Comparison of Chinese and Western confectionery culture

The difference between Chinese and Western pastries is very simple, the source of China for the Chinese pastry, other foreign both Western pastry. In fact, in the view of culinary science? Chinese and Western pastry production should belong to a course, regardless of whether it is a Chinese or Western point, *** with a lot of points, such as now red all over the north and south of the wide egg tower its roots is a kind of pastry in the class of the improvement of Jesus, take the best of the shortcomings of each other, complement each other, and push the boundaries of the new. This is originally engaged in the culinary work of people's invariable creed. The advantage of pastry is that pastry production is more attention to the nutrition, so that we can enjoy the delicious at the same time can get a lot of protein, vitamins. For example, cakes, fruit pies, this point of Chinese pastry to do some poor. Moreover, western-style pastry gives attention to the color combination. Of course, they choose must be natural color. Beautiful visual enjoyment is the Chinese point is lacking.

Dim sum is found in all kinds of Chinese cuisine. It is especially developed in Cantonese cuisine and tea drinking, which generally refers to buns and pastries placed in a steamer basket. Dim sum was introduced at the beginning of the style is not much, there are big buns, barbecued pork buns, shrimp dumplings, siu mai, intestinal noodles and so on. Dim sum is one of the major symbols that differentiate the tea drinking habits in the north. Today, there are many types of dim sum used in Cantonese tea drinking, which are roughly divided into savory and desserts. Most of the dim sum is served hot, and a small number of cold dishes are also available.

In the northern cuisines, "noodle dishes", in which noodles are the main ingredient, are also an important branch of Chinese dim sum. A good chef in the north can make more than 2,000 kinds of pastry.

Traditional dim sum includes buns, dumplings and rice noodles. Many dim sum restaurants also offer other dishes, such as greens, roasted meats, different styles of congee and soups. In teahouses or restaurants, tea is usually accompanied by dim sum to serve customers.

Of the many cooking methods, dim sum is usually steamed, pan-fried or deep-fried, and the quantity is four pieces to a plate.

Western desserts are short for Western desserts and Western refreshments; they are also often shortened to cakes and cookies because they are mostly cakes and cookies. Western-style pastry is mostly sweet, commonly used ingredients include flour, milk, butter, sugar, cream, chocolate, raw fruit, nuts, etc., baked in an oven at high temperatures; the British traditionally with black tea, milk tea, coffee and other hot beverages, in the afternoon tea time to taste. For example, cakes, puddings, jellies, ice creams and so on. Since sugar as a luxury product in Western society before the 19th century was only reserved for the upper class, consuming desserts would be regarded as a symbol of aristocracy, so desserts had a certain status in Western cuisine. As sugar became more common, desserts became more popular at the same time and developed a diverse range of specialties. Nowadays, many people enjoy desserts at the end of their meals.

From the literature, it seems that dim sum and tea were originally distinct and different in nature, but they have long since been confused.

According to my research, the history of the North's dim sum is ancient, the history of the South's new, the ancient ones may still have the legacy of the Tang and Song dynasties, the new is only the mid-Ming Dynasty it. Dim sum store signboards on the two commonly used phrases, I want to borrow used here, it seems to be appropriate, the north can be called "official ceremony tea food", the south is "Jiahu fine point". --- Zhou Zuoren "North and South of the dim sum"

The most common traditional Chinese dim sum is generally "eight big pieces" and "eight small pieces".

The eight big pieces, also known as northern-style pastries, are represented by the Beijing region. Beijing-style pastries, a long history, a wide range of categories, different flavors, with heavy oil, light sugar, fluffy and soft, pure sweet taste, pure salt and other characteristics. Representative varieties of Beijing eight pieces and red and white moon cakes. Among them, Beijing eight pieces have big eight pieces, small eight pieces and fine eight pieces. The eight pieces are filled with eight kinds of fillings such as hawthorn, rose, plum, sugar, bean paste, jujube paste, pepper, raisins, etc., wrapped with flour containing cooking oil, and placed in various patterns of molds and carefully baked into the surface. There are various shapes such as cashew, drum, Buddha's hand, bat, peach, pomegranate, etc. and they are small and exquisite. It is crispy in the mouth and has a pure flavor. The special product is fine eight pieces, the production of fine layers of uniform, soft filling sand, fruit flavor is pure and thick. Appearance also has three immortal, silver ingot, osmanthus, blessing, fortune, life, happiness peach and other eight kinds of patterns, is the quality of Beijing-style confectionery products.

Olden days, Beijing people visiting friends and relatives to carry gifts, pay attention to send "Beijing eight pieces", that is, "big eight pieces", "small eight pieces. This is the original Qing Hu royal family wedding and funeral ceremonies and daily life in the essential gifts and furnishings, and then the recipe by the Imperial Household Restaurant to the people. Its main ingredients are refined white flour, sugar, lard, honey and a variety of fruit seeds. The so-called "eight pieces", i.e., eight kinds of confectionery, generally have hemp cake, jujube flower, roll pastry, some engraved with different characters such as blessing, fortune, longevity, happiness, and so on. There are round, peach-shaped, square, etc., in a rectangular cardboard box. The "little man piece" is a double, sixteen pieces in a cardboard box. In the past, meet the daughter back to her mother's home, to the elders to pay tribute to the New Year, etc., are to go to the pastry store to buy a box of eight pieces of large carry in the hands, generous and beautiful.

