Although Pixian Douban became famous later, its position in Sichuan cuisine is extremely important. In the ninth year of the Jiaqing reign of the Qing Dynasty (1804), the Chen family founded a soy sauce garden in Pixian County. They initially specialized in brewing soy sauce and bran vinegar. Due to their skillful management, the business was prosperous.

Later, Chen Shouxin expanded the business scale and opened the "Yifenghe" Sauce Garden on South Street, brewing soy sauce and bran vinegar all year round, and making kimchi, pickles, etc. according to the season. Whenever bright red sea peppers are on the market in the summer, they are purchased in large quantities. After being finely chopped, raw materials such as salt, flour and bean paste are added, and they are left to dry in the sun and dew at night to ferment naturally, forming spicy bean paste with a beautiful color and fragrance.

As an ingredient in Sichuan cuisine, "Pixian Douban" has brought about important changes in the color, aroma and taste of the dishes. It is well-known at home and abroad and has become one of the main ingredients in Sichuan cuisine. It has a history of more than 100 years.

As for the creation process of Pixian Douban, relevant researchers believe that it took several generations of efforts of the Chen family from Tingzhou, Fujian to move to Sichuan to achieve success:

After the original place of Tingzhou, Fujian , Chen Yixian, a Hakka who settled in Pixian County in western Sichuan, and several generations of hard work, they finally brewed the salted red pepper into the Pixian Douban, which is known as the "soul of Sichuan cuisine" and is well-known at home and abroad. In addition, Huguang people He has a special preference for spicy food, which provides indispensable prerequisites and broad development space for Sichuan cuisine characterized by spicy stimulation.

The introduction and planting of peppers and the birth of Pixian Douban are closely related to Zanthoxylum bungeanum. The combination finally gave birth to a famous series of Sichuan cuisine with spicy as the main flavor, which made Sichuan cuisine among the four famous dishes in China. This caused Sichuan people to like to eat low-level spicy tastes such as ginger and garlic. The habit changes to a habit of eating highly spicy food, mainly spicy food.

Douban is an important raw material for cooking Sichuan cuisine, including Pixian douban, spicy douban and salty douban. Pixian Douban is named after it is produced in Pixian County, Chengdu. The main raw materials are fresh red peppers (Er Vitex red peppers are preferred), beans and flour. The ones produced by Pixian Douban Factory are the best. However, due to the large demand for Douban in Pixian County, the production of fresh red peppers is seasonal, and there are many manufacturers, the number of technicians varies.

Some manufacturers use dried chili peppers in the douban, and some add too much salt to add weight, so choose a brand name. Pixian Douban is reddish-brown in color, oily and shiny, with a fresh and spicy taste. The bean paste is crispy and has a strong sauce aroma and refreshing flavor. It is an important condiment for home-style and spicy Sichuan cuisine.

Pixian douban should generally be chopped finely and used, including twice-cooked pork, watercress fish, and dry stir-fried eel. Chop the Pixian watercress into fine pieces and fry it in hot oil, then use it as a dipping sauce or eat it alone. The price of spicy douban is lower than that of Pixian douban. It contains more water and is thinner. There is only a small amount of douban. If you want to reduce costs, it can also be used as a substitute for Pixian douban.

Salty bean paste includes sesame oil bean paste, golden hook bean paste, ham bean paste, etc. The most famous one is produced in Ziyang, Sichuan, which is mainly made from bean paste and is stuffed with golden hook (dried shrimp), sesame oil or ham as auxiliary ingredients. Made from.

This kind of watercress is dark brown, oily and shiny, salty and palatable, slightly spicy, and delicious. It can be eaten alone with rice, or it can be used as a stewed beef soup or oxtail stewed soup. of dipping sauce.

Pixian Douban and Salted Douban must not be used interchangeably. Spicy Douban can replace Pixian Douban, but the effect is less, so don’t be careless about this.