Why do Northeasters like to eat soy sauce?

A spoonful of sauce starts with it, and the taste depends on it. No matter how poor the family is, there is also a jar of soy sauce. Northeast soy sauce originated in Liaoning and was first used to make soy sauce in Liaoning. Northeast soy sauce can be said to be the originator of China fermented seasoning. The soy sauce culture has been passed down for thousands of years, and the northeast soy sauce has been deeply immersed in the bones of the northeast people.

Rural soy sauce has its own flavor, and each soy sauce has a different taste.

As early as the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Manchu ancestors began to brew soy sauce. According to Records of the Historian (Book of Jin), "The coastal area of Liaojin's hometown is rich in salt, and Zhaozhou salt is eaten in Beijing and Northeast China. Jurchen made soy sauce with beans as sauce, seasoned with garlic, mustard and vinegar, and made candy with honey instead of sugar. The main ingredients of soy sauce are soybean and salt. Soybean was first planted in western Liaoning, and salt was also abundant in southern Liaoning. Liaoning Miso is the first Northeast Miso in China.

A friend said that miso was invented by Koreans. The New Tang Book Biography of Bohai Sea records "black bean paste in the store" and "black bean paste in the store", which was the former government of Liuyuan in Tokyo at that time, roughly in Hunchun City, Jilin Province, and black bean paste was the prototype of miso. There are many kinds of bean paste in Heilongjiang and Liaoning, and there is a clear paste in Jilin and Yanbian. It's all northeast sauce, with different tastes. There's a difference in taste. Bean paste is sweeter, Jilin Pan paste is fresher, and green paste is more fragrant.

In the twelfth lunar month, beans should be fried to make large pieces of soy sauce, Manchu people should make soy sauce, and Korean people should make soy sauce. The raw materials used in the sauce are different, and other processes are similar. Sauce requires soybean and corn to be fried and ground into powder, and eventually they are made into large pieces. Bean paste and sauce are fermented in the same way, and the date and time are similar. Old people say that when frying beans, you should choose a day without crescent moon, otherwise the sauce will grow maggots in summer. This theory has no scientific basis now. Soy sauce is a microbial fermentation process based on soybean protease. After many days of fermentation, soybean protein is decomposed into various amino acids, and the first umami flavor of plants comes out here.

There used to be a saying in the countryside about how many pieces of soy sauce were. The number of soy sauce slices is even in normal years and odd in leap years. Now you can make a few pieces at will. In April of the lunar calendar, the eighth day of April, 18th and 28th of April are generally chosen, and soy sauce must be finished on 28th of April. In April of the lunar calendar, the temperature is not high, and the soy sauce is slowly fermented and tastes good. If the temperature is high in May, soy sauce is prone to odor. Cover the sauce jar with a layer of air-permeable and ash-impermeable paper or other gauze to prevent insects from entering. After pouring the sauce, use a sauce rake to pour the sauce in the sauce jar several times and stir it every three or four days. After a month, the color of the sauce will turn yellow. At this time, there is basically no debris in it. You can scoop it out and taste it. It's almost there. Every sauce will have a different taste. Nowadays, young people have lost the ability to make soy sauce.

Sauce can be dipped in vegetables, pickled vegetables, stir-fried dishes, stewed dishes, or made into miso soup. There are many kinds of miso in Northeast China. The main reason for making miso is that the winter in the northeast is too long. In the winter of almost half a year, vegetables in the northeast are extremely scarce. Sauce and kimchi are the main ingredients for half a year, which is also the taste passed down from generation to generation. The main reason why many northeastern people like to eat miso is the inheritance of traditional culture. Another point is that the umami flavor of the cooking process comes from the decomposition products of various amino acids in the sauce.

Many people say that there is no pickles to eat in winter in Northeast China. People had better cool the cooked frozen cabbage with cold water, knead it into a ball and eat it with soy sauce. Vegetables that are not dipped in soy sauce can be stored in the cellar, such as carrots, green radishes and white radishes, and some can be stored outdoors, such as green onions. It is said that radish dipped in soy sauce in winter is very refreshing, and the taste of these side dishes is not inferior to that of meat now. This is another reason why people in Northeast China like to eat soy sauce. Pickles taste good. Northeasters are so obsessed with soy sauce that there is also a drawback. Heavy taste will affect people's cardiovascular system, that is, there are more hypertension diseases. With the development of society and the progress of economy, the traditional high-salt soy sauce may be farther and farther away from us, but the sauce culture in the bones still exists.

