Pancakes five thousand years ago: a brief history of pancake food.

Pancakes are delicious for northerners. Traditional pancakes are actually burritos. Thin round cakes are wrapped with different meats and vegetables and can be eaten directly with your hands. From traditional pancakes, there are also various pies, especially improved pancakes.

The raw material of ancient pancakes should be millet. Millet pancake is one of the common foods of ancient northerners. Pancakes have a long history, and a large number of archaeological evidences show that there has been a diversified development trend of pancake food in prehistoric China. Prehistoric humans not only had noodles, but also pancakes and scones. Yangshao people created pottery and other cooking utensils, and pancakes have a history of 5000 years.

Later, pancake pots were unearthed in various eras, and many pancake murals in different eras were discovered, revealing the real existence of pancakes in history. While eating pancakes, we can think about their origin, from near to far, and take a trip to the origin of pancakes to see what kind of historical flavor they have cooked.

Pancakes in the Qing Dynasty can be seen from Pu Songling's "Pancake Fu": "Turn over the lid and make a hundred later. When the moon is full, it is as big as copper, as thin as paper, and as colorful as yellow crane feather. " This is a vivid description. It's Shandong pancakes. Shandong pancakes, rolled with green onions and sometimes meat, have been used to this day. Fuping, Shaanxi, retained the tradition of pancakes to make up the world in the Qing Dynasty. On the twentieth day of the first month, every household puts cakes on it, which is called "mending heaven and earth". This is a prayer for good weather. In Shanxi Mayi in the Qing Dynasty, buckwheat pancakes were eaten as "old warehouses" on the 25th day of the first month.

Liu Ruoyu's Minutes of Proceedings in the Ming Dynasty said, "On the second day of February, the family used millet flour and jujube cakes, fried them, or called noodles, and spread them thinly into cakes, which were called smoked insects." He also said: "spread pancakes with noodles and smoke the bed and kang, so there will be no insects." This is a strange way to smoke insects, such as ants and bedbugs. 1967 found a "resignation contract" in Yang Lou Village, Zhen Dong, Tai 'an City, which recorded that "a plate of pancakes weighs 23 Jin". Pancakes should be divided into families, so pancakes that can be stored can also be regarded as a kind of property.

It is clearly recorded in the documents of Yuan Dynasty that buckwheat pancakes should be the gourmet style of Shanxi. Buckwheat is "peeled, ground into flour, spread into pancakes and eaten with garlic". Eating pancakes with garlic is very different from Shandong onions. In addition to ordinary pancakes, there were already stuffed pancakes in the Yuan Dynasty, such as Qibao pancakes and gold and silver pancakes recorded in Miscellanies of Ten Thousand Departments. Qibao cake is mutton pie, and gold and silver cake is egg cake. The latter is similar to pancake fruit that can be seen today.

Pancakes in Song Dynasty were used in some special festivals, such as People's Day, Sunday and Begging Skills Day. Pancakes have special uses. Some customs should be inherited from the previous dynasty, while others were initiated by Song people. In Song Dynasty, Zhang Jian recorded different festivals and customs, and mentioned "the first month, the family dinner on the first day of the New Year, the spring banquet in beginning of spring, and the daily pancakes". Eating pancakes during a solar eclipse is also a long tradition. See also Wang Zhennong's Book Gupu II, saying, "Someone picked up a dung broom the day before yesterday. If people don't leave, cover seven cakes and abandon the road to send them to the poor. " It is also special to throw some pancakes as a blessing to the poor. Pancakes can be found in Li Gou's poem The Complete Works of Rice, Oil and Salt: "A few years after Xian Di's death, Xia Dong let nature take its course. There are only idle women in the world, and a cake fills the sky. " How to make up pancakes will be discussed later. Pancakes are used for pleasing people, and they are also found in "Pleasure": "On Qixi Festival, Beijingers will also make pancakes for cows, women and grain." On Tanabata, Beijingers eat pancakes by themselves and offer sacrifices to the Cowherd and the Weaver Maid, fearing that they will be hungry when they meet.

Among the archaeological murals found in the Song Tomb in Gaocun, Dengfeng, Henan Province, we saw a miscellany of that year. There are three deacons on the screen, one is rolling noodles, the other is clanging cakes, and there is that.

Pancakes are widely spread in Tang literature, some of which can be found in the description of daily life, some in the description of seasonal customs, and some in some interesting legends. In the Tang Dynasty, northerners loved pancakes, and every household would cook them. Patching the sky quotes "treat people to pancakes at night" in Chronicle Miscellanies and "gather sons and nephews to hide their hooks and eat pancakes at night" in Cookies Pancake Map. Playing games at night and making pancakes with spaghetti is a very pleasant nightlife. In other words, pancakes are a common thing in daily life.

Scholars also like pancakes. Liu Li, Liao History, said: Duan Wei in the Tang Dynasty "liked pancakes in nature, which tasted like literature, and every pancake had rhyme". I made a pancake and wrote a poem. Pancakes also entered the palace meal. "Tai Ping Guang Ji" describes that Guanglu Temple prepared meals for 100 officials, saying, "Add pancakes on March 3." This is Shangsi Festival. Pancakes are delicious in this season. See "Hedong Ji" and say: "There was Tu Su wine in the Tang Dynasty, spiced plates and rubber-toothed jars in the Yuan Dynasty, pancakes in the People's Day, and silk cages in Shangyuan." It is also an ancient custom for people to eat pancakes.

