As far as the catering culture in the Tang Dynasty is concerned, it also presents a pluralistic and inclusive state. In the food culture of the Tang Dynasty, mutton is the most popular, followed by beef and pork. In fact, people in the Tang Dynasty held a contemptuous attitude towards pork, thinking that eating too much pork would make people sick and be harmful to people's health.
First, mutton Tang Dynasty officials for the month
The Six Classics of the Tang Dynasty recorded the number of sheep that nobles needed to supply each month, and the number of sheep supplied by officials of different grades was also different. The number of sheep provided by the second-level official is 20 per month, and the number of sheep provided by the fourth-level official is 9. Among the sacrifices enjoyed by court officials every month, mutton, beef and pork are the most important in eating meat, which is quite rare.
At that time, there was a folk saying that eating too much beef would be retribution, which was recorded in Taiping Guangji. Of course, these stories have fantastic colors. According to Taiping Guangji, in the Tang Dynasty, there was a county magistrate who was tortured by the disease because of eating beef for a long time and died after 10 years.
Second, the general situation of mutton catering in Tang Dynasty
1, street mutton barbecue
In the Tang Dynasty, there was a fashion that people preferred mutton to pork and beef. There are many ways to make mutton in the Tang Dynasty, each with its own characteristics, among which mutton skewers are deeply loved by everyone. The mutton kebabs popular in the Tang Dynasty are very delicious and deeply loved by people from all walks of life. The snack custom of kebab is still popular among Chinese people, which originated in the Tang Dynasty.
2. What is the great love of the Tang people? Gu Luer?
There were many ways to eat mutton in the Tang Dynasty. Both nobles and ordinary civilians have their own characteristics in eating. But generally speaking, in order to conform to the eating habits and tastes of the Tang people, keep healthy and strengthen the body, most beef is mainly spicy in winter, mainly sauce in spring and spicy in summer. The best way to eat mutton at this time is to give priority to cold food.
In Tang Yulin, according to records, a kind of delicious mutton that people ate in the Tang Dynasty was called Drum Tower, which is also commonly known as mutton Hu pie. According to the name, it can be roughly understood that this kind of diet originated from ethnic minorities and was quite popular among Han people, which also shows the cultural compatibility and absorption of western culture in Tang Dynasty.
The method of making Gu Lou Zi is well documented in Tang Yulin. At that time, the family ate a catty of mutton, spread it on the giant Hu cake, dipped it in crispy skin through pepper and black beans, and forced it into the furnace, waiting for the meat to be half-cooked. Gu Luer? . ?
Simply put, it is to take mutton as stuffing, spread the mutton layer by layer on the huge Hu cake, bake it with fire, and then sprinkle with very delicious seasoning, and you can eat it. Of course, in the Tang Dynasty, in addition to the Drum Tower, there was a popular mutton snack, namely mutton shortcake, which was made of mutton and flour, and ginger juice was used as the seasoning for pancakes. The cake is hollow, delicious and full of mutton.
3. Sporadic Society and Qiaoyangfei Decoction
The catering culture in Tang Dynasty is closely related to the sacrificial culture. In large-scale sacrificial festivals, people often eat mutton to sacrifice to the land god. For example, Sheemmitting was a dish eaten by civilians in the Tang Dynasty when they sacrificed to the land gods. Qiaoyangfei decoction is a very popular nutritional supplement in Tang Dynasty, which combines the nutrition of mutton and the umami flavor of bean juice in the form of soup. According to the Records of Qingyi, this dish was eaten by people in the Tang Dynasty in the cold season.
Every ten and a half months before the Great Cold Festival, people begin to prepare ingredients, and the most important thing is to prepare sheep lungs and dried beans. Of course, there are many other nutritious ingredients and condiments in this dish. In the cold season, people begin to get together to drink, and Qiao Yangfei soup is a very attractive dish at the party.
4. Red lamb chops for barbecue.
In the Tang Dynasty, barbecue was very popular in society. People get together to recite poems and enjoy delicious food. According to historical records, the most famous barbecue in the Tang Dynasty was hosted by Wei Juyuan, who was very famous at that time.
According to Qing, there are 58 kinds of recipes in his barbecue, each of which is delicious and valuable. Among these 58 recipes, 8 dishes are directly related to mutton, such as the famous red lamb chop, which was a big dish at that time, roughly equivalent to the roast whole sheep we are talking about now. This dish often appears as the finale of barbecue and is loved by diners.
Third, the love of the nobles and civilians in the Tang Dynasty is delicious.
People in the Tang Dynasty thought that mutton was delicious and had very high nutritional value. There are a lot of records about meat consumption in Tang Dynasty in Taiping Guangji, among which there are 47 records about mutton consumption.
Among these 47 records, most of them are detailed records about royal family members and aristocratic officials eating mutton, and there are about 19 short stories about ordinary people eating mutton in Tang Dynasty. The main force of mutton consumption in Tang Dynasty was aristocrats and royalty, but the people's preference for mutton was no less than that of royalty.
There are records about officials eating mutton in New Tang Book. At that time, there was an interpretation room called Li Baozhen, who was a very famous sheep eater. According to historical records, he slaughtered 1000 sheep in one month for banquets and parties, and ate more than 30 sheep every day on average. From this data, we can also know the love degree of mutton in the Tang Dynasty. There is no doubt that mutton is a very popular national meat in the Tang Dynasty.
Fourth, summary.
A large number of mutton consumption needs strong animal husbandry to support, and the animal husbandry in the Tang Dynasty was relatively prosperous. In the northwest of China, there are large-scale livestock farms, which mainly raise sheep and other animals, such as horses and cattle. In addition to large-scale official farms, nobles with power and wealth and princes of ethnic minorities also have large-scale private farms.
According to historical records, the famous Princess Taiping in the Tang Dynasty kept a large number of sheep, which were the main source of fresh mutton.