According to China News Network, CNN published an article on ** on the 20th local time, introducing the "50 best breads in the world", and the delicacy from China - Shaobing, as one of the "breads" in their eyes, was also selected.
How can it be bread? As CNN begins this article, bread historian William Rubell argues that a strict definition of bread is unnecessary: "Basically, your culture says bread is what it is. It doesn't need to be made with any particular kind of flour. "And many of the 50 types of bread introduced by CNN are very different from what we traditionally call Western-style bread.
Compared with the loose definition of "bread", the definition of "baked cake" is much more rigorous. Mingren Wang Sanpin said in "The Examination of Ancient and Modern Things":
Cake: Miscellaneous notes: Whoever uses flour as a food utensil, it is called a cake, so those who eat by fire are called baked cakes, those who eat by water are called soup cakes, and those who eat by steaming are called steamed cakes.
Horseshoe baked cakes photographed on July 19, 2023 in Linli Town, Suixi County, Huaibei City, Anhui Province. (*From China News Service).
The history of Chinese cakes is very long, dating back to the Qin and Han dynasties at the latest. At that time, both wheat and stone grinding had been developed, but the production of pasta was still mainly steamed. There are many types of pasta, collectively known as cakes.
As for the baked cakes, it is as late as the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. At that time, the Central Plains had been in a situation of "five chaotic China" for a long time, and Hu Shi was introduced a lot, and "marrow cake" was also introduced. The so-called pith cake is to use pith fat, honey, and flour to roll the cake to four or five points thick, six or seven inches wide, and bake it in the bread oven, "the cake is fat and can last for a long time." From the point of view of the production method, the pith cake is made of bone marrow fat. Zhou Guangwu's "Compendium of the History of Chinese Cooking" also said that baked cakes were introduced to China from the Western Regions during the Han and Wei dynasties.
After entering the Tang Dynasty, Hu cake (generally believed to be Hu cake is baked cake) became an extremely common food. In the second year of Tianbao, the monk Jianzhen was preparing to travel east to preach the Dharma, and he prepared "two carts of dry cakes" in the ship food he prepared in Yangzhou. "Tang Yulin" records that in the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the wealthy family would use a pound of mutton to spread on the huge Hu cake in Yan Drink, add some condiments, roast it in the oven, and eat it when the meat is half-cooked, which is called "Gulouzi".
When Bai Juyi was serving as a assassin in Zhongzhou, he couriered his friend Yang Guihou, who served in Wanzhou, with a freshly baked Hu cake:
The flax cake is like Kyoto, and the noodles are crispy and fragrant.
Send it to Ambassador Yang who is hungry, and it seems to be a blessing?
He also didn't forget to tease his old friend: If you are hungry and greedy, try it, how does it taste compared to the capital?
During the Northern Song Dynasty, Wang Anshi was in the phase, and his daughter-in-law's relative Xiao Shizi came to visit, and Wang Anshi invited him to dinner. Xiao Shizi thought it must be a big meal, but he didn't want to, "fruits and vegetables are not available", after three rounds of wine, "the first offering of two Hu cakes, the second offering of pig belly number four, is to serve rice, next to the vegetable soup." Xiao Shizi is used to being extravagant, and only eats a small part of the middle of the Hu cake, which is more fragrant. The corners were thrown on the table, Wang Anshi looked at it, "take it from food", and Xiao Shizi went back in shame.
Wu Zimu's "Dream Lianglu" in the Southern Song Dynasty and "Rumenglu" in the Ming Dynasty all have the names of baked cakes and Hu cakes. Of course, there are also scholars who believe that baked cakes and hu cakes are different foods, but both are made of noodles and need to be baked in the oven, and there is not much difference. In later generations, the two gradually merged, and the name of Hu Cake gradually disappeared, and the name of Baked Cake has been passed down to this day.
Baked cakes were not only popular in the market, but also entered the imperial court. During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the rice pasta recorded in the "Thing Beads" includes: sesame baked cakes, milk skin baked cakes, plum blossom baked cakes, etc., today, this kind of noodles are popular in the north and south of the river. Jiangsu Huangqiao baked cake has red bean paste filling, crab roe filling, sugar and oil filling, crispy on the outside and crispy on the inside. Shandong Zhoucun big crispy baked cake, which is as thin as paper, crispy and delicious. The scallion oil baked cake in Shanghai and Hangzhou is also known as "crab shell yellow". (ENDS).
Written by Zang Lei.
*: Yangtze Evening News.