There are two theories about the origin of hot pot: one is that hot pot existed during the Warring States Period, and historians used clay pots as pots. Another theory is that hot pot began in the Han Dynasty, and "dou" refers to hot pot. The actual hotpot was unearthed from the cultural relics in the tomb of Haihunhou in the Western Han Dynasty. It can be seen that hot pot has a history of more than 2,000 years in China.
Lin Hong from the Song Dynasty mentioned eating hot pot in his "Shan Jia Qing Gong", which he called "Boxia Gong". He talked about how he found a rabbit in the snow while traveling to Wuyi Mountain and visiting his master's road, but there was no chef to cook it. "Master Yun, only thin batches are used in the mountains, enriched with wine, sauce, and pepper. Place a wind stove on the table, add half a spoon of water, wait for the soup to ring a cup, divide it with chopsticks, and put it into the soup until it is cooked. Just eat it with the juice and eat it as you like." From the way of eating, it is similar to the current "rabbit hotpot".
It was not until the Ming and Qing Dynasties that hot pot really flourished. On the tenth day of the first lunar month in the forty-eighth year of Qianlong’s reign in the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Qianlong hosted 530 tables of palace hot pot, which was the most grand event in China at that time. When Emperor Jiaqing of the Qing Dynasty came to the throne, he held a "Thousands of Old Banquets" with 1,550 hot pots. The scale was the pinnacle and astonishing.
Precautions for eating hot pot
Do not cook the meat for too short a time: Meat contains a large number of bacteria and parasite eggs, and if the meat is cooked for too short a time, these harmful substances cannot be killed . Under normal circumstances, thin slices of meat only need to be blanched for about 1 minute, and they can be eaten when the color of the meat changes from bright red to grayish white. For some thicker meat slices, you should rinse them for as long as possible to ensure they are cooked thoroughly before eating.
Pathogenic microorganisms and parasite eggs often remain in the fresh food served on the table. If you eat it immediately after rinsing it, there is a high possibility of harmful microorganisms invading the human body. Therefore, you must not eat undercooked food.