At No. 132 Xizhimen Inner Street, Xicheng District, Beijing, there is a shop, although the area is not very large, but a striking signboard, so that passers-by can't help but step into the store, and the repeat customers are countless. This loud sign hanging from the lintel is called "Tianfu". This is the Xizhi store of the "Tianfu". "Tianfu" inherits and innovates the traditional Chinese sauce making technology, becoming "the first sauce meat in China".
<h1>The ground stall even got the Tianfu number plaque</h1>
Tianfu was founded in the third year of the Qianlong Dynasty (1738 AD), and its original site was in the northeast corner of the Xidan Arch.
In the third year of Qianlong, Liu Fengxiang, a native of Ye County, Shandong Province, led his grandson to Beijing to make a living, and partnered with a Shanxi merchant to open a sauce butcher shop at the east corner of xidan archway, dealing in sauce elbows, sauce meat and sauce belly. But the store is small and nameless, so it has been in a slump. Soon, the Shanxi people withdrew their shares and were run by the Liu family alone. One day, Liu Fengxiang went to the market to buy goods, and saw an old plaque on the old goods stall, which read "Tianfu" three Yan body letters, and the pen was vigorous and powerful. Liu Fengxiang believes that this word does have a foundation and contains the meaning of "blessing from heaven", which is just used as a font size to attract business. So he bought the plaque, went home to add some decorations, and hung it on the lintel of his small shop, which was really extraordinary and made the small shop shine.
Since then, some literati and inkers have often stayed in front of the store to taste the calligraphy of the three characters of "Tianfu", and the number of customers has gradually increased. After the small shop was named after this, the business became more and more prosperous, and the "Tianfu" came indeed.
In the past, the delicatessen shops were made at night and sold during the day. Once, Liu Fengxiang's descendant Liu Liming guarded the stove at night, but unexpectedly fell asleep, and his elbow was cooked over the fire. After an official of the Punishment Department ate it on the spot, he even claimed to be good. Liu Liming did the same, and the result was very popular.
Since then, Liu Zhiming has carefully studied the production process of this pot elbow, summed up a set of unique production methods, and became more and more strict in the selection and processing of materials, and the quality of sauce elbows was getting better and better, and the fame was getting bigger and bigger.
According to legend, after Empress Dowager Cixi tasted this sauce elbow, she also appreciated it and gave Tianfu a waist card to enter the palace, stipulating that it would be sent to the palace every day. Since then, the sauce elbow of tianfu has become a tribute to the Qing Dynasty. Later generations in the capital enjoyed the reputation of "Qianlong sauce passed down for a hundred years, Cixi waist brand throughout the world".
<h1>There is a dry inside the dark skin</h1>
The dark skin, fat and thin after cutting, can be described as "plain in appearance, but there is a clean inside". This also became one of the characteristics of the elbow of the Tianfu.
The ingredient used in the Sauce Elbow is a selected pork knuckle with fat meat. Remove fine hairs before making and rinse repeatedly. Each 100 catties is accompanied by four catties of large salt, two or two pieces of cinnamon, five pairs of ginger, one or two of large ingredients, eight two of sugar color, eight two of cooking wine, and one or two of peppercorns. After cooking, cook over high heat for 1 hour. After boiling the oil, remove the elbow and rinse with cool water. At the same time, skim out the slick oil in the pot, cook the soup twice, and remove the meat residue at the bottom of the pot. Then put the elbow meat that has already been cooked once in the original soup, cook it for another 4 hours on a stronger heat, and then simmer it for another hour on a low heat.
After such a long period of boiling and simmering of the elbow meat, the soup has become a juice, and the boiled oil has also seeped into the meat. Bursts of meat wafted out, and the sauce elbow was made.
The unique life of the Tianfu is on the ingredients and soup, the elbow into the pot to cook for an hour and then start to pinch the soup, which requires mastering the heat at any time, in addition to collecting the juice out of the pot. Tianfu sauce elbow selection is strict, fine workmanship, the production process is meticulous, although called sauce elbow, but there is no bit of sauce or soy sauce, the color on the elbow is sugar color. When coming out of the pot, let the skin stick to the meat, lift it up without breaking or scattering, fat but not greasy, thin and not chai, the skin is not back, until the mouth is crisp and tender.
