I remember when I was a child, I often used fat pork to fry into lard, which was especially fragrant and often used for bibimbap. Every time I eat lard bibimbap, my mother tells a story: when my grandmother was young, I had to buy meat with a meat coupon, so I couldn't buy more. Grandma is honest and uneducated. Every time she buys meat, she will be bullied. Meat sellers always give her lean meat, and grandma will cry when she comes back.
At that time, I thought grandma was really stupid, and lean meat was delicious. Why are you crying? I didn't know until I grew up that lean meat can't be eaten without oil at home.
The history of ancient edible oil
There are countless delicious foods in our country. As early as ancient times, our ancestors had already started cooking food. Since Suiren invented fire, barbecue has been born ever since; Later, with pottery, stewing and boiling became popular. However, these cooking techniques do not require the participation of edible oil, and the use of oil has been revealed until the emergence of "fried" vegetables.
The first stir-fried dish in history should be fried eggs with leeks. According to Zhou Li, "Shu Ren recommended leeks in spring, wheat in summer, millet in autumn and rice in winter. Leek takes eggs, wheat takes fish, millet takes dolphins, and rice takes geese. " Among them, "leek eggs" means scrambled eggs with leeks, because leeks can't boil eggs, can they?
But before the Han Dynasty, the edible oils used by the ancients were all animal fats, mainly pork. At the end of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Qi Min Yao Shu recorded the process of changing fat pork into pig fat, but this lard was not called "oil" at that time, but called "paste". Because the ancients called the oil fried by horned animal fat as grease, and the oil fried by hornless animal fat as ointment, it was not until the word "oil" was invented that all animal fats and vegetable fats were collectively called oil.
It was in the Han Dynasty that the ancient edible oil changed from animals to plants. Zhang Qian brought sesame seeds back from the Western Regions, which was called "flax" at that time. People find that the oil squeezed from this kind of thing is very fragrant and can be used for eating, so sesame oil is the earliest vegetarian oil. But before sesame oil, our plant oil extraction technology had been produced. At that time, it was extracted from almonds and tallow, but it was not used for eating, mainly for lighting. The Chronicle of Heaven, written by Chen Yaowen in the Ming Dynasty, recorded in detail the process of the ancients extracting oil from tallow.
Since the use of sesame oil in the Han Dynasty, vegetable oil has entered our gourmet cooking. By the time of the Ming Dynasty, the types of vegetable oil were quite rich, and the ancients also graded these oils.
It can be seen that rapeseed oil, soybean oil and tea seed oil existed in the Ming Dynasty. Just according to the ranking at that time, the ancients should rank according to the oil production, because tea seed oil is the top grade now, and it is very expensive to sell.
During the writing of Tiangong Kaiwu in Ming Dynasty, corn had entered China and began to be planted in large quantities, but there was no record of corn oil in the book, because corn oil was extracted from corn germ, and there was no such process at that time.
The most controversial peanut oil
Among the ancient edible oils, peanut oil should be the most controversial one. Many people think that peanut came into China only in the Ming Dynasty, so the appearance of peanut oil should be after that. In fact, peanut oil existed as early as the Song and Yuan Dynasties.
According to Heng Zhi of Yunnan Haiyu, peanuts were planted in the Song and Yuan Dynasties and used to extract oil. Peanut oil is not only used for eating, but also for lighting.
Therefore, the order of cooking with oil in ancient times should be animal oil, sesame oil, peanut oil and various rapeseed oils.
Speaking of what kind of oil the ancient people used for cooking, it may be a bit complicated. In order not to be bored, let's talk briefly.
Let's talk about what oil the ancients used first.
At the earliest time, it was mainly animal fat. In the Interpretation of Names written by Liu Xi at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was recorded that "wearing horns means fat, and having no horns means ointment", which means that what long-horned animals boil out is called grease, and what short-horned animals boil out is called ointment. For example, butter and sheep oil are grease, and lard is ointment. Of course, these are only enjoyed by dignitaries in most ancient times.
In addition to animal fats, the history of eating vegetable oil is not short, but it is a little different from the present situation. For example, soybean was called glutinous rice in ancient times, and it was one of the five grains as early as the Spring and Autumn Period. But at that time, soybean was not used to extract oil, because the yield was too low and the oil yield was not ideal. The earliest plant used to extract oil was sesame brought back from Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions, which was called "flax" at that time, so the extracted oil was also called "sesame oil" and "flax oil".
