Traditional culture

"Tofu"-Cao Xueqin's favorite

Tofu making process

Step 1: Soak soybeans.

Step 2: Grind the beans.

Step 3: Dilute the ground pulp with boiling water.

Step 4: Put the soybean milk into a cloth bag, filter out the residue, put it into a bucket, add water again, and filter out the residue.

Tofu making process

Step 5: Boil the filtered soybean milk.

Step 6: Mix the salt water and put it into the boiled soybean milk for four times.

Step 7: After adding salt water, the soybean milk slowly turns into tofu flower, and the tofu flower is boxed.

Step 8: Wrap the gauze, put it on the pressure plate, then press on the heavy object and press out the water. This is tofu molding.

Know tofu

Tofu is a nutritious food with a long history. The public's love for tofu has promoted the progress and development of tofu making technology. The main production process of tofu is pulping, that is, soybean is made into soybean milk; The second is solidification, that is, soybean milk solidifies into a gel containing a lot of water under the action of heat and coagulant, which is tofu.

Tofu contains a variety of trace elements necessary for human body, and is also rich in high-quality protein, which is known as "vegetable meat". The digestion and absorption rate of tofu is above 95%, and this healthy food has always been loved by everyone. However, if you want to give full play to the nutritional value of tofu, you need to pay attention to good collocation.

History of tofu development

China is the birthplace of tofu. According to legend, the mother of Liu An, the king of Huainan, likes to eat soybeans. Once her mother couldn't eat the whole soybean due to illness. Liu An had the soybean ground into powder. Afraid that the powder was too dry, she washed some water and cooked it into soybean milk. Afraid that it tasted weak, she put some brine in it, which turned it into a lump, that is, tofu flower. Huainan Wang's mother was very happy to eat it, and her condition improved, so tofu was handed down.

The making of tofu was probably invented by Liu An when he organized alchemy. Alchemists used many minerals and inorganic salts in alchemy, and occasionally found that gypsum or other salts could solidify soybean milk into tofu. Zhu Yi, a famous poet in the Song Dynasty, said, "As you sow, you get what you sow. You are exhausted and your heart is rotten. If you know Huainan, you will get spring cloth. " And self-note "handed down tofu was originally the king of Huainan."

Li Ming's Compendium of Materia Medica: "The method of tofu began with Liu An, the king of Huainan in the former Han Dynasty".

Tofu ancient culture

There are many descriptions about the appearance of tofu in the works of literati in past dynasties. A Dream of Red Mansions by Cao Xueqin, a famous writer in Qing Dynasty, contains a lot of knowledge about tofu cooking. For example, on the forty-first visit to the Grand View Garden, Grandmother Jia gave two seats, and Xifeng gave Granny Liu eggplant. (Eggplant Dong's ingredient is "spiced dried bean curd, which Yangzhou people call dry tea". )

The eighth time I wrote that Baoyu asked You Shi for a dish of "tofu skin steamed stuffed bun" and gave it to Qingwen. Steamed fish, vegetarian chicken, vegetarian roast duck and so on. Bean curd skin is the main raw material, with steamed fish, roast chicken, steamed bread and so on. Bean curd skin is used as the ingredient, shredded bamboo shoots and shrimps as the soup material, and bean curd skin as the foreskin. Therefore, the "tofu" diet has occupied a place in Cao Xueqin's mind.

Tofu ancient poems

Honeyed wine song (Shi)

Wax moss, roasted green cattail and rotten steamed goose and duck are one pot.

Boiled beans are crisp as cream, and high-heat oil candles are honey wine.

Liu Xiuye's Thirteen Vegetarian Poems (Song Note 1)

It's hard to grow peas. It's exhausting.

If I knew Wang Huai's technology, I would get the spring cloth.

Tofu (Jacky Yunduan)

Planting beans at the foot of Nanshan Mountain is old and fresh in first frost. Mill and boil clear spring.

The color is crisp and clean than the soil, and the fragrance is thicker than the stone marrow. The taste is not only beautiful, but the five flavors cannot be passed on.