Older people in Northeast China prefer to eat soy sauce, but they don't like it much in their children's generation. Because there are all kinds of sauces in the supermarket now, the brands are diverse, and the choices are wide, sweet and spicy. In addition, it is difficult to find the real flavor of farmhouse sauce in rural areas, which is close to being lost. We won't make farmer's sauce after 60, which is a long-lost smell!

It seems that until the year before last, my parents insisted on making a little soy sauce every year. For many traditional northeastern families, soy sauce is indeed an indispensable seasoning, similar to the feelings of Beijingers for sesame sauce, Shanxi people for aged vinegar, and so many people for peppers.

In fact, the reasons why people in Northeast China like to eat soy sauce are not complicated, basically in two aspects: one is the eating habits brought about by historical traditions.

China has had the habit of eating soybean paste since ancient times, which is one of the magical uses of soybeans by the ancients. In the Western Han Dynasty, You Shi wrote "Sacrifice to Wine", which recorded "radish salt and soy sauce". During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Manchu people also began to make soy sauce, and there was a description of Nuzhen "soy sauce" in the twenty-four histories.

It has also been said that the reason why Manchu people like to eat soy sauce is related to Nurhachi's successive campaigns. The troops are getting weaker and weaker, so Nurhachi will collect soy sauce from local people everywhere. Using soybean milk with wild vegetables can not only satisfy the stomach, but also supplement a lot of salt and amino acids for soldiers in time, thus maintaining combat effectiveness. Later, Manchu entered the customs to establish the Qing Dynasty. In order to make future generations not forget the difficulties of their ancestors, sauces and pickles should also be prepared in the imperial meals of the Qing palace, and this eating habit gradually spread.

Secondly, this high-salt sauce is more suitable for cold areas.

This truth should be easily understood by many people, similar to the reason why people like to eat spicy food in warm and humid places with light and cool taste. The three northeastern provinces are located in high-latitude cold regions with relatively distinct climates. Simply put, it is extremely hot in summer, extremely cold in winter and longer in winter. This climate will make people prefer high-calorie and high-salt food, because it is necessary for survival, especially in ancient times.

Moreover, there was no such developed vegetable planting technology and transportation before, so in winter, the vegetables on the table of the northeast people were very limited. In the early years, they spent the cold winter by storing potatoes, cabbages, radishes and the like, as well as dried vegetables and wild vegetables preserved in advance. But these foods are tasteless and lack essential nutrients such as amino acids, so it is the turn of the sauce to "save".

Therefore, it is normal for many people in Northeast China to like to eat soy sauce. However, with the development of science and technology and the diversification of diet, fewer people are willing to make soy sauce and young people eat less, which may be the inevitable development of the times.

General practice of northeast miso:

Simply put, it is to cook soybeans (this "cooking" means cooking with a small amount of water), then make them into large pieces of sauce blanks to dry, and finally wrap them in paper for fermentation (at least 2 months). When adding sauce, the ratio of sauce pieces to salt is about 2: 1 to 3: 1. Mix the cleaned sauce jar with water, and then turn it up and down with a sauce rake every day (the rake can only be pure wood, preferably tasteless wood). About 1 month sauce will be fine (raking sauce every day is very important, but it depends on the weather and temperature).

However, although soy sauce is the flavor sauce in my hometown, it must be admitted that traditional soy sauce with high salt content is really not recommended for a long time. Many of my parents and elders have different degrees of hypertension and other problems. Going to see a doctor basically says that it is inseparable from the perennial high-salt diet. After all, the diet structure of modern people is far from that of the ancients. Traditional crafts and food culture can be inherited and appreciated, but personal eating habits should keep pace with the times.

Is there a similar delicious sauce in your hometown? What do you think is the best sauce? Welcome to share your comments with us!

Friends who are interested in food, healthy diet and food anecdotes can pay attention to and like it, and share interesting and useful related content together in the future! There are some special eating habits everywhere. The northeast people love to eat soy sauce for a long time, which has become a habit in people's lives, just like Shandong people love pancakes, Sichuan people love peppers, and Indians love curry.

There is absolutely no need for soy sauce on the dining table in the northeast, and it is precisely because of soy sauce that the cuisine in the northeast has a unique flavor. Almost all the dishes in pickles, farmers have a bumper harvest, eggplant in sauce, tofu in sauce, crucian carp in sauce and beef in sauce all need soy sauce as the main seasoning. Northeasters love soy sauce for the following reasons:

1. Survival needs: Winter in Northeast China is very cold, so vegetables can't grow in the farmland from 10 to May of the following year. Therefore, the problem of a family eating vegetables all winter needs to be solved and stored. Cabbage, potatoes and radishes taste light every day. Make some soy sauce to adjust the taste, enrich the table and get enough nutrition.

