In the Song Dynasty, "whoever uses noodles as utensils is a cake: therefore, those who use fire to eat are called sesame cakes;" Those who drink water are called soup cakes; What you eat in a steamer is called steamed cake. "
Sesame cakes are steamed cakes. Because of the taboo of Song Renzong Zhao Zhen's name, steamed cakes were called cooking cakes from top to bottom in the court, and this name soon spread among the people. Because of this, the two versions coexist among the people, and the novel will have different names and appear at the same time.
Yanggu county's cooking cakes are recorded in The Water Margin. At that time, Mr. Wu Dalang and Miss Pan Jinlian opened a couple's shop, which mainly engaged in baked wheat cakes.
In the 26th chapter of The Water Margin (the 25th chapter of the Golden Edition), Uncle He Jiu went to burn paper money for Wu Da, saying, "I bought cage cakes from Dalang the day before yesterday, but I didn't get the money back, so I specially burned this strange paper for Dalang." Jin Shengtan commented: "From the day I read it to the day I caught him, it means that the word' dragon' is different from' baked wheat cake', so I don't want to mention it here. Things are different, and people have to cry. " Wu Da can't do without making cakes. When it comes to Wu Da, you can't help thinking of making cakes. So, what exactly is a cooking cake? In 2000, People's Literature Publishing House published a book entitled "Talking about the Water Margin": "Some people may think that it is Shandong pancakes or scones and biscuits today, but this is wrong. Cookies are not pancakes, pancakes are stalls; This is not a scone or a biscuit. Scones and biscuits are baked and branded, while sesame cakes are steamed. In fact, it is a snack in the south, similar to the light cake in Fujian. "
It is good to say that sesame seed cake is not sesame seed cake or pancake, but it is a big problem to say that sesame seed cake is "a southern snack similar to Fujian light cake" The easiest way is to look up Ci Yuan, which says: "When Zhao Zhen was in Song Renzong, people avoided steaming because it was close to Yin Zhen, so they called steamed cakes boiled cakes." There are records in Cheng Dachang's Performing Numerous Records and Wu Chuhou's Qing Xiang Miscellanies. Sesame cakes are steamed cakes, but what are steamed cakes? Ci Yuan explains that "steamed bread is also called cage cake". There is still controversy about the etymology. Some people think that cage cakes refer to ancient steamed buns, that is, today's steamed buns, not today's steamed buns, so they are different from steamed cakes. For details, please refer to the eighth issue of Knowledge of Literature and History 19 1. ) sesame seed cake is originally steamed bread. The author of Water Margin later listened to opinions and revised the above viewpoints.
Sesame cakes or steamed cakes originated very early. It is mentioned in The Book of Jin He Zengchuan that He Zeng is "sexually extravagant" and "steamed cakes don't cross, don't eat". Steamed cakes with split cross patterns are probably what we call "flowering steamed bread" today. Yang Wanli wrote a poem "Eating Steamed Cake" in the Southern Song Dynasty, saying: "He Jia's cage cake must be horizontal, and Xiao Jia's cooking cake must be broken by four." It can be seen that a good cooking cake should be very soft. "Dongpo Zhi Lin" records that at that time, the court had built Doumen near the river in an attempt to use the blocked river mud to silt up the fields. "Autumn retreats to the deep water, and the silt can't be thick, which is called steamed cake silt." Probably refers to mud, similar to steamed cakes.