"Dumplings on the first day of the Lunar New Year, noodles on the second Lunar New Year" - According to the traditional custom in northern China, every New Year's Eve dinner is eaten every year, and every household starts making dumplings. When the clock strikes twelve o'clock at midnight and the New Year begins, the whole family will sit together and eat dumplings amidst the sound of firecrackers to welcome the New Year. Dumplings are regarded as a "newer food", which shows its important position in Chinese food culture. The custom of eating dumplings
Dumplings are made by kneading the dough into round strips, cutting it into small noodles, rolling it into a round thin dough, and then mixing the filling with minced meat, vegetables and seasonings. , place it on the dough, wrap it into a certain shape, and then put it into a pot of boiling water to cook. People often eat it with soy sauce, vinegar and garlic paste, which makes it delicious. The dumplings made on New Year's Eve and eaten on New Year's Eve are called "Gengsui dumplings", which embody people's yearning for a better life.
The shape of dumplings is not fixed: the most common ones are crescent-shaped dumplings, which are shaped like ingots and are used to "congratulate the New Year and wish for wealth"; persimmon or cotton peach-shaped dumplings are used by people to make money. The pronunciation and shape of the two foods are used to pray for "everything goes well". As for the shape of corn, wheat ears, sheep, chickens, etc., it means "abundance of grains" and "prosperity of the six animals". If there is less filling in the end and there is extra dough, roll the dough into a thick crust, stuff it with a little meat filling, and shape it into a wheel shape to symbolize "rolling forward and success every year."
What’s interesting is that when making dumplings, people usually quietly wrap one or two washed coins in them. Anyone who eats it will shout in surprise: "Money! I'm eating money!". Obtaining this lucky draw means that the owner will have good luck and prosperity in the new year.
Some people also wrap peanuts (also known as longevity fruits), red dates, and sugar cubes in dumplings to wish the elderly healthy and long life, hoping that the new year will be as prosperous and sweet as red dates and sugar cubes. .
It used to be popular to eat "broken dumplings" on the fifth day of the first lunar month. This was because poor farmers in the old society wanted to plug up all the debt holes from the previous year to avoid further famine and deficit. Of course, people today have forgotten this custom.
Dumplings also play an important role in folk wedding celebrations. Farm dumplings in northern Shaanxi are called "flat food". When the bride enters the house, pays homage to her parents-in-law, relatives and friends and enters the bridal chamber, her mother-in-law brings a bowl of "children's food" with a smile. When the bride is eating, her mother-in-law asks in a pun: "Are you giving birth?" At this time, the shy bride still says The customary answer was: "Girl!", so the mother-in-law beamed and hoped that her daughter-in-law would give her a fat baby.
On the third day of the wedding, the groom accompanies the bride back to her natal home, commonly known as "returning to the home". After arriving at her parents' house and recognizing her relatives, her sister-in-law brought a bowl of "returning dumplings" to her brother-in-law. The Huimen dumplings from Hebei farmers are called "Qi dumplings". When kneading this kind of dumpling, do not put any meat filling, but just blow on it to fill it. After cooking, the heat makes the dumplings swell and round. If the eater doesn't know the secret and takes a big bite, the heat will inevitably burn his mouth. This custom is called "playing with brother-in-law", which is designed to test the intelligence and honesty of brother-in-law, and to enhance the relationship between each other and the family through play. On the twelfth day after a daughter gives birth to a baby, her parents will come to visit her with dumplings as usual. This move is called "kneading the bone seam", which means that after the girl gave birth, her pelvis opened up, and she used the meaning of making dumplings to "pinch" the pelvis back to restore her toned body shape.
