"Ugly Casserole" was once a tribute to King Su of Ming Dynasty

Lanzhou Casserole is a kind of pottery, which belongs to coarse pottery with sand in it. It is made of coal gangue in Agan Town, a suburb of Lanzhou, which is rich in coal. Because of its good quality and low price, it is an indispensable daily necessities for people in Lanzhou in the old days. In the old days, Lanzhou casseroles were widely used among the people in Lanzhou. Over the years, Lanzhou craftsmen inherited and innovated the manufacturing skills of casseroles, and the casseroles produced were unique. Mr. Deng Ming, an expert in Lanzhou local history, said that Lanzhou casserole is a very practical utensil. Before the 197s, due to the relative lack of iron and porcelain, casserole was the main cooker for people in Lanzhou. Lanzhou casserole is ugly, simple in appearance and black and yellow in color. It is not as delicate and glamorous as porcelain. It is not only liked by ordinary people, but also favored by the royal family. According to legend, the famous and special products of Gansu were presented to the court every year by the king of Su Fan in the Ming Dynasty, named "Entering the Eight Treasures". They are: Xuemi (white honey in Min County), Huiqiong (distilled liquor in Hui County) and Luminous Cup (night cup) Lanzhou casserole, with its ugly appearance, can rank among the royal "eight treasures" and make a tribute together with other famous and excellent products in Gansu, which shows that Lanzhou casserole is indeed a kind of daily necessities with excellent texture. Before liberation, Li Haizhou, a famous artist in Lanzhou, once wrote "Casserole Ballad", praising its advantages: "Lanzhou Casserole is famous in all counties; Durable, light and handy; No crack, no explosion, no trachoma; Cook quickly, stew will rot; Cook soup and stir-fry with the same color; Roll down the rice soup, which is fragrant and sweet; Stir-fried eggs, tender and fresh; Brew tea decocted medicine, full of color and taste. "

The casserole originated from the folk song "Little Cowherd" in Agan Town, Nanshan.

There is a classic lyric that sings, "When I went to Agan County, I bought a big casserole and raised (gave birth to) a lot of children, so I smashed the pot when I was rushing to eat. There are many poor people in the world, which one is like me. " This folk song, which has been spread for hundreds of years, shows the long history of Lanzhou casserole, and also proves that Agan Town is the main producing area of Lanzhou casserole. In the old days, in the impression of people in Gansu, Ningxia and Qinghai, Agan Town was synonymous with Lanzhou casserole. According to research, Lanzhou casserole was first made in Agan town, which is also the main production place of Lanzhou casserole. The raw material for making casseroles is mainly soft gangue mud produced in Agan Town. The soft gangue ground into powder and slag powder are repeatedly stirred into mud, and then hammered for many times to make it soft and tough. Then it is put on a mold and shaped with wooden boards. After drying, it is coated with glaze, and it can be fired in the kiln. According to the written records about Agan Town in Qilihe District Records, Yang Ying of Xining Road recorded in The Saddle Record that Yang Ying went to Agan in the 4th year of Qing Qianlong (1739), "seeing that all the residents were engaged in pottery, and all the walls, feet and roofs were covered with utensils". Before liberation, Agan Town was a place where casserole workshops (called pot factory in Lanzhou dialect) were concentrated, and there were as many as 2 or 3 pot factories. After liberation, it became several large factories, such as Lanzhou Refractory Factory, Qilihe District Refractory Factory, Agan Town Refractory Factory and Agan Village Refractory Factory. Casseroles were just one of the products, and the main products were industrial firebricks. After the 197s, with the widespread use of iron pots and aluminum pot,

According to the historical records of Ming and Qing Dynasties, the pottery of Fenglinguan Lanzhou in Agan and the north of the Yellow River has a certain scale. Mu Shouqi's "A Brief History of Gansu, Ningxia and Qinghai" in the late Qing Dynasty shows that Lanzhou casserole has been marketed in northwest provinces as far back as the end of Ming Dynasty. Gansu Flavor Guide records that in early 196, 76-year-old Shen Zhongying recalled that his father, Shen Zelin, had been in Tongzhi for six years in the Qing Dynasty, and learned how to make casseroles in Leitan River. By the early years of the Republic of China, several more casseroles were made in Lanzhou, including Gao, Chen, Wu and Li. At that time, it was all workshops in the front shop and back yard. At the beginning of liberation, there were about 3 employees, with an annual output of about 1, pieces. In 1956, in the cooperative movement, two cooperatives producing casseroles were established, with 57 employees and 22 varieties, with a maximum annual output of more than 139, pieces and an annual output of more than 32, pieces in 198.

