Why do you want to eat rice cakes during the Spring Festival?

Why do you want to eat rice cakes during the Spring Festival?

Many areas in China pay attention to eating rice cakes during the Spring Festival. The rice cake, also known as "rice cake", is homophonic with "high year by year", which means that people's work and life are improving year by year. A poem by predecessors said: "The rice cake has a little meaning, as white as silver and as yellow as gold. I hope that when I get old, I will be profitable, and I sincerely hope that my wealth will come. "

1. There is a very old legend about the origin of Spring Festival rice cakes.

In ancient times, there was a monster named Nian who lived in the deep mountains and forests all the year round. When he is hungry, he catches other animals to satisfy his hunger. But in the severe winter, most animals hide and sleep. When you are hungry, you go down the mountain to hurt the people, rob people for food, and make the people miserable. Later, there was a clever tribe called "Gaozu". Every winter, when the monster was expected to go down the mountain for food, he cooked a lot of food with food in advance, twisted it into strips and put it outside the door, while people hid at home. When "Nian" came, people couldn't find anyone to eat. When they were hungry, they filled their stomachs with food strips made by people and went back to the mountains after eating. When people saw the monster go, they all went out to congratulate each other, glad that they had escaped the "Year Pass" and were safe and ready to plough again in spring. In this way, year after year, this method of avoiding animal harm has been handed down. Because the grain bars are made of high, in order to feed the year, the year and the height are linked together, which is called the rice cake (homophonic).

2. Nutritional components:

The rice cake contains protein, fat, carbohydrate, nicotinic acid, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and other healthy elements.

3. Production method:

The method of grinding glutinous rice into cakes is also very early. The Book of Qi Yaomin written by Jia Sixie in the Northern Wei Dynasty can prove this point. The production method is to screen glutinous rice flour with silk, add water and honey to knead it into hard dough, attach dates and chestnuts to the dough, wrap it with bamboo leaves and steam it. This glutinous rice cake has the characteristics of the Central Plains.

Rice cakes are mostly made of glutinous rice flour, which is a specialty of Jiangnan. In the north, sticky grains such as glutinous rice were the first to popularize sticky millet (commonly known as yellow rice) in ancient times. This shelled millet powder is yellow, sticky and sweet after being steamed with water. It is a delicious food for people in the Yellow River valley to celebrate the harvest. The article "A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of Jingshi" published during the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty recorded that Beijingers at that time would "eat millet cakes and have New Year cakes on the first day of the first month". It is not difficult to see that "rice cake" is a homonym of "sticky cake" in the north.

The experienced rice cake master said that the most important thing to make a good rice cake is to pay attention to water and oil. In addition, whether glutinous rice flour is pure or not is also very important. Most glutinous rice flour bought in the general market is mixed with other rice flour, which is not soft enough to eat. The rice cake should be made directly from glutinous rice to ensure its purity and original flavor. Making rice cakes is very simple. Rice cakes can be made into many flavors, but they are all based on the most basic original rice cakes, plus other materials that people like, such as red dates.

Rice cakes are not only a kind of holiday food, but also bring new hope to people every year, which means that everything goes well every year.