As the saying goes, "Dumplings are not as delicious as dumplings." Therefore, dumplings are commonly used among the people to "celebrate the harvest." When farmers harvest new wheat, they often make dumplings to celebrate. In the past, mountain people in Changbai Mountain in Jilin dug up precious ginseng. After returning to their shacks, they raised their heads and said, "Let's have a sweet meal today!" Then the ginseng pickers were in a hurry. Wrap the dumplings. The evolution of dumplings
Dumplings have gone through a long process of development. The earliest record of dumplings is "Zhengzi Tong" written by Zhang Zilie in the Ming Dynasty: "Today's popular dumpling bait is made of crumbs and noodles, wet and dry. Not the same."
Before the Ming Dynasty, dumplings were called "fenjiao", "jiaoer" and "jiaozi".
For example, in the book "Tokyo Menghua Lu" written by Meng Yuanlao of the Northern Song Dynasty, when describing the palace birthday banquet, he said: "Only the third banquet of the imperial banquet includes meat with wine, salted soybean, fried meat, "Double hump, dime."
Guangzhou people still call the fried dumplings (usually stuffed with peanut jelly and sugar) eaten during the Spring Festival "youjiaozi", perhaps following the old name from the Song Dynasty.
The fillings of dumplings in the Song Dynasty were very particular. There are precious camelback stuffings for royal banquets, and fresh crab meat stuffings are also available in the countryside. Lu You, the great poet of the Song Dynasty, described the dumplings stuffed with crab meat that he had eaten in his "Poetry of Drinking with Village Neighbors": "The crab meat dumplings are beautiful, and the fish is boiled with spinach and the fragrance is lingering." "Lao Wan" is an ancient nickname for dumplings. .
Liu Xi of the Han Dynasty recorded the production process in the "Stuffing and Grilling" section of "Shiming. Food": the meat stuffing mixed with various seasonings was rolled into balls, put on and grilled to eat. . Later, people used dough sheets as skin and wrapped the meatballs in it to make it unbreakable.
This is probably the origin of the name "Lao Wan".
Turpan, Xinjiang, was once a necessary place on the ancient "Silk Road". In 1959, archaeologists unearthed a bowl of crescent-shaped dumplings in a Tang Dynasty tomb in Astana on the outskirts of Turpan. Its shape was exactly the same as today's dumplings. In 1986, dumplings were unearthed again from a Tang tomb in Sanbao Township, Turpan. This shows that more than a thousand years ago, dumplings had entered ordinary people's homes and spread to the Western Regions through the Silk Road.
In the Tang Dynasty, two methods of cooking dumplings were used: "steaming" and "boiling." The "Longshanglao Wan" recorded in Duan Chengshi's "Youyang Zazu" is obviously "steamed dumplings". And "Long Xia Lao Wan", also known as "Tang Zhong Lao Wan", should be regarded as dumplings. Steamed dumplings are drier than boiled dumplings and taste firmer and chewier. The dumplings unearthed in Turpan are probably "Long Shang Lao Wan".
In fact, in the Jin Dynasty before the Tang Dynasty, Lao Wan was quite sophisticated. Shu Zhe, a native of Jin Dynasty, gave a vivid and detailed description of the production process of Lao Wan in his "Bake Fu": The flour for making Lao Wan must be sifted again and again to ensure that it is as fine and white as "dusty white snow". Use breast and pork rib meat as stuffing, which is both fat and lean, and has a delicious taste. Sprinkle condiments into the meat stuffing, add salt and black beans, and mix evenly. After forming into balls, place them in a cage and wait until the water in the pot boils. Put it in the pot immediately and steam it over high heat; when you lift it off the pot and serve it on the table, the skin is thin and the filling is tender, and the snow-white balls are full of fragrance.
From "Laowan" in the Jin and Tang Dynasties, to "jiaozi" in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, to "dumplings" in the Ming Dynasty, this is the history of the changes of the "dumplings" we enjoy today. , all have their own unique names, and each era is different from the previous one, but our favorite dumplings have been perfectly preserved and have become one of the most popular delicacies to this day, especially during the New Year Festival. On this occasion, how can every household’s dining table be without a plate of delicious dumplings?