The return of the old casserole craftsman

The p>85-year-old Shi Zangjin is a part of the old casserole craftsman who is still alive in Lanzhou. His family has been making casseroles in Agan Town for generations. He began to work in the casserole workshop at the age of 13, and worked in the refractory factory in Qilihe District after liberation. He has been making casseroles for 4 years and didn't stop until he retired in 198. Shi Zangjin, an old man, recalled that there were twenty or thirty pot factories in Agan Town at the earliest, among which the larger ones were Kangjia, Zhangjia, Shijia and Mengjia. There were more than a dozen types of casseroles, such as big change number, change number and number one ... egg pots, and more than a dozen kinds of daily necessities, such as medicine pots, sand pots, sand pots and simmering pots. The smallest egg pot is used to boil flax water. In the old days, women didn't have good cosmetics, so they used egg pot to boil flax water to maintain and shape their hair. At that time, people called it sip water. There is also a small tea pot about 2 inches high and 1 inch thick, which is used for boiling tea. Because of its small size and fast heating, it is called "Destroyer". The boiled tea is as bitter as traditional Chinese medicine, mainly because the coolies drink it to refresh themselves. At that time, most casserole workshops were intermittently produced, and they stopped every busy time and started production again in slack season. Only two or three of them, such as Shijia Pot Factory, produced all year round. Some casseroles produced in Agan Town are sold to Lanzhou City and surrounding counties, and more casseroles are transported to Taomin Prefecture, Hezhou, Qinghai and other places for sale by foot households. Coal gangue can be divided into soft gangue and hard gangue, and the casserole is made of all soft gangue. The gangue holes for digging gangue are mainly in Niangnianggou, Daguanggou and the top of the hill in jingshan park, and the best soft gangue is Niangnianggou. The coal used for burning casserole is the best from Agan Town Shanzhai coal kiln.

Shi Zangjin said that before liberation, the pot factory was not very big, and only a few in Agan Town were relatively large. Agan Town Pot Factory is relatively concentrated and the overall scale is relatively large. In addition, there are pot factories in other parts of Lanzhou. At that time, there were pot factories in Leitan River at Shuimogoukou, Xinguan (Guangwumen) in the city and the north of the Yellow River. The gangue and coal used in these pot factories came from Agan Town.

Infiltrate into Lanzhou culture

As an ordinary cooker, casserole was widely used in the old days, and it has been closely related to people's lives. After hundreds of years of precipitation, Lanzhou casserole has penetrated into Lanzhou folk culture, and allusions and words related to casserole are frequently used in Lanzhou. Now there are shadows of Lanzhou casserole in people's sayings. It can be seen that casserole is a kind of daily utensils that Lanzhou people can't live without in the old days, and the medicine jar that Lanzhou people boil Chinese medicine is also an extension of casserole.

Before the 197s and 198s, people in Lanzhou often used the word "Lanzhou casserole", which was a derogatory term for people in Lanzhou and was often used when swearing. Mr. Deng Ming, an expert in Lanzhou literature and history, explained that in the late Qing Dynasty, some children of the Eight Banners didn't do their proper work, and they had nothing to rely on after their families fell, so they were parasitic under the crescent bridge outside Yuanmen (now the central square). They beg for food everywhere in the city with casserole during the day and sleep under the bridge at night. If the officials in the yamen go out, they will be issued to wear uniforms and let them travel with flags and brands. In the old days, Lanzhou people took their children by Yuanmen and often pointed to the beggars under the bridge and told them that if they didn't learn well from childhood, they would become Lanzhou casserole when they grew up. As a result, "Lanzhou casserole" has evolved into a synonym for beggars in Lanzhou. In the old days, there was a famous jingle describing the backward situation in Lanzhou, which was a proverb mentioned by Allegro in Lanzhou dialect a few years ago: "The old man sleeping on the kang is the potato egg cooked in the casserole." In the two-part allegorical sayings often used by Lanzhou people, there are many words about casserole, such as "breaking the casserole-asking (tattooing) to the end", "mashing garlic in the casserole-buying and selling with one hammer" and so on. Lanzhou's famous snacks "Hot Winter Fruit" and "Grey Bean" are all cooked slowly in a casserole.

Strong vitality

As a cooker, local chefs have a variety of styles. They use the casserole to cook many exquisite dishes, including "casserole tofu", "casserole meatballs" and "assorted casserole". The soup is delicious and economical, and it is a delicious food that people like very much. "Lanzhou casserole" has become a well-known brand and is still loved by Lanzhou people. In the old days, there was a saying in Lanzhou: The casserole wouldn't roll unless it rolled. That is to say, the casserole is very suitable for stewing food, which can boil all the flavors of the food, and at the same time, the seasoning also seeps into the food, forming a delicious soup-like delicacy. Now, with the widespread use of new materials such as iron and aluminum, people basically don't use casseroles in their daily lives, but Lanzhou casseroles are unique in quality and the food they cook is unique in flavor, so people can't completely abandon them. In the current popular period of various high-tech products, because of its high temperature resistance, acid and alkali resistance, good stability, cook the meat flavor, not easy to turn sour, it is still popular among people, and it has been preserved as a unique cooker in Lanzhou.

Born thousands of years ago

Mr. Deng Ming, an expert in Lanzhou local history, said that it is impossible to verify when Lanzhou casserole was made. At present, the earliest records about Lanzhou casserole can be found in the words of Ming and Qing Dynasties. Li Tieyan, a cultural librarian of Lanzhou Museum, is good at studying pottery. He said that there is no written proof of when Lanzhou casserole originated, but according to the analysis of the characteristics of raw materials and utensils, casserole comes down in one continuous line with Neolithic pottery and belongs to a kind of pottery with sand. Sand pottery has strong hardness and high temperature resistance, and is often suitable for cooking food. It is a common utensil for processing cooked food in ancient times. It is inferred that Lanzhou casserole has a history of at least 6, to 1, years. The production process of Lanzhou casserole is not very complicated, but it requires a lot of skills. Only skilled craftsmen can make exquisite casserole. The raw materials used are mainly coal gangue with soft, good toughness and high fire resistance, and slag ground into powder on the top. They are evenly mixed with water to make mud, which is beaten for many times to make the mud very flexible, then spread on a special mold, dried and glazed, and directly roasted on an open flame to make a casserole.