In the Southern Song Dynasty, Chen's Cooking Cake quoted Li Bai's poem "A cake can fill the sky", which shows that there is a saying that "the sky wears the sun" in the Tang Dynasty. But there is a problem. Li Bai may not be suspicious after eating pancakes, but did he really write such a poem? Maybe he has eaten pancakes and written poems, but he hasn't seen them in Tang poetry. Is this sentence "a cake fills the sky" really his poem? As mentioned earlier, in Li Gou's poems in the Northern Song Dynasty, there is a saying that "a cake fills the sky". Did Chen plant a poem by mistake, or did Li Gou borrow a poem from Li Bai? A pancake can fill a hole in the sky. That's a good idea.

Pancakes generally entered the life of Tang people, which can be seen clearly from the pancake stories mentioned in relevant literature. Sun Xian's Tangren Dialect records a story: In Chang 'an of the Tang Dynasty, someone bought a low-lying land at a low price. He invited an old woman to make pancakes on the edge of the land and lured the children to throw bricks and tiles on the low-lying land. The winner of the paper bid got a pancake. The children threw bricks and pancakes, and soon the bricks filled the low-lying land. The man opened a shop and made a lot of money. Luring children to pick up bricks and fill depressions with pancakes was regarded as "wisdom" by the ancients.

The world loves to eat pancakes, which also leads to the desire of ghosts. Tang people love to talk nonsense, and pancakes also appear in many nonsense. How many are the Six Classics of Tang Dynasty?

Pancakes existed in the Jin Dynasty and were given special meaning. The chronicles of Sui people say: "Northerners go to court to eat pancakes, which is full of customs." This statement originally came from the description of "North Dream" by Zong Ba of Southern Liang Dynasty: "This eclipse, northerners are making pancakes in court, and the sky is covered by clouds, which is unknown." This is the seventh day of this month. I said it before, and then there was the saying that pancakes smoked insects. This custom has been circulating for thousands of years.

In the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the story of pancakes was added to the riddle. Emperor Gaozu of the Northern Qi Dynasty used "Zulu Agger" as a riddle, and some people guessed that it was pancakes. Zulu may be Turkic, which translates into Chinese as "greeting the soldiers before the fire", or Chinese is cut from the front to the back. He Bing just made pancakes before the fire.

A number of Wei and Jin tombs were discovered in Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, and a large number of painted brick paintings were unearthed. Many pictures show the cooking activities at that time, including images of two pancake stalls. One of the chefs raised the pancake with both hands, as if she thought it was well fried.

There is no clear pancake literature in Han Dynasty, but there are pancakes, among which there should be pancakes. For example, we know that Gaozu Liu Bang's hometown is Fengfeng, where there is a bakery. That place is close to the Shandong border now, so it is impossible for that bakery not to sell pancakes. accept

Dating back to the Han Dynasty, there is no clue to the existence of pancakes. However, more than 3,000 years later, in prehistoric times, unexpected discoveries were made. Some caves dating back 4000 years have been found in Qijia cultural site in Lajia village, Minhe, Qinghai. Some rooms have fireplaces in the corner of the slate, which should be used to make pancakes. At that time, the millet noodles were ready, and the millet pancakes might be ready.

Archaeology has proved that residents of Yangshao culture have created ceramic cigarettes from pancakes. The earliest pancake cigarettes were found 5000 years ago and made of clay. A special kind of pottery was found in two Yangshao cultural sites, Dianjuntai and Qingtai in Xingyang, Henan Province. Pottery is mixed with sand, with a circular plane on the top, three or four feet on the bottom and soot on the bottom. Excavators call this kind of utensils "dry food utensils" and think it is "the ancestor of the ironware that made pancakes". This inference is good. It is indeed a pottery pancake, but it should be a millet pancake.

In some northern areas, it is very popular to make, sell and eat pancake fruit. The standard frying pan for pancakes is called cigarettes. It has a flat surface, three legs, or different flat iron plates in Fiona Fang. Regular pancake pan, called pancake pan, is a sharp weapon for pancakes and pancakes. Said: "The surface of tobacco is round and flat, with three legs and two inches high." It can be seen that in ancient times, this is a kind of cooker specially used to make pancakes.

Where there is smoke, there are pancakes. The origin of pancakes and pancakes can be traced back to the making of pancakes. Archaeology has found some ancient cigarettes and clans. In addition to prehistoric ceramic cigarettes more than 5,000 years ago, there are iron cigarettes and copper cigarettes from Liao, Song, Jin, Xixia and Yuan dynasties.

Pancake is a kind of pasta, and it is also the most historic pasta. In the past, some scholars thought that the ancient dietary tradition in China was a granular food tradition, and the pasta tradition originated late and became more popular in the Han Dynasty. Some people think that pasta technology was introduced from abroad in the Han Dynasty, which is obviously too conservative. We found that there were pottery pancakes in the Neolithic Age, saying that the tradition of ancient pasta in China originated late.

Pancakes are also very cultured pasta, which can satisfy hunger, make up the sky and spend the holidays with us. They are very useful. Pancakes are constantly changing and improving, with new appearance and new taste. Is an indispensable role in our diet. Many ancient special foods have the function of nourishing the body and mind. They are assigned to different festivals, such as Lantern Festival, Zongzi on Dragon Boat Festival, moon cakes on Mid-Autumn Festival, jiaozi in winter and pancakes in summer. The feelings of literati have become the feelings of the whole people, and these foods have also become distinctive historical and cultural symbols. Pancakes are one of the biggest symbols. Don't forget to eat on the seventh day of the first month, and don't forget to mend the sky.