However, cooking can't only use oil, and the pot is also a key. In fact, for the restrictions on cooking, pots are more important. Of course, this issue is still controversial, which is normal. The common view is that "iron pot" and "vegetable oil" only became popular in the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Until the Song Dynasty, there were some written records of dishes named after "stir-fry", such as the method of stir-frying chicken eggs in Qi Min Yao Shu: breaking, stirring in a copper pan, mixing yellow with white. The fine army is green and white, with salt rice and muddy drums. Stir-fried with sesame oil. Very fragrant and beautiful.
Therefore, what kind of oil the ancient people used for cooking depends on the time and social status of the people. Basically, cattle and sheep oil, lard and vegetable oil are used.
Friends who are interested in food, healthy diet and food anecdotes can pay attention and praise, and share interesting and useful related content together in the future!
In the primitive society of ancient China, people made a living by fishing and hunting, and generally roasted their prey.
But from the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the wise ancients invented the cauldron, which was used for cooking, equivalent to the current pot. But at that time, there were no "fried" dishes, only stewed meat and cook the meat. Naturally, oil was not used.
animal oil
Humans discovered oil in roasting. Before the Han Dynasty, people used animal oil, and most of the oil was refined from pork, because pork had a lot of fat. When the ancients roasted fat, they found that there would be liquid falling down and the taste was very good. However, in ancient times, this kind of lard was called "paste".
Since Zhang Qian brought back sesame oil from the Western Regions, it has been found that people in the Western Regions are using edible linseed oil, which is very fragrant and convenient to obtain. Later, it was Zhang Qian who brought sesame seeds back to the Central Plains. The "paste" extracted from animals and plants after the establishment of the world in the Han Dynasty was called oil.
vegetable oil
I believe that most of our families are using peanut oil now, and this kind of oil is also very controversial in ancient times. Peanut was introduced to China only in the Ming Dynasty, but it was recorded in the history books of the Song and Yuan Dynasties that people used peanut oil, and the ordinary people could afford it. I believe the cost is very cheap.
Therefore, the order of the ancients cooking with oil is: animal oil-vegetable oil-mixed oil of animals and plants.
After the founding of New China, China's edible oil still can't meet the needs of households, so people will use the ancient methods to extract oil from pork.
However, this method is not desirable. After all, at that time, meat also needed a meat coupon to buy, and pork, a scarce product at that time, could not be bought with money. Therefore, many people used "water" instead of oil in the early days of the founding of New China, but the food fried with water was tasteless and was only eaten as oil.
Let's carefully analyze what oil the ancients used for cooking. We can know a thing or two from the habits of the older generation.
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Many times, when adults at home buy meat, they will choose some fat meat. And these fats are the raw materials for refining oils and fats, which we mentioned above. They will fry the fat in a pan until the oil is extracted. When it is solidified, they will put it in the refrigerator. When cooking next time, these solidified white lumps will come in handy. Seriously, the dishes fried with these pig fats are really delicious.
I personally have a deep understanding of whether sesame oil in stone mill is fragrant or not. Every time we meet a traditional craftsman who uses a stone mill to extract oil, we will smell a fragrant aroma from far away, which will last for a long time.
However, this oil is time-consuming, so it is more expensive than ordinary oil, especially in ancient times. Although the smelting technology is poor, sesame oil is still regarded as the best oil by many dignitaries.
In ancient times, oil was scarce, and ordinary people didn't even put oil in cooking sometimes, but occasionally put some salt to taste it.
Before the Ming Dynasty, cooking in people's homes was a luxury. In ancient times, people who could eat cooking were either rich or expensive, while ordinary people generally lacked raw materials. Although oil was scarce, they could extract it from cheap fat pork.
In ancient times, an ordinary leek egg on our dining table was not available to many people. The reason is that leeks can be made from local materials, while eggs are generally sold by others, and they simply can't take care of eating them themselves, although everyone knows that eggs have high edible value.
However, since the Qing dynasty, this phenomenon has improved a lot, and many farmers can actually eat simple dishes fried in oil. Before that, this kind of life phenomenon was unthinkable.
What kind of oil did ancient people use for cooking? There are reliable answers here, which are clearly recorded in the Book of Rites.
