Chapter 106 Beef and Mutton Steamed Bun

Beef and mutton steamed buns are a kind of snack in Northwest my country, which are found in Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia and other provinces.Mutton steamed buns, terracotta warriors, and Qin opera are listed as the three major characteristics of Xi'an. As the saying goes, "If you don't eat mutton steamed buns, you don't count as having been to Xi'an."Therefore, guests who travel to the ancient city of Xi'an will eat a bowl of steamed mutton before leaving.A good bowl of mutton steamed buns has the characteristics of rich soup, smooth tendons, heavy and mellow ingredients, not greasy, fragrant, and rich in nutrition. It is the favorite of the people in Northwest China. The function of warming the stomach is known as "the best bowl in the world".In the winter in the Northwest, walking on the street in the morning, there are customers eating beef and mutton steamed buns and mutton steamed bun restaurants everywhere, which is very lively.Traveling abroad, I drank a bowl of steamed buns. I sweated profusely, and my whole body was warm. It was especially beneficial. Only then did I realize that the steamed buns in the steamed buns are very porcelain and durable, the soup is rich and nourishing for the stomach, and the mutton is chewy and chewy.

There are roughly two kinds of beef and mutton steamed buns. One is to use beef and mutton to soak, boil the beef and mutton, and add water broth, add onion, ginger, garlic, pepper, chili oil, salt, coriander, monosodium glutamate, red, green and white. Alternately, steaming hot and fragrant soup is used to pour pot helmet cakes; one is to soak the heads, hooves, and offal of cattle and sheep, also known as miscellaneous lamb steamed buns. After slaughtering cattle and sheep, remove the heart and liver. , lungs, tripe, head, hooves, frame bones and other miscellaneous lambs, after repeated processing and brewing, cut into strips of offal, break the pot helmet into walnut-sized pieces and put them in the bottom of the bowl. Cover the strips of offal with Soup poured.The steamed buns are cooked finely, the ingredients are heavy and mellow, the meat is rotten and the soup is thick, fat but not greasy, the aroma is elegant, appetizing, and the aftertaste is endless.

Beef and mutton steamed buns evolved from ancient beef and mutton soup. The "Book of Rites" and the works of pre-Qin scholars all mentioned beef and mutton soup. It was originally used for sacrifices and royal banquets, and was listed as a ritual meal for kings and princes in the Western Zhou Dynasty. "Warring States Policy" records that the king of Zhongshan angered Sima Ziqi with a cup of yokan, and left Chu in anger. "Book of Songs" records that Mao Xiuzhi offered yokan to Emperor Wu of Song Dynasty during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Because of its delicious taste, Emperor Wu named Mao Xiuzhi a captive as the official history.In the Sui Dynasty, "fine offerings without sudden yangkan" appeared, that is, the original omnivorous form of beef and mutton soup mixed with pasta.By the Tang Dynasty, both the royal court and the shops were good at making soup, and yokan had some development and new ideas.

In the second year of Tang Suzong Zhide (757), the Tang Dynasty army and the Dashi army recovered the two capitals from Liangshan and quelled the Anshi Rebellion.When Dashi was stationed in Chang'an, the "Piermu" carried by the sergeant became very dry and hard to swallow. The sergeant mixed it with mutton and mutton soup and ate it. It tasted very good. This way of eating was spread to the people. The method also spread from the military camp to the market, and gradually became one of the staple foods of the people in Xi'an, and gradually developed into the current glutinous rice bun. It has been improved and improved, and it has become an excellent food that everyone from high-ranking officials and dignitaries down to the common people will never tire of eating. It has become the image of Shaanxi today where "thirty million Qin people roar at the Qin opera, and a bowl of mutton soaks in joy".

Yangkan is a soup made of mutton, and it is also the prototype of today's beef and mutton steamed buns.Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin lived on the streets of Chang'an when he was in despair. In the cold winter season, there was only one cake left in his bag. The cake was cold and dry, and it was hard to swallow.Zhao Kuangyin broke the cake into pieces and soaked it in the mutton soup. After eating, he felt refreshed, swept away the decadent mood when fleeing, and embarked on the journey again, starting the road of entrepreneurship.After he ascended the throne, he ordered the imperial dining kitchen to imitate the soup and make mutton steamed buns in the shape of today, which became a daily set meal, and the head chef was therefore named Wanhuhou.Gourmet Su Shi praised the soup in his poem "Ciyunzi Yuchu Rijianji", saying that "there is bear meat in the long delicacy, and the only mutton cooked in Qin Dynasty".

After the development of Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Yuan and other dynasties, people of all ethnic groups moved to the inland to live in succession. Xi'an became a large-scale cattle and sheep trading market in the northwest close to the pastoral areas. .In the seventeenth year of Ming Chongzhen (1644), Tiancilou, which specializes in beef and mutton steamed buns in Xi'an, opened in Qiaozikou, and Ma Jianxing, a famous Hui chef, was in charge.In the Gengzi year at the end of the Qing Dynasty, Empress Dowager Cixi fled to Xi'an with Guangxu, and went to Tiancilou to taste mutton steamed buns.After three hundred years of development, more than ten paomo restaurants have sprung up, including Laosun’s, Tongshengtang, Yixianglou, Yiyilou, Laotong’s, Dingxingchun, and Laoliu’s. The production technology of steamed buns is perfected day by day.Nowadays, there are many small restaurants selling mutton steamed buns in Xi’an, which are very famous among the folk diners, and there are endless people who dine every morning.

