep liver, etc., let it rot, add black soy sauce
A small cup, seven white stalks of scallions, cut into pieces, mixed with five flavors to make a soup, eat on an empty stomach.
?Many of them are recorded in the "Zhenghe Shengji Zonglu", including Cistanche Rong Sheep Kidney Porridge, Sheep Bone Porridge, Sheep Back Bone Porridge, etc.
Other sheep offal products are generally cooked foods named after sheep that were available in the market during the Song Dynasty, such as sheep intestines, sheep tripe, sheep blood, sheep bladder (bladder), sheep milk, etc.
In the upper class society of the Song Dynasty, mutton was cooked in many ways.
For example, there is a dish in the Song Dynasty recipe called "wine-fried lamb", which is to cut the lamb leg meat into large pieces, blanch the blood, cook until it is half-cooked, add a large amount of ingredients and simmer, and then use rice wine to reduce the juice.
There is also the roasted lamb. It is said that Song Renzong loved to eat it. In fact, it is today’s roasted lamb. It is grilled, brushed with oil, and sprinkled with seasonings and spices. However, in fact, this dish is difficult to eat among the common people because it is used for barbecue.
Most of the spices have been exclusive to the upper class since ancient times. I mentioned this in my previous article about spices. Therefore, even if the common people have mutton, they cannot roast the same flavor.
There is also a favorite dish of Wang Anshi, the famous reformer of the Song Dynasty, called "Sheep Head Pick". This is to cook the mutton, pick the meat from the sheep's face, cut it into thin strips, wrap it in oil and hang it in starch.
Deep-fried and cut into cylinders, it looks like a draw tube, hence its name.