Speaking of fried liver, it is a snack that everyone loves in old Beijing. Smooth pork intestines, pork liver, oily red soup, rich and not greasy, thick and viscous, plus a hint of garlic, take a sip along the edge of the bowl, and eat it with the steamed buns , the taste makes people salivate.

Fried liver

So, do you know where this fried liver comes from? Was it fried?

Speaking of the origin of fried liver, it has to be traced back to 1862, the first year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty. At Xianyukou outside Qianmen, there is a Beijing-style snack "Huixianju".

At that time, Huixianju was run by three brothers surnamed Liu, and they mainly sold white water offal. White-water offal is made from pig intestines, liver, heart, and lungs cut into sections, added with seasonings, and boiled in white soup. These three brothers are very hardworking, but their business is not very prosperous. Therefore, the three brothers discussed how to improve the white water offal.

In the end, they removed the heart and lungs from the "white water offal" and added soy sauce to thicken it. When we came up with the name, we didn't call it "braised fat intestines" directly, but called it "fried liver", which made it unique among Beijing-style snacks.

Fried liver

But here comes the problem. In this bowl of fried liver, from collecting the raw materials to serving it on the table, there is no "frying" action at all. , completely cooked! Moreover, the main raw material is pig intestines, and the pork liver is relatively small, which is used for decoration. But why is it called "fried liver"?

It is said that "fried" is a transliteration from Manchu. The word "fried" in Manchu is translated into Chinese as boiling.

Some people say that the last step of making fried liver is to add starch, because it is thicker and requires constant stirring. Although it is not fried, it still feels like frying. The fried liver cooked at the end has a crystal clear soup, the pig intestines are fat, smooth and tender, the liver is fragrant and tender, light but not greasy, mellow and delicious, thin but not sparse?/pgt;

Fried liver The most authentic way to pair it with steamed buns

In addition, there is a special way to drink fried liver. You don’t need chopsticks or a spoon, just pick up the bowl and drink it in circles along the edge of the bowl. The purpose of drinking it this way is to avoid stirring it with a spoon and stirring up the juice. When drinking, don’t forget to pair it with steamed buns. One bite of steamed buns, one bite of fried liver, and the steamed buns are dipped in the soup of fried liver. This is called authentic!

(Editor: Li Zhaonian)

Some of the pictures in this article come from the Internet

This article is an original manuscript by BeijingCom. If it is reprinted, please indicate the source