Jia Fu in a Dream of Red Mansions has a very precious dish-duck letter, which is also the duck tongue we are talking about now. It sounds like a common dish, but a duck has only one tongue. If you want to put it on a plate, you will know that it is precious. The eighth time Baoyu went to Aunt Xue's house for wine, he mentioned this dish.

Baoyu praised the good goose's goose's feet and duck's letter from his eldest sister-in-law in that house the day before yesterday. Aunt Xue listened, and she also took some of her own bad ones to taste with him. Baoyu said with a smile, "This one needs wine."

From this, it can be seen that goose's feet and ducks believe that these delicacies are common dishes on the dinner table of Jia people, and they are also good dishes for drinking.

Not only Aunt Xue, but You Shi is an expert in cooking this dish. Yuan Dong, a Qing Dynasty scholar, also mentioned in Shu Yin Cong Shuo that "chickens have skins and ducks have tongues", which shows that this dish was very precious at that time. In fact, even today, it is definitely not cheap to eat a plate of duck tongue.

It is recorded in Song's Health Department, an ancient book series devoted to China's cooking: "Bad: cooked geese and chickens share the same palm, feet, wings, liver and lungs, belonging to the same animal genus. The geese are all cut off and sealed, and they can stay for a long time, which is suitable for the winter moon. " And the bad duck tongue was a famous dish in Yangzhou during the Qianlong period. And it is said that Cao Xueqin's grandfather, Cao Yin, loves eating bad goose's feet and duck letters.

Many people may think that a nobleman like Jia Fu should not eat anything except the finest meat from chickens, ducks and geese. This understanding is naturally wrong. People in Jia Fu not only eat duck tongue, goose's feet, Baoyu's birthday, but also mention "duck head", "chicken skin soup" and other delicacies made from animal skins and first-class parts, which not only does not reduce Jia Fu's status, but also reflects the ancient nobles' food.

The common practice at home is to cook the whole chicken, duck or pork belly, take it out and cool it, and then apply salt on the surface. In a small pottery jar (to prevent mildew, it should be washed and dried in advance until there is no moisture on the inner wall), spread a layer of fragrant mud, cover it with a layer of white gauze, and then put the meat into it. Finally, spread fragrant mud on the jar mouth, seal it for a week or two, and take as much as you eat after opening the jar. The jar mouth is sealed at any time to prevent mildew.