Large eight pieces are generally eight pieces of a **** a catty, small eight pieces are generally eight pieces of a **** half a catty.

Large eight pieces, small eight pieces. To eight different varieties of pastries with a group of one catty called the big eight pieces, generally as a gift with the most appropriate. Small eight pieces are also eight varieties of sixteen small pieces for a catty. As gifts, are mainly large eight pieces, the quality is very high. The name of eight different kinds of pastries, the big eight pieces as follows: one, turn over the cake, two, big roll pastry, three, big oil cake, four, butterfly rolls, five, the width of the child pastry, six, chicken oil cake, seven, the first prize cake, eight, the seven stars Dizi. Small eight pieces than the big eight pieces of small one: one, fruit tarts, two, small roll pastry, three, small peach cake, four, small chicken oil cake, five, small screw pastry, six, salty dianzi, seven, jujube flower, eight, pit face. The latter four are the most popular among children. Especially the jujube flower, twisted into petals with jujube paste, very beautiful.

Chinese food culture has a long history, as part of the Chinese food and drink - Chinese dim sum, through the long-term practice of our working people, especially the inheritance and development of the dim sum masters, dim sum varieties are more and more, such as: buns, dumplings, cakes, dumplings, rolls, cakes, crisps, strips, jelly, rice, congee and so on. Through thousands of years of creation of dim sum masters, their basic form is also colorful, realistic shape, such as: geometric, pictorial, natural shape and so on.

China's pasta shape a wide variety of different varieties have different shapes, even if the same species, different regions, different flavors of the genre will also be varied, realistic shape. But in general, the appearance of the pastry have certain characteristics, summarized in the following aspects.

1, geometric form is the basis of the art of modeling, in the pastry modeling is used in a large number, it is imitated in the life of a variety of geometric shapes made. Geometric shape can be divided into single geometric shape and combined geometric shape. Single geometric shapes such as dumplings, lotus root dumplings round? Triangle, trapezoid of dumplings? The square shape of the square cake? The rectangle of the pot cake? The rhombus shape of the thousand layer cake, etc.. Three-dimensional framed cake is a combination of several pieces of different sizes of several bodies. Coupled with a variety of combinations of framed shapes? Form a beautiful three-dimensional shape. Overall this cake is a combination of geometric shape.

2, hieroglyphic form, can be divided into imitation plants and imitation animal form. Imitation of plant form is a common shape in the production of pastry, especially some fancy pastry, pay attention to the form, often imitation of nature in the plant, such as flowers, such as the boat point in the moon flower, peony flowers, shortcrust pastry products in the lotus, lily pastry, begonia pastry, water products in the orchid dumplings, plum dumplings, and so on. There are also fruit imitations, such as pomegranate buns, peach buns and gourd buns in leavened noodles. And there are even more in boat points, persimmons, snow pears, grapes, oranges, apples, and so on. Those imitating vegetables include green peppers, radishes, fava beans, peanuts, and so on. Imitation of animal shape is also a wider range of a shape, such as hedgehog buns in the leavened noodles, goldfish buns, bat flat, butterfly folder, etc., the dragon dumplings, swallow dumplings, dumplings, pigeon dumplings, etc., the boat in the point of the boat is even more, the goldfish, rabbits, chicks, birds, jade geese, white pigs, which are imitation of the animal shape of the noodle dishes.

3, the natural form, which uses a relatively simple modeling techniques to make the snacks through the maturation and the formation of not very regular form. Such as blossom steamed buns, after steaming natural "blossom". Others, such as the opening smile, court peach cake, honeycomb egg yolk angle, hibiscus pearl cake, etc. is also in the maturation process of natural molding.

China's pastry molding from the molding means that there are hand-formed, mold-forming, machine molding three, but from the practical point of view, is still mainly hand-formed, through the pastry chef's dexterity of the hands of kneading into a variety of shapes. A series of operation skills and processes in the pastry modeling should be centered around the purpose of food and appetite, first of all, delicious, followed by good-looking, not only to meet people's desire for food and drink, but also enable people to produce a sense of aesthetics, but the main flavor of the pasta, but also a specific form as a backing, so the shape of the pasta is required to be mainly expressed in the following areas.

1, the shape is simple and natural, we are in the production of pasta, we should strive to be simple, bright? To the direction of abstraction. On the one hand, because the production of pasta is the primary purpose of edible, rather than ornamental, on the other hand, too much attention to realism, time-consuming and labor-intensive, food susceptible to contamination? does not meet the needs of modern fast-paced life. Simple, bright, natural, both to satisfy the appetite, but also hygiene, is the direction of the pursuit. 2, vivid image, the shape of China's pasta, mainly in the dough, blank skin to show that historically, pastry chefs are good at making different forms of flowers, birds and animals, fish and insects, fruits and melons.

