Landmark Sichuan cuisine: Hechuan meat slices and Gangjin meat slices

Landmark Sichuan cuisine: Hechuan meat slices and Gangjin meat slices

In traditional Sichuan cuisine, Hechuan meat slices and Jiangjin meat slices may be the only dishes with county-level geographical indications in the stir-fried braised dish dish, which is rare not only in Sichuan cuisine, but also in Chinese cuisine.

In the history of Bashu, pork was wrapped in fried oil and eaten earlier, and Li Haoren's "Old Account" recorded that the folk commonly consumed crispy meat at that time, indicating that as early as the middle of the Qing Dynasty, Bashu was widely consumed. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, "Chengdu General View" ranked first in the miscellaneous dishes, and Su (crisp) meat also appeared in Nanguan cuisine, and Su (crispy) meat also appeared in home cooking. Strictly speaking, whether it is Hechuan meat slices or Jiangjin meat slices, they are formed by boiling and processing on the basis of traditional crispy meat. What we need to study is when, where and by whom invented this back-to-pot process.

There are three theories about the origin of Hechuan meat slices, one is that it appeared as early as the Southern Song Dynasty, one is believed to have originated from the Qing Dynasty's River Street Yuan Cannon's puff pastry meat slices, and the other is believed to have been invented by a chef by accident with leftovers. However, we have not found any evidence to support the above three claims, so there are only doubts to be examined. Judging from the memories of Chef Chen Guangfu, it is possible to count the Hechuan meat slices from the yuan cannon at the end of the Qing Dynasty to the inheritance of Li Shusen, Chen Guangfu, Yin Daikui, and Yin Daiguo. In this inheritance system, the relationship between Yuan Dacang and Li Shusen is doubtful, and the others are basically credible. If calculated according to this body, it is certain that Hechuan meat slices appeared in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.

Hechuan meat slices were first recorded in the literature in the "Heavy Cooking Technical Data" compiled by Chongqing Catering Service Company in 1968 (1), and later in the 1972 "Neijiang Cooking Technology Textbook", 1973 "Sichuan Guangyuan Local Recipe", 1974 Sichuan Vegetable and Aquatic Food Service Company "Sichuan Recipe", 1977 "Wanxian Recipe", 1980 Sichuan Provincial Catering Service Technical School "Cooking (Learning Cuisine" and "Chinese Recipe" Sichuan Volume, The overall change in the way it is cooked in history is not only slightly different, the main ingredients are either all lean meat, and some are fat and lean meat. From the perspective of cooking, Hechuan meat slices go through two stages of frying and braising, the syrup mainly includes magnolia slices, fungus, etc., and the seasonings are mainly ginger, garlic, sugar, vinegar, and minced peppercorns. Now the folk Hechuan meat slices form two genres, one is the genre of simply braising and sautéing after frying, and the other is the genre of boiling process with sugar, vinegar and other juices after frying, which is similar in method to Jiangjin meat slices. Early savages were cabbage, later changed to magnolia slices or fungus, and early flour, chicken volume, and mustard flour were shared, and later only eggs and mustard were used. When cooking, some put Pixian watercress fried incense, and some do not put it.

The system of documentation and inheritance of Jiangjin meat slices should be clear. According to the "Jiangjin County Commercial Chronicle", a restaurant called "Xinglong" in The county town of Jiangjin County, mainly engaged in some river bean blossoms and homely routines, often frying the leftovers of pork into slices of meat, drizzling with sour and spicy spices, which was welcomed, and followed suit in the Jiangjin area, forming Jiangjin meat slices. According to our investigation, around the time of the Republic of China, Jiangjin chefs Luo Canrong and Du Shanhui improved the folk Jiangjin meat slices, and passed on the cooking methods to Ke Yongde, Dai Kaiqing, etc., and then passed them on to Mou Zhixiang, Yan Shichao, Gan Yongjun and others.

In fact, both Jiangjin meat slices and Hechuan meat slices go through two processes: frying and burning. In 1977, the Sichuan Vegetable and Aquatic Products and Catering Company "Sichuan Recipe" recorded the cooking method of Hechuan meat slices and Jiangjin meat slices, the actual difference between the two is not large, the only difference is that Jiangjin meat slices have generally undergone two processes of adding oil to fry and blending juice, and later people reformed and added a process of "returning oil", in fact, there were two processes of frying. (1) In general, the cooking method of Jiangjin meat slices is relatively fixed, the flavor type is obvious lychee flavor, after two deep frying, the meat slices are more crisp than the Hechuan meat slices, and the sweet and sour taste of the lychee flavor is more obvious, but there are types of soaked sea peppers stewed into lychee flavors, and there are also dried peppers made into a paste spicy lychee flavor type. There are many kinds of folk Hechuan meat slices, mainly manifested in the fact that most restaurants now have no process of pouring and sneaking juice, there is no sweet and sour taste, and they have completely become flaky crispy meat. In the cooking process of Hechuan meat slices with juice, there are also two ways to pour and simmer, that is, one is to fry the sauce in the pot and pour the meat slices in the pan, and the other is to use the simmering method to put the sauce into the pot for a quick boiling in the pot. In terms of sauce, most of the Hechuan meat slices do not put sweet and sour to form a salty and fresh sauce, and a few put sweet and sour with the taste type of Jiangjin meat slices is exactly the same. In fact, according to the "Sichuan Recipe" and the author's previous experience, the sweet and sour taste of Hechuan meat slices is about half lower than that of Jiangjin meat slices, which is a low degree of lychee flavor.