The Book of Rites is a classic work of Confucianism in China, the theoretical basis of Chinese philosophy, and the vernacular theory is the root of Chinese culture. It is very detailed about what kind of oil was used for cooking in the pre-Qin period:
"In spring, it is appropriate to eat lamb and dolphin paste, in summer, it is appropriate to eat glutinous rice paste, in autumn, it is appropriate to eat glutinous rice paste, and in winter, it is appropriate to eat fresh feather paste."
What it says is:
Spring food is lamb and suckling pig, which should be cooked with butter;
Summer food is dried chicken and dried fish, which should be cooked with dog oil;
The delicious food in autumn is beef lamb and deer lamb, which should be cooked with lard.
The delicious food in winter is fresh fish and geese, which should be cooked with sheep oil.
The wisdom of the ancients, different ingredients use different oils. Today, we have more edible oil than more than 2,500 years ago, but the usage is not as particular as it was then.
Historically, oil was called "fat" or "paste", and Zhou Li Tian Guan recorded that "those who coagulate are fat and those who release are paste", and it was called "fat" when describing various animal oils, while The Book of the Western Han Dynasty talked about "beans have paste", meaning that vegetable oil is paste, until Tiangong Kaiwu in the Ming Dynasty devoted itself to oil products.
The ancient oil pressing technology and tea oil workshop preserved in Fengmu Village, Huitong County, Hunan Province.
The ancients ate oil from only two sources, one was animal oil and the other was vegetable oil. In primitive society, when the ancestors invented kindling, oil was born. At that time, when meat was burned, it was found that oil flowed out of the meat during the cooking process, accompanied by attractive fragrance, so the ancestors collected animal oil as a condiment, and human beings began to use animal oil.
Ancient oil press equipment.
The emergence of vegetable oil is also related to kindling. In addition to meat, the ancients also picked wild fruits to satisfy their hunger. After some nuts were cooked in the fire, there would be liquid like animal oil flowing out, full of fragrance, and even used for lighting. According to the biography of the Yellow Emperor, the Yellow Emperor got river books, and watched them day and night, so that Li Mu collected wood and made it into oil, taking cotton as the heart, and burning it at night, and the oil began. Although the above is a fairy tale, it also shows that plant oil was not only used as food, but also used as lighting.
The picture shows the ticket for the oil mill in Qing Dynasty.
The oil that we are familiar with now didn't appear until a long time later. Although Sesame was recorded in the Book of Songs, it was used as food and medicine at that time. According to Hanshu, Zhang Qian brought back soybeans and rapeseed from the Western Regions, which were also used as vegetables and food. It was not until after the Song Dynasty that soybeans and rapeseed were used as oil. According to the Book of Classic Materia Medica in the Northern Song Dynasty, rapeseed was used as both oil and medicine. In the Song Dynasty, "Materia Medica Yanyi" also recorded an important oil crop. Tung trees and tung trees were divided into two types: tung trees and white tung trees, and the seeds could be used to extract oil. In the Song Dynasty, there was also a special organization called "Tung Tree Works".
Wood pressing, also known as impact oil pressing.
Oil-pressing technology was first recorded in Qi Min Yao Shu in the Northern and Southern Dynasties. At that time, hemp and rape seeds were mainly used as candles and medicines. A small amount of them were very expensive and could not be enjoyed by ordinary people. It was not until after the Song Dynasty that technology developed, grinding was carried out in the north, and the oil yield was greatly improved in the south, so they could be eaten by ordinary families. Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica described the oil crops in detail.
What kind of oil did ancient people use for cooking? We should be able to see a thing or two from the living habits of the older generation.
(1) The ancients would definitely cook with sesame oil.
When I was a child, every time I went to school, I would meet a shop that specialized in grinding sesame oil with a stone mill. This shop was opened by a friend of my grandfather, and every time I passed that fragrance, it made people linger. Especially when I went to school in the winter morning, it was still dark and cold, but every time I passed this grandpa's shop, I was attracted by the thick sesame oil residue, and I stole a handful of sesame oil residue at the door of the shop several times, black and oily.
Later, I asked the store grandpa why he used a stone mill to grind oil. How troublesome it was. The grandfather said that it was all handed down from ancient times and could not be lost to me. Therefore, although the output of sesame oil by stone mill was not as high as that by machine, it was better to grind sesame oil by stone mill.
From this grandfather's description, I know that although the ancient people were backward in cooking oil refining technology, sesame oil was definitely edible.
(2) All kinds of animal fats are indispensable.