The cooking technique of beef and mutton steamed buns is very strict, pay attention to clear soup and rotten meat, and pay attention to cooking skills. The soup is the most important. The bone broth and broth are cooked separately. The meat is first marinated for 20 hours, and then boiled for eight to twelve hours. Hour.Wash and slice the beef and mutton, add onion, ginger, pepper, star anise, fennel, cinnamon and other ingredients to boil until rotten, and reserve the soup for later use.There are two pieces of buns, which are kneaded and baked with nine parts of dead noodles and one part of leavened noodles.It's all dead noodles that taste too hard, which is not good for digestion; it's all leavened noodles, which can't be soaked in soup.The steamed buns are broken into soybeans, peanuts, or walnuts when eaten, and the chef puts cooked meat, original soup, minced green onion, shredded cabbage, cooking wine, vermicelli, salt, monosodium glutamate and other seasonings in the bowl. There are green onion, garlic, coriander, There are red-brown beef and mutton, yellow day lily, against the white and crystal-clear vermicelli, and black fungus, which are mixed in five colors and made with a single spoon.

There are four traditional cooking methods for beef and mutton steamed buns, namely, single walking, dry pulling, mouth soup, and water siege.Going alone is to serve the bun and soup separately, break the bun into the soup to eat, and drink a bowl of fresh soup after eating, each with different flavors; dry pulling means dry soaking, and put a chopstick in the bowl after breaking the bun It can be served, the chef knows how to pull it out, the soup is not in the bowl after cooking, and the chopsticks can be poked; the soup means that there is only one mouthful of soup left after eating the steamed bun, which is slightly more soup than the dry one; Big, soaking in it like a city surrounded by water.Experienced chefs know how much soup to add when they see the size of the buns.

Beef and mutton steamed buns are eaten in a unique way. There are 12 ways to break the steamed buns, such as breaking, tearing, pinching and kneading. They are as small as a bee head and as big as a fist. , dry mix that is less soup.There are mutton stewed soup, that is, customers eat and soak themselves, and the soup is completely infiltrated into the buns. After eating the buns and meat, the soup in the bowl is also finished; The meat is placed in the center of the bowl, surrounded by soup. The clear soup is delicious, the meat is rotten and fragrant, and the bun is tough and tasty. It is served with hot sauce and sugar garlic, which has a special flavor.Real diners don’t eat chili sauce and sugar garlic at first, because they are afraid that it will affect the taste of eating steamed buns. When they eat half of it and feel a little greasy in their mouths, eat a piece of sweet garlic, pick a little chili sauce and mix it in the buns. It is advisable to finish one or two mouthfuls, then rinse your mouth with soup, and continue to eat the steamed buns, so that the taste will not be affected.Eating paomo pays attention to nibbling, eat from the edge, avoid stirring vigorously, in order to keep the taste consistent from beginning to end.In the steamed bun restaurant, there was a large bowl in front of the Han people in the Northwest. The bowl was like a small basin, steaming, and everyone buried their heads in silence.I was amazed by their appetite.

In 1987, Xi'an Liming Beef and Mutton Steamed Bun Restaurant made more than ten varieties of steamed buns with raw materials such as sea cucumber, prawns, chicken slices, mushrooms, and mutton on the basis of the original beef and mutton steamed buns.The flavors are different, the hues are different, the aromas are different, and the color, fragrance, and shape are excellent. They are not only delicious, but also artistic appreciation. They are welcomed and praised by domestic customers. I have eaten all over the Northwest, and found that there are some differences between beef and mutton steamed buns. The beef and mutton steamed buns in Lanzhou and Xi’an are very different. The beef and mutton steamed buns in Lanzhou are cooked beef and mutton frozen in the evening frost and snow, and cut into large pieces the next day. , put vermicelli, garlic sprouts, coriander, pour beef and mutton soup, and then eat it, the original taste; the beef and mutton in Xi'an are not frozen in frost and snow, nor are they large pieces.The steamed buns used in Xi’an and Yinchuan mostly have dead noodles, which are tough and resistant to foaming; the steamed buns in Lanzhou are all made of dough, which maintains the original fragrance of the flour, and it is delicious without any seasoning.Xi’an paomo needs to be crushed by yourself and then returned to the pot to make; Lanzhou paomo just prepares the soup, puts the meat, and then gives you a big cake. You can smash the cake and throw it into the soup as you like, and enjoy the lamb soup The taste of steamed buns can also be eaten with a mouthful of soup and a mouthful of cakes, and then a large piece of mutton can be chewed slowly, and two mouthfuls of vermicelli can be eaten. The big mouthful of steamed buns and large pieces of meat is nothing to say.Some people commented that Xi’an Pao Mo is of the delicate type, while Lanzhou Pao Mo is of the rough type.