Pastry modeling for the selection of the theme, combined with the time factor and environmental awareness, it is appropriate to use people's pleasant, simple image of the image is good, such as goldfish, white rabbits, geese, butterflies, mandarin ducks, etc., to be good at grasping the main features of the image. From life to refine the artistic modeling suitable for the characteristics of pastry modeling. Through the use of omission, exaggeration, deformation, addition, geometry and other techniques, not only to create a vivid image of the pastry, but also simple and rapid. For example, framed cake for decorating the moonflower is often omitted to a few? But still do not lose the characteristics of the moonflower, "goldfish dumplings" focus on the eyes and tails of the goldfish to exaggerate the image, "butterfly roll" is the butterfly on the complex pattern into a symmetrical geometric treatment, etc., not only image vivid and easy to implement.

Western confectionery from foreign countries into China's confectionery collectively, with the Western national style and characteristics. Such as German, French, English, Russian and so on. Traditional pastry mainly includes bread, cakes and pastries 3 categories.

1, filling will be cut from the edge of the bread next to the cut, and then sandwiched with fillings (cream cream, custard cream, Massey McLee, etc.) made of sandwiches, another way is to cut a mouth in the middle of the surface of the bread, and then framed with a tooth-shaped laminating nozzle in the incision with fillings, such as pineapple bread, shortbread, etc. are molded with this method.

2, filling similar to Chinese buns, wrapped with fillings, usually bean paste, jam, peanut butter, coconut, meat floss and so on.

3, mold molding is mainly sweet pastry confectionery and fancy bread, its main types are tower, rows and flan. Tower in the shape of an open basin, plus a covered tower is row? Commonly known as pies. Towers and rows have no fixed size, shape in addition to round, there are oval, boat-shaped, rectangular with rounded corners, etc.. Folan, on the other hand, is a flat disk with a diameter of 20 cm. these pastries are varied by the filling. Fancy breads can be made in the form of braids, rolls and petals.

The shape of the pastry decoration is based on the decorative materials and fillings, the shape of the design is an important part of the pastry decoration.

1, the shape of the decorative design, which includes the type of decoration and method of determining the pattern and color of the idea and the choice of decorative materials. Decorative patterns are symmetrical and asymmetrical, regular and non-regular. Patterns require simplicity, fluency, not too complicated, which is consistent with the styling and decorative requirements of Chinese pastry. The use of colors strive to coordinate, bright, elegant, not overly gaudy or even vulgar. Color try to use the color of the raw materials themselves. The color of pastry should not be more than 3 kinds of colors, the color does not care more, but lies in the collocation. The matching can be done by using the principle of approximation or contrast to produce a pleasing and attractive visual effect. For example, white cream dotted with red strawberries or dark brown chocolate, can form a sharp contrast in tone, and yellow cream with and it is similar to the color of the orange orange petals or tawny nuts, can give a person with a soft tone, comfortable feeling.

2, pastry decoration type, simple decoration simple decoration belongs to a one-time decoration with one or two decorative materials, easy to operate, fast. Such as powdered sugar on the surface of the product, placed a grain or several dried fruit or nuts, or wrapped in a layer of chocolate on the surface of the product, square orange and so on. Decorating with fillings only also belongs to the category of simple decoration. Pattern decoration generally requires the use of more than two decorative materials, and usually has two or more decorative processes, the operation is more complex, with a strong technical. The modeling decoration belongs to the high-level decoration of pastry, and the technical requirements are very high. When decorating, or products made into multi-layer body, houses, boats, carriages and other three-dimensional models. And then further decoration, or beforehand with sugar products, chocolate and other small models made of plane, and then placed on the initial molding products.

3, pastry modeling and decorative methods, extrusion laminating extrusion is an important method of pastry molding, most of the cream raw materials and semi-solid frosting decorative materials and chocolate, the production of its main forms of expression, simulation forms, abstract forms, cartoon forms and so on. Laminating creative content is very rich, the design form is also determined by the content. Fancy laminating lively image, can be used to simulate the expression of the method or cartoon expression, the content is taken from real life things or things. European style framing simple, solemn, elegant, simple, ? Abstract decorative molding techniques can be used, the content is taken from the life of the matter or thing to summarize the concept, give more imagination, refinement and generalization. Dipping, also known as "dressing", that is, part or all of the product is immersed in melted chocolate or square orange, a few moments that is taken out, after cooling, the surface of the product is formed with a certain color of the new decorative material. Wrapping is the egg skin, tiger skin or sugar skin wrapped in the surface of the product, color cake or fancy roll cake is to use this method. One is to smear the paste ingredients on the surface and around the products, and the other is to pour the melted chocolate or frosting ingredients on the products, and then smooth them out. Piecing is often used in the decoration of fruit tarts and flans, such as piecing various fruits into baked tarts and flans. Dipping in the outer surface of the product is first smeared with a layer of sticky ingredients, such as jam, cream paste, jelly glue, etc., and then contacted with dry nuts or chocolate, so that it adheres to the surface of the product, which looks like plush. Model with sugar products or chocolate made into flowers, animals, people and other models, and then placed in the products to achieve, which is a technically difficult method.