What was Sichuan Food before the chili pepper?

1위@ChineseCookingDemystified2 days ago (edited)

Hey guys, a few notes: 1. For a video on Sichuan food before the chili pepper, admittedly we didn’t spend much time on the scattering of stuff that is available before Huguang Fills Sichuan. I go into a bit more detail in the accompanying Substack post for those that are interested https://chinesecookingdemystified.substack.com/p/what-was-sichuan-food-before-the 2. Still, I do really strongly believe that the Ming-Qing transition was a fundamental rupture, and that the handful of things that we do have access to are mostly a curiosity. We will not be able to divine some lost origin story of Kung Pao chicken by combing through Song Dynasty texts. It also really needs to be emphasized that the sources are really quite thin 3. That said, probably one of the coolest things that we’ve got access to is a poem by Su Shi, where he wistfully reminisces about the vetch greens of his youth. The full thing is in the Substack, but he specifically describes them at being steamed, blanched, then seasoned with wine, salt, douchi, orange peel, ginger, and scallion. Similarly, the poet that talks about the Chengdu steamed chicken also describes a dish of “pork bones seasoned with vinegar, fermented sauce, orange, and kiu tau”. The commonality of the orange is kind of interesting? But that’s pretty much all we’ve got 4. There’s also probably my favorite source from Tang Dynasty, where this dude called Duan Chengshi that dropped these long lists of ingredients, dishes, and culinary techniques… and basically refused to elaborate any further. And in volume 7 next to ingredients like “Orangutang Lips”, dishes like “Yellow Dragon House”, and techniques like “The Flying Noodles (or Flour) Method”, he’s got “Sichuan Pounded Barbecue”. Wild stab in the dark that this could have been pounded meat wrapped in leaf and grilled, ala Yunnan Dai Baoshao or Thai Mok dishes? 5. I should probably say that the split between "Old Sichuanese" and "New Sichuanese", while pretty widespread, isn't a universal view. There are some scholars that see it as more of a continuum. You see this debate most often in historical linguistics, but I think for our sake it's fair to say that at the very least there's an evidentiary wall that we hit around the Ming-Qing transition 6. When I was cutting this, spending hours staring at the historical recipes... I think in hindsight I would definitely approach the chicken in a different way. I think what he's saying is to fry the chicken, add a splash of water to help cook everything, then begin to fry the seasoning one the water evaporated away. If I was redoing this today, I think I would approach it almost akin to something like a Cantonese fry-roast chicken: (1) fry the chicken until browned (2) sprinkle over the scallion whites, quick fry until fragrant (3) add 2-3 tbsp water and/or stock, cover with something breathable (3) once the water evaporates away, follow through like I did with the recipe at around 23:32. I'd still mix the sauce with hot boiled water - I think a consistency like 23:42 feels about right! 7. Depending on the thumbnail you're seeing (we do the auto A/B testing that YouTube provides like most YouTubers), you might be seeing something like "the chili came in 1591". I should be completely clear that 1591 is the first RECORD of the chili pepper in China - actually from the same book we got the mustard recipe - so presumably it was already around for a hot second before that. Just the peril of trying to craft punchy thumbnails that can appeal to the internet's collective id 8. For those that are new here, the drawings (obviously) aren't AI generated! From 11:25 onward, these are all Steph originals (sometimes we have hand-drawn 'notecards' in our videos, sometimes she does it on an iPad). The other drawings before that were from a comic called 明末大西朝兴衰. Source is here: https://www.163.com/dy/article/ETFJEKU70517DRGN.html , here: https://kknews.cc/zh-sg/history/k46b5nb.html and here: https://www.360kuai.com/pc/9f460ce9f383f099f?cota=3&kuai_so=1&sign=360_7bc3b157 Full disclosure that they were upscaled for the video (535x311 is a little rough in a 4k video) because unfortunately we weren't able to find the original comic on Taobao That's all I got for now. Apologies that this guy took so long (was a lot of research), proper recipe video will be out in ~2 weeks :)번역 보기

2위@alechachman95991 day ago

Its crazy how much food change worldwide with the Colombian Exchange, like imagine Europe without Potatoes, Italy without Tomatoes, and yes China without Chilis번역 보기

3위@TumblinWeeds15 hours ago

Every old cookbook just reads like “it’s not that deep bro 😂 just cook chicken and idk sauce or spices and add whatever you have 👍”번역 보기