Chapter 952 The Origin of Hot Pot (Those Who Like to Learn Can Read It, Those Who Like the Plot Can Skip It)

Hao Jingshi didn't expect to see this scene when she returned home. The two of them were in the yard.

And even two buttons of the clothes were unbuttoned. Aren't you afraid of the cold? But at this time, she could only pretend not to see it, and said after a light cough.

"Ahem. Thinking of you coming back today, I specially asked my connections to buy some charcoal and mutton and sent them back. You guys chat, I'll put the things in the kitchen first."

"Charcoal? Mutton? Mom, are we going to have hot pot in the evening?"

"Yes, hot pot. Now we have our own door and yard. We can eat whatever we want. In the future, we don't have to live like we did when we lived in the alley. We live cautiously all day long, dare not eat anything, dare not speak loudly."

Hao Jingshi is back, and of course they can't continue their actions just now.

Hao Hongmin stepped forward to take the things in her mother's hand, and even winked at Han Li and went into the house first.

Hao Jingshi put down the things and left without staying for a long time, while Han Li and Hao Hongmin went to the street to buy some other ingredients for hot pot.

On the way to buy things, Han Li had never eaten the so-called hot pot in Shanghai in his past and present lives, but he knew that it should be a kind of hot pot. He thought of the whole piece of mutton with skin that Hao Jing brought back and asked.

"It seems that we haven't processed the mutton that Auntie brought back just now. If we don't roll it up and tie it to shape it, the slices cut out later will be too thick. Can it still be called shabu-shabu?"

"Shabu-shabu mutton? Is it the pot that your family often set up when we were in Shanghe Village?"

"Yes, isn't the hot pot in Shanghai also hot pot?"

"The way of eating is different"

Next, Han Li understood what the so-called hot pot in Shanghai was after Hao Hongmin's explanation.

The winter in Shanghai is also a very difficult day. Although the temperature here may not be particularly low, the damp and cold feeling is particularly uncomfortable and difficult to endure.

The winter solstice is the day with the shortest day and the longest night. After that, the day gets longer and the night gets shorter, and the weather gets colder.

The winter nines are counted from the winter solstice, so the areas of Jiangnan and Shanghai have also made up "Nine Days Songs" (Nine Days in a Row, Nine Days in a Row) based on the conditions of their hometowns, which are different from those in other places.

The first nine days, twenty-nine, no one touches their hands when they call each other (when greeting someone, their hands are still in their sleeves).

The third nine days, twenty-seven, the flute is played on the fence (the cold wind blows on the fence and makes a whirring sound).

The fourth nine days, thirty-six, sleeping at night is like sleeping outdoors.

The fifth nine days, forty-five, poor people dance on the streets (poor people have no measures to keep warm, so they can only exercise to keep warm).

The sixth nine days, fifty-four, flies hide in the cracks of the house (when the weather warms up, flies can be seen hiding in the cracks of the house).

The seventh nine days, sixty-three, the cloth is spread on both sides.

The eighth nine days, seventy-two, cats and dogs lie down (pronounced as ying in Wu dialect, which means "cool", such as Shanghai people say "the weather is cool" as "the weather is cool").

On the 81st day of the 99th month, the plows and harrows are out (the earth is coming back to life, and farmers are preparing for spring ploughing).

In order to survive the coldest days of the year, people in the Shanghai area have to prepare for freezing and keeping warm early.

Therefore, there is a folk saying that "on the 81st day of the 99th month, every family makes charcoal briquettes".

Charcoal briquettes: This is a kind of "coal briquettes" made by grinding charcoal into powder and adding an appropriate amount of clay.

The burning temperature of this kind of coal briquettes is not high, but it can prolong the burning time of charcoal. After being ignited, it is placed in a copper hand warmer or foot warmer for heating. It will not produce charcoal ash and dust. It is a relatively clean heating fuel, so it is deeply loved by local people who are rich and have conditions.

Of course, the gap between the rich and the poor exists at all times. At that time, "charcoal briquettes" were used in cities, and most rural areas used the embers after cooking in the stove for heating.

Later, this kind of "charcoal briquettes" were still available in special stores in Shanghai, but only a few families had copper hand and foot warmers, and most families or units replaced them with "charcoal cylinders."

Later, coal briquettes, hot water bottles, hot water bags, infusion bottles, wearing more clothes and other ways of heating became available.

Winter Solstice: This solar term is very important in Shanghai, and there is even a saying that the Winter Solstice is as important as the New Year.

The day before the Winter Solstice is called "Xiaozhi" by many people. On this day, every household pounded rice and made glutinous rice balls to prepare for the next day's Winter Solstice. Many people believe that the New Year is after the Winter Solstice, so they have to worship their ancestors on this day.

Qin Guang described this festival in (Shanghai County Bamboo Branch Poems).

Winter Solstice flower cakes are more powdery and round, and winter wine is eaten every year.

After paying respects to relatives and friends in formal attire, meat pieces are piled on plates for night worship.

On this day, family members will gather together to eat glutinous rice balls, congratulate each other, and worship their ancestors.

After the sacrifice, the tributes were a blessing for the living, and everyone believed that eating the meat offered to the ancestors could strengthen their physical fitness and help them resist the severe cold and survive the winter.

At first, the meat offered to the ancestors was eaten directly, but because it was too cold, many people not only did not get the protection of the ancestors after eating it, but also had stomach upset and could not rest.

If there is a problem, it must be solved, so people in the south and Shanghai invented an object called "warm pot", which directly solved the problem of stomach upset caused by eating cold meat.

This is also the first form of hot pot in the Jiangnan and Shanghai areas. At that time, someone wrote a poem specifically for the "warm pot".

The red lead nine-turn device was first completed, and 100,000 coins were lost to select the best food.

