How to eat hot pot in Han Dynasty?
Not only the meal system, but also the sauce
Bai Juyi wrote in "Question Liu Nineteen": "Green Ant New Brew, Red Clay Small Stove.
If you
come to the sky in the evening
, can you drink a cup of nothing?" If he lives in Sichuan, it might not be cooked on a small stove. Fine wine, but hot pot.
As we all know, Sichuan people love to eat hot pot, no matter the heat is unbearable, or the twelfth lunar month in winter, eating hot pot and singing songs will not have a taste.
Is there any hot pot for the ancient delicious mouth?
What kind of cooking utensils and dipping sauces do they use?
The "Taste of the World-Food Culture Exhibition" on display in Sichuan Museum can reveal the answer for you.
118 pieces/sets of cultural relics from the National Museum of China and Sichuan Museum, using time as a clue, restored the "beep China" of people from the Neolithic Age to modern times, including the hot pot eaten by the Han Dynasty.
This exhibition not only hides the wisdom of the ancients on the table, but also has a lot of cold knowledge about food. It is evaluated by the audience as a "hungry exhibition", and food is coming quickly.
However, it is recommended that you fill up your stomach before scanning the exhibition.
One
of the Han Dynasty popular "small pot"
Since the Qin and Han dynasties, a high degree of centralization has provided a political guarantee for the realization of great unification, and a stable social environment has brought the people a wealth of life.
The people live and work in peace and contentment, and the bronze food utensils not only appear in the ancestral temple ceremonies, but also in the scenes of banquets, music and dance.
In the Chuanbo "Taste of the World" exhibition, there is a "Qinghe Shiguan" bronze dyed vessel from the National Museum of China. It is a tableware from the Qinghe Kingdom in the Western Han Dynasty located in Shandong and Hebei today. It is equivalent to a small hot pot cooked by people in the Han Dynasty.
This bronze dye vessel is composed of a furnace and an ear cup. The furnace is four-footed and has a round liu with a handle on one end. The inscription is engraved under the side of the furnace: "Qinghe Shiguan, the right (pan) weighs six catties. Twelve taels." The ear-bearing cup on the furnace, with an inscription on the side of the cup: "Qinghe Food Officer, right, weighing one catty and eleven taels."
Dyeing furnaces were very popular among the upper aristocracy in the Han Dynasty, and some were a combination of furnace and cup 2 In particular, a tray for receiving the ashes of the charcoal is added under the dyeing furnace.
For example, a set of dyeing furnaces unearthed from the tomb of Haiyunhou consists of three parts: ear cups, charcoal furnaces and chassis. They are exquisitely made and very particular.
The cultural relics expert Mr. Sun Ji analyzed that this combined set of bronze ware should be a kind of eating utensils.
Second
"dye" is an ancient seasoning
The ancients called condiments "dye".
"Lu Shi Chun Qiu" records that "dyeing, soy sauce is also", the dyeing cups are mainly sauce and salt-based condiments.
The stove under the copper dyeing ware in the exhibition is for heating the sauce.
The prevalence of dyeing vessels is related to the eating habits of the pre-Qin period.
At that time, using the Ru method to make meat was more common in the Han Dynasty, a bit similar to "dry fried".
First, people boil the meat to the point where it is edible. After the water evaporates, it is made into a shape similar to dried meat; then, it is dipped in heated seasoning to soften the dried meat and taste it while it is hot.
The dye cup is equivalent to the flavor dish prepared before eating hot pot.
Different from putting some onion, garlic and sesame oil in the current saucepan to cool the meat just out of the pot and feast on it, people in the Han Dynasty were used to using hotter seasonings, so they had to use a dyeing stove to continuously warm up the seasonings.
It's a bit like when you can't order a mandarin duck pot, some people are keen to shabu white meat, and the "heavy taste" friends can only spin and jump in the saucer to make the food more delicious.
Three
dining system can not "encroach"
There was a clear documentary record about hot pot in the Han Dynasty, but at that time, hot pot was called "cone bucket", which was a kind of delicacy that "pleasure alone is not as good as all others".
During the Qin and Han dynasties, following the legacy of the pre-Qin period, people would sit on the floor when eating.
It is very inconvenient for everyone to sit around and eat on a few tables because the food tables are very low and the utensils are large and heavy.
Therefore, in Qin and Han dynasties, most people eat at one table, sharing meals.
According to Chuanbo staff, the bronze dyeware unearthed in the Han Dynasty was very small in size, and the volume of the dye cup was generally only 250-300 ml.
The height of the entire dyeing furnace is no more than 10-14 cm.
At the banquet, everyone, one person and one boiler, "dye" with the rinse, isn't it very particular?
However, you must never touch other people's dye cups. If you accidentally "finger" other people's seasonings, you will laugh and be generous.
Store
the Western Han Dynasty have a "mandarin duck pot"
The famous historian Ni Fangliu found that there were various hot pots in the Han Dynasty: from the material point of view, there are not only bronze hot pots, but also iron hot pots and ceramic hot pots; in terms of dining styles, apart from the divided meals displayed on the exhibition There are also dyeing machines made in China, as well as mandarin duck pots that can put different soups and cook different dishes.
A grid tripod unearthed from the Western Han Tomb of Dayun Mountain in Xuyi County, Jiangsu Province, proves that Liu Fei, the owner of the tomb, the king of Jiangdu of the West Han Dynasty, is a delicious mouth, and that he eats "mandarin duck hot pot."
This tripod is very unique. After opening the lid, there are 5 small grids scattered in the tripod, and there are 4 grids outside the middle circle.
This divided gridding is similar to the current Jiugongge hot pot. The craftsman divides the gridding into 5 sections, which is convenient for diners with different dietary habits such as sour, spicy, hemp, salty, etc. to have different bottom materials, and also allows chickens and ducks. Put the fish in different grids to avoid skewers, one pot tops five pots.
"Three Kingdoms·Wei Shu·Zhong You Biography" has a record about the Ding Ding, and it is named "Five Shu Keke".
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cao Pi gave the famous minister Zhong Yu (pronounced yáo) a five-cooked kettle with an inscription solemnly on it.
It is inferred from this that Fenge Ding should be the cooking utensils enjoyed by court nobles.
Liu Fei was the fifth prince of Emperor Han Jing.
In the Seven Kingdoms of Wu and Chu, Liu Fei, who was only 15 years old, had the courage and plan, and took the initiative to ask Ying to attack Wu Jun.
He made great military exploits in the Great War to quell the Seven Kingdoms. Emperor Han Jing was very pleased and changed him to the title of King of Jiangdu. He also rewarded the kingdom of Wu that he had captured as a title.
In the wealthy country of Wu, Liu Fei recruited the world's heroes, including the famous Dong Zhongshu.
To be a quiet and delicious mouth, to shabu-shabu-shabu-shabu, Liu Fei, who can eat, will not have bad luck, and eventually become one of the few princes who can die well.