Pig intestines have always been loved by Chinese people because of their fat and plump meat. The dietary archives of the Qing Palace contain the amount of materials used to hold the Chinese New Year's Eve banquet in the 49th year of Qianlong, including 2 pork bellies and 3 large and small pork intestines. In addition, according to Zhang Luxiang's "Book of Supplementing Agriculture", in the early Qing Dynasty, the food standard for hired workers in Tongxiang, Jiangnan was "meat and meat, eight people per catty;."Pig intestines, eat five people per catty". In Shandong cuisine, fat sausage is one of the main ingredients.
There are two well-known practices about pig intestines in Chaoshan area: one is braised pig intestines, and the other is boiled pickles with pig intestines, both of which are better to take the thick and fat part of the pig intestines. "Boiled pickles with pork intestines" is seasoned with Chaoshan's unique pickles and pickled salted plums, which is really unique.
Another traditional snack of Chaoshan, "pig intestine swelling glutinous rice", can be said to be a new way in the use of pig intestines. The first thing that is surprising is the use of pig casing, "swelling" has the meaning of "filling, filling" in Chaoshan dialect, and the main raw materials of snacks as the name suggests are pig intestines and glutinous rice. Generally, the middle of the pig's large intestine is made, which makes me wonder if it is because the pig's intestine is cut off first to cook, and the intestines left behind cannot be wasted, so it is positioned as an auxiliary material, and this snack was born.
Pig intestines should be repeatedly scrubbed with salt, soda ash or starch until there is no peculiar smell;Soak the glutinous rice first, mix well with pork, mushrooms, shrimp, lotus seeds and other accessories, and add salt, monosodium glutamate, pepper, etc.;Then fill the filling into the washed pork intestines and tie the ends tightly with yarn;Cook in a pot of boiling water for about 1 hour, remove and cut into small slices, dip in sweet sauce or orange oil. The beauty of this flavor snack lies in the application of pork intestines, which are not only sealed as packaging materials to prevent the filling from leaking out, but also add flavor to the pork intestines, which complement each other and generate new flavors.
Chaoshan's snack of "pig intestine swollen glutinous rice" should have originated in Shantou. Shantou was an early foreign trade port, and the application of pig casings may have been learned from abroad. Pig casing is a layer of transparent film after the processing of pig intestines, because of its composition of the criss-cross network, so the longitudinal tension, horizontal tension are strong, ancient China even used it as a bow and arrow string. Pig casings began to be used mainly by people to fill sausages, and Germany, France, England and Italy all believed that sausages were invented by them, and pig casings were also their first creation, and debated about it. Apparently they all love sausages and are proud of the sausages of their country.
However, according to the article "The History of Sausages" published by Hong Kong's "Oriental **" in 1985, the first sausages in the world were made by the Dalmans of ancient Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia is the ancient Greek name for the valley of the two rivers, the "two rivers" referring to the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. The ancient civilization that arose and developed on the Mesopotamian plain between the two rivers is called the Two Rivers Civilization or Mesopotamian Civilization, which is roughly located in present-day Iraq, and its existence is from 6000 BC to the 2nd century BC, which is the earliest civilization of mankind. About 5,000 years ago, the Dalmans minced meat and poured it into pig intestines, finding it delicious, and the practice continued and spread throughout Europe.
The practice of glutinous rice with pork intestines borrowed from the way sausages are made. Although the method is relatively simple, it is necessary to grasp three aspects: first, the water added to the filling must be just right, if it is too much, the glutinous rice in the pig intestine can not be formed;If it is too little, glutinous rice, peanuts, etc. are not easy to cook, and they will taste grainy. Second, the filling filled into the casing should not be too full, so as not to swell the cooked glutinous rice and peanuts and burst the casing. The third is to put the glutinous rice with the pork intestine into the pot and cook, and you must master the heat: if you cook it too well, the glutinous rice and peanuts will rot;Half-cooked rice, glutinous rice and peanuts will not penetrate the heart, which will affect its color and taste, and is not conducive to slicing and plating. Traditional Teochew cuisine has a dish of "dragon wearing tiger belly", which is also a pig casing, in which the eel meat is seasoned and poured into the casing, which is borrowed from the technique of filling sausages. This is a difficult artisanal dish that few restaurants know or are willing to make nowadays.
Pork intestine swollen glutinous rice should be sliced and dipped in seasoning to eat, it is best to eat it while it is hot, because the glutinous rice will be hard after cooling and not delicious. Of course, there are also slices that are fried and then eaten, which is also a good choice. As far as the filling is concerned, I prefer sausages with bacon added to them, which make the sausages richer in flavor. In Quzhou, Zhejiang, there is a snack called "Longyou Pig Intestine", which is also filled with glutinous rice flour or glutinous rice into the pig's intestine, then cooked in a large pot and pushed to the street with a small tricycle to sell. The method is similar to Chaoshan's pork intestine glutinous rice, but the ingredients are more monotonous.
The pork intestines are swollen and glutinous rice also has a cute appearance, and the appearance of the meat is lovely. Chaoshan proverb often uses "pig intestine swollen glutinous rice" to describe a person who is too tightly dressed and looks obese.