How to preserve pancakes in ancient times

Five thousand years ago: a brief history of pancake food!

20 19-03- 12 09:04 Wang

Pancakes are delicious for northerners. Traditional pancakes are actually burritos. Thin round cakes are rolled with different meats and vegetables and eaten directly with your hands. From traditional pancakes, there are also various pies, which are improved pancakes.

Old Beijing genre painting pancake map

The raw material of ancient pancakes should be millet, and millet miscellaneous grains pancakes are one of the common foods of ancient northerners. Pancakes have a long history, and many archaeological evidences show that in prehistoric times in China, pancake food has shown a diversified development trend. Prehistoric humans not only had noodles, but also pancakes and scones. Yangshao people created pots and other cooking utensils, and pancakes have a history of 5000 years.

Later, pancake pots of different times were unearthed, and many pancake murals of different times were discovered, revealing the real existence of pancakes in history. We can think about the origin of pancakes while eating, and take a trip to the source of pancakes from near to far to see what kind of historical flavor they have fried.

Pancakes in the Qing Dynasty can be seen from Pu Songling's Pancake Fu: "When you turn your hand, you will get hundreds in an instant. When the moon is full, it is round, as big as a copper sparrow flower, as thin as stream paper, and as color as a yellow crane. " Very vivid description, this is Shandong pancake. Shandong pancakes, rolled with green onions and sometimes with meat, have been in use ever since. In the Qing Dynasty, Fuping, Shaanxi Province kept the custom of filling the sky with pancakes, which was circulated in history. On the 20th day of the first month, bread is placed in the house, which is called "filling heaven and earth". This is to pray for good weather. In the Qing Dynasty, Shanxi Mayi took 25th as the "god storehouse" and ate buckwheat pancakes.

Liu Ruoyu said in the Proceedings of the Ming Dynasty: "On the second day of February ... a family uses millet flour and jujube cakes, which are fried, or they are called pancakes, which are called smoked insects." "Wan Bu Miscellaneous Note" also said: "Spread pancakes with noodles and smoke beds to prevent insects." This is a very strange way to smoke insects, such as ants and bedbugs. 1967 A "separation contract" was found in DongYang Lou Village, Shengzhuang Town, Tai 'an City, which recorded "a plate of cigarettes and 23 kilograms of pancakes". If you want to divide your family into pancakes, you can know that pancakes that can be stored are also a kind of property.

It is clearly recorded in the documents of Yuan Dynasty that buckwheat pancakes should be the food style of Shanxi. "Wang Zhennong Shu Gu Pu 'er" said: Buckwheat is "peeled, ground into flour, spread into pancakes and eaten with garlic". Eating garlic for pancakes is very different from using onions in Shandong. In the Yuan Dynasty, in addition to ordinary pancakes, there were already stuffed pancakes. For example, in the Complete Works of Household Necessities, there are seven treasure rolls and gold and silver rolls. Qibao roll is mutton pie, and gold and silver roll is egg roll. The latter is almost the same as the pancakes we see today.

In Song Dynasty, pancakes were used in some special festivals, such as People's Day, Wearing the Sun and Begging for Wisdom Day, and they were all given special uses. Some customs should be inherited from the previous dynasties, while others were initiated by the Song people. Zhang Jian, a poet in Song Dynasty, recorded different festivals and customs, and mentioned "the first month, a family dinner on New Year's Day, beginning of spring Spring Festival and People's Day pancakes". It is also an early tradition for people to eat pancakes. See also Chronological Miscellanies: "The day before yesterday, people swept the dung broom. People can't walk, so they built seven pancakes and gave them to the poor. " Throwing a few pancakes is a very special way to send blessings to the poor. Pancake mending the sky can be found in Li Gou's poem mending the sky: "A few years after the death of the emperor, summer is summer and winter is nature. The only idle girl in the world is a pancake. " How to make up pancakes? We'll talk later. Pancakes are used for Jojo Festival, and also found in the miscellaneous notes of that year: "On Qixi Festival, people in Beijing also make pancakes for cows and women." On Tanabata, Beijingers want to eat pancakes themselves, and they also want to offer sacrifices to the cowherd and the weaver girl, fearing that they will be hungry when they meet.

