Now is the time to eat shabu-shabu in a copper pot, so on a cold, windy winter's day, get together with a couple of friends and head into the hutongs to enjoy a small copper pot with a couple of roasted biscuits.

A few thin slices of lamb are served in a clear broth with wolfberries, and when the red-on-white meat curls up, it's drizzled with a secret sesame sauce. The flavor is more than just delicious!

The history of copper pots is very long, from the Stone Age tripod, to the slave society of bronze, to the Western Zhou dye cups, until the Wei and Jin dynasties of the jiāo dòu (jiāo dòu), and then to the Tang and Song dynasties of the ceramics process is becoming more mature, hot pots are also used in the ceramic production, commonly referred to as the "warming pot";

Hot pot development to the Qing Dynasty, the form has been determined, but in the appearance of the decoration is blossoming.

First of all, in the production of materials, hot pot out of the original single material. Ceramic, copper, tin, silver, silver gilding, enamel, iron... Almost can be used as cooking materials are used all over;

In the appearance of the shape, pattern, carving, gilt, and even hollow, a variety of gorgeous or classic shape have been on the battlefield, showing the exquisite craftsmanship and aesthetics.

At this time, hot pot has become a cross-class diet. Both the nobility and the common people loved hot pot. It is rumored that when Emperor Jiaqing succeeded to the throne, the Qing Dynasty Palace had a hot pot feast, *** used more than 1,650 hot pots, becoming the history of the largest hot pot feast.

But the development to the present day, the old Beijing hot pot form and from the "blossom" back to the copper era, which seems to be in the downhill choice in the end why?

As we all know, the essence of Old Beijing shabu-shabu is the "shabu-shabu".

Shabu-shabu is the process of slicing thinly sliced dishes and dipping them in a hot pot. This is a very high demand for hot pot utensils - they need to heat up quickly and conduct heat evenly.

And copper, is to meet this requirement in the best. And it can also retain heat in the cold winter, which is more popular in the north. As for brass or red copper? As long as the requirements of the utensils are met, there's not much difference between the two for shabu-shabu.

But the development of charcoal-fired copper pots has left only copper pots, not charcoal.

Since 2015, shopping malls have explicitly disallowed the use of open flames in favor of electromagnetic heat, a provision that has gradually become more widespread, with more and more stores abandoning the switch to electric heat. Although the charcoal copper pot has retained its shape, the charcoal heat has been replaced by water heat, and much of the fun has disappeared.

For example, the old Beijingers used to shabu-shabu their mutton and then scald it on the chimney in the center, listening to the "bared" sound, and sometimes seeing the glistening oil. This change, the chimney is no longer the "red eyes" of the old smoker, it has become gentle, not angry.