Second, it has a long history: as early as the Sui and Tang Dynasties in Northeast China, the ancestors of the Manchu people in Bohai began to grow soybeans. At that time, the folk began to make soy sauce with soybeans, and the custom has been maintained to this day. "Biography of the New Tang Dynasty and Bohai Sea" records "black beans in retail stores", which is a famous local specialty food.

3. High-quality raw materials: The land resources in Northeast China are fertile, and the planting environment such as frost-free period, accumulated growth temperature and annual precipitation is very suitable for the growth of soybean crops, so the quality of soybeans produced is very good, and good raw materials make good food, so people in Northeast China not only like to eat soy sauce, but also like to eat other bean products such as dried bean curd and water tofu.

Therefore, the above three aspects determine the eating habits of the northeast people. No matter spring, summer, autumn and winter, soy sauce is indispensable on the table. In the former countryside, every household had to have a big sauce jar, and the level of soy sauce for women became the standard to judge whether women were hardworking or not.

When soybeans are pounded into squares, the cellar in the jar becomes a hundred times more fragrant; Dip vegetables, mix vegetable soup and scoop a spoonful of oil and water. This mystery also fully illustrates the northeast people's love for soy sauce. Before the reform and opening up, there were no vegetables in Northeast China for more than half a year. In winter, you can also eat stored cabbage, potatoes and radishes. After spring, you can only eat pickles and soy sauce every day. In the long run, many cooking methods of soy sauce have been created and become habits that cannot be changed from generation to generation. Although there are more vegetables and rich products now, pickles still have a place on the dining table of Northeast Hotel.

The climate in Northeast China is suitable for making soy sauce. My uncle came to Beijing from the northeast and wanted to pickle soy sauce. The result was very smelly and he couldn't make it at all. One side is rich in water and soil, and the local people can eat whatever they can. There is nothing to eat in winter, unlike in the south where there is food all year round, and there is nothing to eat in the northeast. When I was a child, I always fried Chili sauce and fried egg sauce, but there was nothing to eat, and it was even more tasteless without soy sauce.

Chinese medicine says that salt water enters the kidney, and the winter in the northeast is longer, especially when it was fine before. When there is no electricity, I go to bed early, have more sexual life and consume a lot of kidneys, so I eat salty tonics. This is my personal analysis, which may not be correct. Huangdi Neijing did say that salt entered the kidney.

There is soy sauce. In spring, the side dishes in the garden are the earliest fresh vegetables, only dipped in soy sauce. It's a long time. Fruits and vegetables are not mature yet, and they are eaten in pickles for a long time, which gives the reason for the long-term existence of soy sauce.

Soy sauce is the soul of northeast cuisine, and the blood in the northeast is soy sauce. . I still think that the best things to eat in time are mother's fried egg sauce, Chinese cabbage, coriander, onion, stuffy rice, and wrapped rice bags are the best things in the world. . Hebei calls miso miso. Strangely, the northeast miso stinks when it is brought to Hebei. But eating in the northeast doesn't have that strange taste, which may have something to do with the climate! In Heilongjiang, women say that their families can no longer live, or don't live at home all the time. They'll say they don't even have soy sauce at home. Not even sauce. It is the children's responsibility to cover the sauce jar when it rains. Who doesn't have a sauce jar in the countryside? Slowly, there is a shortage of vegetables in the cold winter, and it is the sauerkraut with soy sauce that has nurtured us. . In winter, soy sauce and poor scallion, cabbage and radish are the main sources of vitamin C supplementation. When you don't eat fresh vegetables for several months in cold winter, you will understand why people in Northeast China eat raw and storable soy sauce vegetables. After the cold winter, the grass just sprouted, and people all over the city went out to dig wild vegetables, eat some fresh green food and fill the table with a big bowl of soy sauce, which means that the whole family survived the cold winter to welcome spring! Soy sauce and pickles are the cornerstones of northeast people's taste and taste. Not as good as chicken, duck and fish. . . The rest may be countless frozen jiaozi, which can't be eaten all winter. Heilongjiang basically floats in the ocean of jiaozi all winter!

I was born and raised in Northeast China, and I loved soy sauce when I was a child. At that time, every family in the countryside made their own soy sauce, and there was a pickles factory in the city. Now recalling the fragrance of soy sauce, I still feel endless aftertaste! Northeast people love to eat soy sauce, which is directly related to northeast people's love to eat pickles.

Dishes seasoned with soy sauce are indeed thicker than those that are not used.

Why did Lao Tzu write the Tao Te Ching? Eating big sauce with us is an answer!