Archaeology found a picture of "cook's pancakes" in the mural of Song Dynasty tombs in Gaocun, Dengfeng, Henan. There are three deacons in the picture, one is rolling noodles, the other is frying pancakes in a pan, and the other is picking up baked cakes and preparing to leave. From the appearance of pancake pan, it should be flat and borderless, but pancakes should be rolled first and then branded, which is slightly different from pancake technology.

Pancake Map of Song Dynasty Tomb Mural in Gaocun, Dengfeng, Henan Province

Pancakes in Liao Dynasty can be read in Liao History Six Rites: "People's Day, ... The common pancakes are eaten in the court, called' Smoked Heaven'." Eating pancakes in the yard is called fumigation, which should be unlucky. In the eyes of the ancients, pancakes were so powerful.

Pancakes have been read a lot in the literature of the Tang Dynasty, some in the description of daily life, some in the description of holiday customs, and some in some interesting legends. In the Tang Dynasty, northerners loved pancakes, and every household would cook them. "Taiping Guangji" quoted Hedong Ji's "Inviting guests to pancakes at night" and Xiao Ju, a landscape, said, "Gathering sons and nephews to hide hooks and eat pancakes at night." Playing games and eating spaghetti pancakes at night is a very pleasant nightlife. In other words, pancakes are common things in daily life.

Scholars also like pancakes. "Tang Yanyan" said: Duan Wei in the Tang Dynasty "loved pancakes, which tasted like a literary society, and each pancake was cooked and endowed with rhyme." I made a pancake and wrote a poem. Pancakes are also included in the court meal. The Sixth Canon of the Tang Dynasty described Guanglu Temple preparing meals for officials, saying that "pancakes are added on March 3rd", which is Shangsi Festival, and pancakes are regarded as seasonal food. See Wenchang Magazine: "There was Tu Su wine in the Tang Dynasty, spiced rubber teeth in the Yuan Dynasty, pancakes on People's Day and silk cages in the Yuan Dynasty." It is also an ancient custom for people to eat pancakes.

In the section "Pancakes" in Chen's Records of the Year of the Southern Song Dynasty, Li Bai's poem "A pancake fills the sky" was quoted, which shows that there was also a saying that "the sky wears the sun" in the Tang Dynasty. However, there is a problem here. Li Bai may not be suspicious after eating pancakes, but did he really write such a poem? Maybe he ate pancakes and wrote poems, but he didn't see them in Tang poetry. Is this sentence "A pancake can make up the sky" really his poem? In the poem of Li Gou in the Northern Song Dynasty mentioned above, there is such a saying that "a cake fills the sky". Did Chen plant this poem by mistake, or did Li Gou borrow Li Bai's poem? It's a wonderful idea that a small pancake can fill a hole in the sky.

Pancakes generally entered people's lives in the Tang Dynasty, which can be clearly seen from the pancake stories mentioned in relevant literature. In the Song Dynasty, Sun Guangxian recorded a story in "North Dream": In Chang 'an, Tang Dynasty, someone bought a low-lying land at a low price. He invited an old woman to make pancakes on the ground, inducing children to throw bricks and tiles in the low-lying land, and the winner of the paper bid got a pancake. The children threw bricks and pancakes, and soon the bricks filled the low-lying land. The man opened a shop and made a lot of money. Inducing children to pick up bricks and fill depressions with pancakes was regarded as "wisdom" by the ancients.

The world loves pancakes, which also leads to the greed of ghosts. Tang people love to talk nonsense, and pancakes also appear in many nonsense. In A Dream in the North, there are several stories about "making pancakes to attract ghosts", saying that "making pancakes at night attracts more ghosts". See also Youyang Miscellany, which says that there are more than ten monks eating cakes in longxing temple, Lingzhou, and ghosts "beg for a cake". You say ghosts love pancakes, but you're still talking about people. Gourmet people and ghosts are addicted to each other.

Pancakes existed in the Jin Dynasty and were given a specific meaning. Sui people's "Narrator" said: "Northerners and people eat pancakes in court, which is popular." This statement originated from the description in the Chronicle of Jingchu in Nanliang: "Northerners make pancakes during the solar eclipse at the court, and it's cloudy and smoky, which is unknown." This day refers to the seventh day of July. As I said before, there is another saying that pancakes are used to smoke insects. This custom has been circulating for thousands of years.