The soup was boiling by the kitchen with candles, and the maids were holding the meat by the screen.

Adding fire to the stove will dissipate the coldness, and the flavor will enter the Dantian to generate warm air.

There are still guests living in Xiao Temple, and the flavor of salt and pepper can withstand loneliness.

"Warm pot" is a good thing, but in addition to its complicated production process, it also uses "wax" as fuel, and its main function is to keep warm, not to cook food.

This led to the fact that "warm pot" could not be accepted by ordinary people, so it was not too popular.

Until later, the copper hot pot in the four-nine city spread to the Jiangnan and Shanghai areas, and was called "hot pot" by everyone because of its shape and function. This was also the most important step in the emergence of hot pot.

The experience of "hot pot" is similar to that of the original "warm pot". In that era when copper was a trading currency, small officials and clerks could not afford such a super luxury as copper pot, let alone ordinary people.

But after those small officials and clerks followed their superiors to eat hot pot once in the cold winter, they liked the warmth of cooking meat around the pot in winter, as well as this way of keeping warm and eating.

Driven by these people, the combination of a small red clay stove and a clay pot (clay basin) appeared. Because it was common and practical, it quickly became popular among the people.

Zhu * Bing's poem "Sea Bamboo Branch Poems" published by the former pseudo-dynasty described it.

In winter, a small red clay stove, the clear soup and spinach taste really rich.

Raw fish, raw duck, and raw chicken slices can be used as a cold-dispelling nine-nine picture.

As for why it is called Dabianlu, this is due to accents and customs.

At that time, people used the most small clay basins. At that time, the local small clay basins were called "yne" (homonymous with "bian"), and "da" meant "shabu", so there was the term "dabianlu ".

As for why it is mutton, this is because the wisdom of the ancestors is the same. The Shanghai side and the four-nine city side also believe that in winter, you should eat more mutton, and only by eating more mutton will you not be afraid of the cold.

In the Jiangnan and Shanghai areas, the weather is not suitable for freezing mutton most of the time. If the meat cannot be frozen, it cannot be sliced ​​well. In this case, it can only be stewed, not shabu-shabu. This also completely distinguishes shabu-shabu from hot pot.

Another point is that in the Jiangnan and Shanghai areas, because of the custom passed down from the ancestor worship, they prefer to eat meat with skin, and they also eat it before the pig and after the sheep.

The most prosperous period of hot pot was also the "Ten Miles of Foreign Lands" period.

At that time, ordinary workers in Shanghai earned about five yuan a month. This kind of consumption that can both keep warm and look particularly foreign was okay to consume once in a while, but they could not afford it more often.

However, they did not have the final say on working hours. At that time, many people got off work late at night or missed dinner time. At this time, they were cold and hungry in the dark night. The aroma of the soup base made from bones in the hot pot shop on the street was a great temptation for them.

But what if you can't afford it alone? Then we "shared the cost" with our coworkers, that is, we each contributed some money to eat a hot pot meal with less meat and more vegetables.

"Shared cost" is a term used in the north, and in Shanghai, this situation is called "kang jiao".

If two or three people are together, it is called "kang", and if there are more people, it is called "jiao".

(Now, even in Shanghai, there are probably not many big guys who know the meaning of the two words "kang jiao".)

At that time, mutton and beef were very expensive, and many people could not afford them, so they began to look for other ingredients instead.

In addition, there were many people from Guangdong Province in Shanghai at that time, so all kinds of seafood, river fish, bacon, mushrooms, dried goods, pork skin, winter bamboo shoots and many other ingredients were put into the pot, which made the hot pot more diverse.

When Hao Hongmin was a child, he could often eat hot pot, but later, due to the shortage of supplies and consumption with coupons, it began to gradually decrease, but with the help of his family's wealth, he could still have a meal from time to time by buying from the black market.

But later, because of Hao Jianghe's sneaking away, from that time on, hotpot almost became a simple word in her mind.

But no matter what, the tradition of eating hotpot on the winter solstice has been preserved in Shanghai.

Even when supplies were tight in the past few years, Shanghai people could not buy mutton every winter solstice. People bought bones and pork skin to make soup base, added various vegetables, dried goods, and not-so-valuable seafood and river fish to stew, and they could also make a pot of delicious food to spend this important festival.

When Han Li heard this, he felt that from this point alone, Shanghai was worthy of being an eighth-class area.

In those years, Sijiu City started to set up pots after the winter solstice, and most families could only blanch cabbage and some dried goods.

The most common seafood is kelp, hairtail, and small shrimp. There are river fish, but the price is not cheap, and basically no one in Sijiu City uses these things to set up pots.

The two of them came to the nearby vegetable market while talking. Han Li had never visited such a place when he was in Sijiu City, so he didn't know what the situation was like back home.

However, the vegetable market in Shanghai was almost as crowded as the others, but 95% of the people who came here to buy vegetables were women. Each of the aunts and grandmas was holding a bamboo basket in their hands.

The tall and good-looking Han Li was like an alien among these people, and he was a little embarrassed by the crowd.

Although there were many people, there were more kinds of fresh vegetables here than in Sijiu City in this season.

According to Hao Hongmin, all the vegetable markets in Shanghai would still have vegetable pots before noon, but by the afternoon, the vegetable pots were basically sold out.

(Vegetable basin: a semi-finished product provided by the market after the required meat and vegetable dishes are matched according to the eating habits of the citizens and the names of the dishes. All of them are pre-selected and cut. After buying them home, they can be directly put into the pot after rinsing.)

The two of them did not spend much time shopping for vegetables, but the queue time was very long.

Han Li and Hao Hongmin squeezed here for a long time before coming out, so the next step was the celebration banquet in the evening.