Every time my mother bought pork, she would cut off the fat that we didn't like to eat, cut it into small pieces, then put it in an iron pot to boil lard, and then pour it into a bowl. When it is cold, the lard will often solidify into lumps, so my mother will carefully store it and take it out for cooking next time. Not to mention the oil refined from this kind of pork, which is particularly fragrant when used for cooking.
Nowadays, people all know how to collect all kinds of animal fats for cooking. Besides the most common lard, there are also animal fats such as chicken oil, duck oil and sheep oil, which can be used for cooking. Even many factories now process animal fats into daily necessities such as laundry soap.
In ancient times, the oil refining technology of plants was too poor, and animal fat, an easy-to-get oil, would not be spared. Therefore, it was necessary to use various animal fats for cooking in ancient times.
(Text/A Bing)
What kind of oil did ancient people use for cooking?
As a modern person, with the development of science and technology, it is plain and easy to acquire the related articles and ingredients we need around our lives.
For example, cooking oil, I have hardly thought about its history. Modern people use salad oil and blended oil when cooking in the kitchen. After eating the cooking oil at home, they just need to go downstairs to the supermarket opposite and buy a pot. However, think about our ancestors in the long river of history, those humans who lived in ancient society. What oil did they use to cook in the kitchen? They didn't have the current science and technology and modern commerce at that time, so
Speaking of ancient people, it reminds me of the song of the dynasty when I was studying in my childhood: "Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, the Spring and Autumn Wars, the Han Dynasty after the Qin Dynasty, the Three Kingdoms, the Jin and the Southern and Northern Dynasties", etc. It tells us that our ancient times were divided into different dynasties according to different historical periods, so we discuss what oil the ancient people used for cooking. It also needs to be divided according to dynasties. We choose several important historical nodes to tell you, what oil did ancient people use to cook in the kitchen?
What kind of oil did ancient people use for cooking?
The historical nodes we choose are: Zhou Dynasty, Han Dynasty, Three Kingdoms Period, Song Dynasty, Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty. Let's briefly talk about what oils the ancients used to cook food in different periods according to the historical nodes given.
1. What oil did the ancients of the Zhou Dynasty use to cook delicious food?
There have been some records about cooking and diet in the Zhou Dynasty in ancient books. As for our question and answer, my general understanding is that the ancients had a certain understanding of the nature of various animal oils at that time. For example, it is recorded in the literature that they ate lambs and suckling pigs in spring, cooked with butter, ate fresh fish and geese in winter, cooked with sheep oil, and ate calves and young deer in autumn, and the ancients used lard;
From the above, we can generally understand that in the ancients of the Zhou Dynasty, the main sources of food were raised poultry, captured wild animals and fish, so most of them used animal oil to cook all kinds of meat;
2. What oil did the ancients use to cook delicious food during the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period?
In the Han Dynasty, sesame was called flax at that time, and it had been introduced into the Central Plains from the Western Regions. Vegetable oil represented by flax became possible in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Therefore, in the ancient Han Dynasty, when cooking in the kitchen, most of them chose animal oil, and it was estimated that the amount of vegetable oil would be very small. By the Three Kingdoms period, sesame oil might be eaten in large quantities, and there was a tendency to gradually replace animal oil.
3. What oil did the ancients in the Song Dynasty use to cook delicious food?
In the Song Dynasty, vegetable oil began to be popular, and there were more than a dozen kinds of vegetable oil, 5-6 of which were edible.
4. What oil did the ancients use to cook delicious food in the Ming and Qing Dynasties?
In the Ming Dynasty, the types of vegetable oils became more and more, and the systematic oil-making methods began to be recorded in large numbers. At that time, the ancients had a deeper understanding of the properties and different functions of various vegetable oils.
Since the Qing Dynasty, peanut oil, as an edible oil, appeared in the diet and daily life of the people in the Qing Dynasty, and animal oil was not completely excluded, which may be a bit the same as what we think of lard today.
It's an interesting question. As we all know, China is a country of delicious food in the world. Compared with China's varied and delicious cooking dishes, the French fries hamburgers often eaten in the western world can really be called junk food. Gourmets all over the world are proud to taste authentic and exquisite Chinese food. In cooking, oil is a very important material, which can not only prevent the pan from sticking, but also provide nutrition for the human body. So the question is, what kind of oil was put into ancient dishes? Although meat is more expensive than vegetables, the oil used in ancient times is actually mostly animal oil.