In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, there was a story about pancakes entering riddles. Emperor Gaozu of the Northern Qi Dynasty took "how to die" as a riddle, and some people guessed that it was pancakes. Zulugda may be a Turkic language, which translates into Chinese as a combination of fire and food, or Chinese, and these four words are cut back and forth, and the combination of fire and food just forms the word pancake.

A number of Wei and Jin tombs were discovered in Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, and a large number of painted brick paintings were unearthed. Many pictures show the kitchen activities at that time, including two pictures of pancake stalls, in which one chef raised the pancakes with both hands as if she thought they were well fried.

Brick-painted cake map unearthed from Weijin tomb in Jiayuguan, Gansu Province

There is no clear literature about pancakes in Han Dynasty, but there are pancakes, among which there should be pancakes. For example, we know that Gao Zu Liu Bang's hometown is Feng, where there is a cake shop. That place is very close to the boundary of Shandong today, and the cake shop may not sell pancakes. According to "Miscellanies of Xijing", Liu Bang, the Emperor Gaozu, made Guanzhong his capital, and his father Taigong, who followed him to Chang 'an, missed his hometown and was unhappy. Liu Bangling imitated the layout of streets and lanes in Di Feng, his hometown, and rebuilt a new city for the emperor's father, and moved the old site here, which made the emperor's father overjoyed. This is a very successful long-distance relocation and reconstruction project. With the relocation of pancake shop, the chief designer has gone down in history.

Dating back to the Han Dynasty, there is no clue to the existence of pancakes. However, three thousand years later, in prehistoric times, unexpected discoveries were made. In Qijia Cultural Site in Lajia Village, Minhe County, Qinghai Province, some cave houses dating back 4,000 years have been unearthed. Some rooms have a fireplace built of slate in one corner. These fireplaces should be used to make pancakes. At that time, millet noodles had been made, and millet pancakes might also be available.

Archaeology has confirmed that Yangshao cultural residents created clay pots with pancakes. The earliest pancake pan was found in the ruins 5000 years ago and made of clay. A kind of pottery with special shape was unearthed at two Yangshao cultural sites in Xingyang, Henan Province and Qingtai. Clay is mixed with sand, with a circular plane on the top, three or four feet on the bottom and smoke on the bottom. Excavators call this kind of utensil a "food dryer" and think it is "the ancestor of the shovel used to make pancakes", which is a good inference. It was indeed a pottery pancake shovel, which should have been made of millet pancakes.

Ancient cake tray

In some areas in the north, it is popular to make pancake fruit for sale and consumption. The standard frying pan for pancakes is called pan, flat and three-legged, or different flat iron plates in Fiona Fang. The regular pancake pot is called pancake pot, which is a sharp weapon for pancakes and pancakes. Du Du said, "The surface of noodles is round and flat, three feet and two inches high." It can be seen that in ancient times, it was a cooker dedicated to pancakes.

Where there is tobacco, there are pancakes. The origin of pancakes and pancakes can be traced back to the production of pancake tobacco. Archaeology has found some ancient cymbals and pots, besides prehistoric pottery cymbals dating back more than 5,000 years, there are also iron cymbals and copper cymbals from Liao, Song, Jin, Xixia and Yuan dynasties.

Archaeological discovery of pancake tobacco

Pancake is a kind of pasta, and it is also the most historic pasta. In the past, some scholars thought that the ancient dietary tradition in China was the tradition of eating whole grains, and the tradition of pasta originated late and became more popular in the Han Dynasty. Some people think that pasta technology was introduced from outland in Han Dynasty, which is obviously too conservative. We found that there were clay pots for baking pancakes in the Neolithic Age, and the view that the tradition of China's ancient pasta originated late was shattered.

Pancakes are also very cultured pasta, which can satisfy hunger, make up the sky and accompany us through the festive season. It is very useful. Pancakes are constantly changing and improving, with new appearance and new taste. Is an indispensable role in our diet. In ancient times, many special foods had the function of nourishing the body and mind. They are assigned to different festivals, such as Yuanxiao in Shangyuan, Zongzi in Dragon Boat Festival, moon cakes in Mid-Autumn Festival, jiaozi in winter and pancakes in summer. The feelings of literati have become national feelings, and these foods have also become distinctive historical and cultural symbols. Pancakes are one of the biggest symbols. Don't forget to eat on the seventh day of the first month, and don't forget to make up the sky.