The thick and mellow sauce elbow with unique flavor is unique and enduring in Beijing, relying on a unique set of production methods, and the selection of ingredients and the accuracy of processing are in place.
<h1>Old craftsmanship and new atmosphere</h1>
After liberation, Tianfu changed several times, moved from the east corner of Xidan Arch to the southwest side of Xidan Road Junction, and then settled in Xizhimen, the old plaque is also missing, the current plaque is the inscription of chen Shuliang, a famous contemporary calligrapher. However, no matter how the store site and plaque change, the traditional method of making Tenfu sauce elbow has been passed down from generation to generation.
Old plaque of Tianfu
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, "Tianfu" inherited a unique production method, with exquisite production technology, won countless honors, it rejuvenated, and was also included in the "Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection List".
As early as 1994, "Tianfu" had a 150-square-meter store at No. 22, Xidan Fuxing Road, with 23 employees and a daily production of 500 kilograms of sauce meat products. In July 1994, it merged with the Xicheng Meat Processing Plant. In May 1995, the Meat Processing Factory in Xicheng District was officially renamed Beijing Tianfu Food Factory, and the store department of The Meat Processing Factory in Xicheng District was renamed Tianfu Semicolon.
Beijing Tianfu Food Factory (formerly Xicheng District Meat Processing Factory) has two processing and production workshops, one is located in Xidan Anfu Hutong, covering an area of 2600 square meters; One is located in No. 6, Xiangxi Lane, Sinai, covering an area of 1600 square meters, and its store is the predecessor of the old shop "Tianfu" on Xizhimen Inner Street.
Xizhimen Inner Street "Tianfu" originally had two stores, an old store and a new store. The old shop is located at No. 123 Xizhimen Inner Street, facing north and south, with an area of more than 80 square meters. In the north of Xinei Avenue Road, the northeast corner of the intersection of Xinei Avenue and Beicaochang Hutong, since the demolition of Xidan Store, this store has been "Tianfu No. 1 Store". In April 2013, Tianfu Xi Nei Store (Lubei) was integrated, demolished and closed.
The new store is located at No. 132 Xizhimen Inner Street, west of the Catholic Church on Xizhimen Inner Avenue, with an area of 90 square meters, specializing in various Chinese and Western-style cooked meat products of Tianfu. The store opened on July 28, 2006.
Because Tianfu Food Factory (formerly Xicheng District Meat Processing Factory) is located in the city center, after years of old town transformation, road transformation, enterprise reform, enterprise integration, in Xicheng District "Tianfu" store is only Xizhimen store. Since the demolition of this "Tianfu No. 1 Store" in the northeast corner of the intersection of Xinei Avenue and Beicaochang Hutong, Tianfu No. 1 Food Co., Ltd. has no longer set up no. 1 store, and the west side store of Catholic Church on Xizhimen Inner Street has been improved and reconstructed, and has replaced the old store and become a new store of "Tianfu No. 1".
At the end of 1999, the "Tianfu" Food Factory purchased 19 acres of land in Shunyi Airport Industrial Zone, built a new factory area, and established Beijing Tianfu Food Co., Ltd. Today's food processing base serves a variety of ingredients from the store.
More than 270 years of history has given today's "Tianfu" a unique ancient secret sauce art and profound sauce culture connotation, in the Chinese thousands of years of food culture long volume has its special historical and cultural value, is the participant and builder of Kyoto's food culture construction for hundreds of years, but also an important part of Kyoto's food culture, but also a microcosm of Kyoto's centuries-old history of folk customs, especially eating habits. Tianfu inherits a long history, cultural heritage, simple production skills, and wide influence of products, which are well known in the sea, and is worthy of "the first Chinese sauce meat".
Wen 丨 Zou Xikuan
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