This extracted meat oil was used in early cooking. The extraction method, according to Qi Min Yao Shu, is "pig fat takes fat." That is, speculation. Peel off the animal fat, cut it into pieces, fry it, refine it into paste, and then coagulate it into fat. The earliest use of animal oil was recorded in the Zhou Dynasty. According to "Continued Jinyang Autumn", "Huan Lingbao is good at storing famous calligraphy books and paintings. When guests arrive, they have come out and watched. Guests eat cold utensils and stain their paintings, and then they don't have cold utensils. " At that time, the cold utensils were pasta fried with cream.
The refining of vegetable oil began in Han Dynasty.
With the increasing population, the production of animal oil can't support the whole society. When new oil-producing crops are introduced from the western regions, the birth of new oil-pressing skills makes people have a new choice, that is, vegetable oil extracted from crops such as peanuts. In the History of the Three Kingdoms, it has been recorded: "Sun Quan went to Hefei New Town, and Man Chong rushed there to raise dozens of strong men, broke them into torches, filled them with sesame oil, and set fire to thieves from the windward." The sesame oil here is actually like sesame oil.
That's my opinion. Please correct me if there is any discrepancy.
Our Chinese nation has a long history. The long history of 5,000 years has given birth to a rich and colorful history and culture, as well as a rich food culture. Food is the first thing for the people, and the food culture has survived from generation to generation.
Modern people's diet is varied, frying, frying, cooking and frying are colorful, and all major cuisines are in full bloom. Even when we usually fry a side dish, we are very particular about it. All kinds of ingredients and cooking oil are indispensable. Only in this way can the fried dishes taste better and taste richer. Now the cooking oil is very diverse, which also makes the dishes on the table more delicious. We can't live without oil now. So, in ancient times, what kind of oil did they use for cooking?
We have countless delicious foods now. As early as ancient times, our ancestors had cooked food. At first, there was no oil in society, and it was rarely thought that food would be used. Because food was mainly baked and cooked at first. In fact, the emergence of oil and animals have great factors!
Animal fat was the thickest in primitive society. At that time, people found that a layer of greasy things in animal fat could make food taste more delicious. Therefore, people stir-fry animal bodies in vessels to "refine oil", which is the earliest source of bio-oil.
The discovery of ancient edible oil changed from animals to plants in the Han Dynasty, and Zhang Qian brought back sesame seeds from the Western Regions. At that time, it was called "flax". It was found that the oil squeezed by this plant was very fragrant and could be used for eating, so sesame oil was the earliest vegetable oil, which is today's sesame oil. By the Ming Dynasty, the types of vegetable oil were quite rich. Rapeseed oil, sesame oil, sesame oil and so on existed in the Ming Dynasty, and vegetable oil has been widely used since then.
For example, Mapo tofu was invented in the Qing Dynasty. Mapo tofu was also fried with oil, but it was different from our oil. For example, in the past, Mapo tofu was made of vegetable oil and not eaten at all. And even if vegetable oil is used, it is different from our current refining method. At that time, the vegetable oil was rapeseed oil, because the extraction of peanut oil in ancient times was not very convenient and not widely spread, and the oil yield of soybean oil was very low. So in ancient times, vegetable oil was used.
Because of the limitations of practices and ingredients, the taste is not as rich as it is now. In the early days of vegetable oil, the raw materials used were rapeseed oil and coriander oil, which were all ground by traditional techniques.
The Compendium of Materia Medica records vegetable oil in this way: "The oil is fried and pressed, yellow, the lamp is bright, and the food is not as good as sesame oil. Being close to people is profitable because of oil, and planting is also wide. " What is said here is that the ancients used the method of oil extraction long ago, and they needed to fry it first before extracting oil. Because the oil business is also booming, the ingredients used for oil extraction are also very extensive. Therefore, it was common to make oil in the early days, and oil was also used in cooking.
Nowadays, with the maturity of oil pressing technology and processing methods, great progress has been made. Moreover, vegetable oil is not used in the selection of materials, but peanut oil is used. The oil squeezed from peanuts tastes particularly fragrant and can be tasted. It has also become a well-known salad oil now, so that the dishes made will be very fragrant.
The usage and processing methods have been greatly improved, but the wisdom and experience of the ancients for making oil has long existed, and it has gradually passed down to become the current status quo, which has enabled us to evolve into the current way of making oil.