When Xiang Yu was defeated (Pizhou, Xuzhou), Liu Bangpa Han Xin commanded 300,000 soldiers to pursue him. At this time, there were only 800 cavalry left in Xiang Yu, fighting all night, and the officers and men didn't eat a meal for several days. Han Xin saw that Xiang Yu's failure was a foregone conclusion, but Xiang Yu enjoyed a high reputation among Xuzhou people. Han Xin used Xiang Yu's failure to discredit him. So I had a plan to find a smart woman to make a cake. At that time, the cakes were so big and thick that they could not be made for a while. Xiang Yu's officers and men will soon pass. How can you make time for making such a thick cake? Han Xin said to the clever woman, "You should touch the noodles quickly, make them thin and cooked, and the sooner the better." A clever woman used her quick wits to roll it up with a round stick, roll it thin, put it on a hammer, and it was cooked. Han Xin was very excited at first sight and asked him to do more and do well, but he didn't make two big baskets at a time. So he ordered an old man to take the road that Xiang Yu had to take and sell it, and said, "If you don't see Xiang Yu, I'll kill your head when you come back." The old man had no choice but to wait at the designated place in despair.
At first, a cavalry arrived and asked the old man, "When the soldiers were in turmoil and the people fled, your old man was not afraid of death. What are you selling? " The old man said, "I sell delicious food." As soon as the soldiers heard that it was delicious, they wanted to eat it, but they had no money and were in a hurry. They said to the old man, "Our soldiers and horses in Wang Xiang have never eaten folk food. In addition to taking money from military supplies, even Wang Xiang does not make money. " Say that finish, cavalry and went away.
Then a group of cavalry came, led by a big man riding a horse. Thinking it was Xiang Yu, the old man stopped him and said, "Your Majesty! I think your army has no money and won't eat my food, which shows that the king commands his soldiers well; But it's hard enough for you to struggle for so many days in a row. Even if you have no money, please eat my meal and fill your stomach so that you can fight again. I will never ask for money. " Xiang Yu said, "I am penniless now. Although I am hungry, I will never eat the things of ordinary people for nothing. " The old man was deeply moved. He thinks it is true that people say that Xiang Yu was born in a loyal and honest place and that his troops are also honest. So he honestly said to Xiang Yu, "Your Majesty! I'm from Han Xin. When I came, Han Xin said to me:' If Xiang Yu eats your food, he has no money to give you, and later generations will say that he is unjust; If you kill an old man, later generations will say that he has no heart. "You don't eat my food now, don't kill me. When I get back, Han Xin will say that I have never seen the King, and will kill me. What should I do? I implore the king to save my life. " Xiang Yu said, "In that case, I have to run. Do it! " Xiang Yu took out four of his thirteen whips and gave them to the old man. He said, "When you meet Han Xin, take my four whips and he will know that you met me. Because Han Xin used to help me with halberds and whips. " After that, Xiang Yu led the team south.
The old man looked at Xiang Yu with tears in his eyes and gradually disappeared. The old man heard that Han Xin had chased Xiang Yu, so he never went to see Han Xin again. When he got home, he tried steamed bread for his neighbor. Ask the old people at home what is the name of this paper-thin round cake? How? The old man told everyone what Han Xin said to Qiaofu at that time, "Just touch it". From then on, this homonym is called "Xiaolongbao". People are scrambling to learn how to make steamed buns, which have become a specialty of Xuzhou. Until today, a little girl in Xuzhou can make steamed buns at a few years old, and eating steamed buns has become a hobby of Xuzhou people. A joke goes like this: "From Beijing to Nanjing, there is a Xuzhou city in the middle. Xuzhou people love to eat' baked buns', so they bite hard and don't hurt their roots too much. " This means that steamed stuffed bun is really unique to Xuzhou, and it tastes flexible and muscular. Outsiders look at this chewing action, which is really a bit "sighing at the steamed bread"!
As the name implies, steamed bread is branded on tobacco. Most tobacco is cast iron. In recent years, there are also wrought iron and aluminum alloy, and the usage is roughly the same. Hazelnut is not big, about one foot and two inches in diameter, and steamed stuffed bun is about one foot in diameter.
The so-called "flipping" requires two technical hurdles to make steamed buns. One is "rolling" and the other is "turning".
The "roll" should be thin, even and round. Steamed bread is mostly made of white flour and rarely mixed with flour. First adjust the water to moderate hardness, and it is best to let the noodles "wake up" for more than half an hour. Dough is hard and difficult to roll; If it is too soft, it will deform, so the first step is to mend the dough. Divide the blended dough into individual dough, and then roll it out with a special rolling pin. A good hand at rolling steamed bread can roll sixteen pieces per catty, and it is also big, round, even and thin.
According to legend, Gan Long passed by Xuzhou when he went down to the south of the Yangtze River, and once gave a wonderful performance of making steamed buns for rural women in Xuzhou during a private visit in incognito. I saw a woman spreading a cake as thin as a cicada's wing and as big as a silver plate on the noodle table. With a wave of her hand on the shaft, the cake flew to the hot pot in the East Room and to the hot pot in the Westinghouse ... Gan Long saw that he was really a master of steamed bread. This woman can roll on two pans by herself. No wonder she did it. Some people say that "there are handsome birds in the mountains and strange people among the people", which is true in Xuzhou area.
Xuzhou used to cook steamed buns by itself. Usually, the wife rolls them up, the husband turns them over, and some sisters-in-law and aunts make them in partnership. The smell of steamed stuffed bun wafted in the laughter, which was a bit like the scene of wrapping jiaozi together during the holidays. But now the community is full of manual workshops and street stalls, but there are none in the newly built community. I can only find a place with steamed buns by myself.
Xuzhou steamed buns are really memorable for their unique and flexible taste and exquisite production.
The development and types of steamed buns were originally thick cakes, which were slightly related to "Zhuang steamed buns". Originally, it was a big and thick cake, but because it was in a hurry, it formed a thin layer of skin and eventually became unique.
Starting from Pengcheng, Xuzhou, because of the convenient transportation in Pengcheng, a regional central city in northern Jiangsu, steamed stuffed buns are widely circulated in the local area. Because unpretentious can only be used as a side dish or daily consumption, but because it has no scientific and technological content, it is not so "rare" and has not formed a popular factor. Later, steamed bread developed into water steamed bread and vegetable zygote. Vegetable zygote is made by putting two pieces of steamed bread in an oil pan, spreading fresh vegetables such as leeks in the middle of the steamed bread, and adding various seasonings such as eggs, salt and oil. , and then cooked by hand before eating. Don't eat anything else with it. The classic is the zygote of leek. Black iron seeds (which must be iron protrusions) with a diameter of more than one foot are burned with wood (which must be wood with high fire temperature, so the cooked food tastes mellow, the flame is stable, and the temperature is easy to control), and the dough with uniform size is "stroked" into dough skin (shaped like a round "wonton skin" of 20-30cm) with a rolling pin of jujube core. Soft and chewy, ordinary food is sealed in plastic bags, because it is easy to be stored for a long time after drying, and it can be stored for half a month at the longest (of course, it is basically eaten that night, and a family of three usually takes one or two kilograms of steamed bread for a meal, and some tourists from other places take it away as a specialty, which is cheap, distinctive and easy to store, but attention should be paid to sealing, because steamed buns have a little moisture and are not delicious after air drying).
Its characteristics are soft when warm, dry and hard when cold, soft and strong, thin and tough, not easy to break, can be eaten with various dry and wet ingredients, soaked in water, transparent and low light transmittance.
The bold words such as hammer, branding and firewood are the elements of steamed stuffed bun aroma. Pure steamed bread is steamed bread.
Noun explanation: "Xunzi" is a tool that grinds a thin stone into a turtle's back and then grinds it into a smooth one. Later, it was changed to pig iron casting and evolved into today's "hazelnut". It is a unique cooker in the Central Plains. After the original orthodox steamed buns, the practice of steamed buns is similar, only steamed in a pot, and can be eaten with Beijing roast duck and shredded pork in Beijing sauce.
Its characteristics are that the dough is directly steamed with water, soft and tender, high in water content, thin in quality and high in light transmittance. Suitable for all ages, losing the original flavor of flour baking, easy to chew, easy to break and low in elasticity.
Boiled steamed bread is steamed bread. There is no anti-"turning" action and it has lost its true colors. But because of its beauty, it boarded banquets such as Beijing roast duck. Bake in an oil-free pan.
It is characterized by being the driest, the most tough, slightly poor in taste, too chewy and easy to store. Can be used as vegetable zygote, vegetable cake, etc.
In fact, the steamed buns cooked in a flat pan are cooked in a flat pan, and uneven heating is prone to paste spots.
There are also vegetable boxes cooked in pots, but they are cooked with soybean oil or rapeseed oil and eaten in different ways.