[Week 4] Wheat 小麦 & Mantou 馒头

This week’s topic is Agriculture and Staples, as a food item that I am familiar with, I would like to dwell into the mantou to discuss its historical significance and link it back to the larger sub-theme, wheat.

There is a legend which dates the mantou back to the Three Kingdoms Period(220 AD – 280 AD). The Mantou was said to be created by Military Strategist Zhuge Liang 诸葛亮 (181-234 CE) for a campaign against the Nanman 南蛮, also known as the Southern Barbarians. His army had to cross a particular ‘Lu River’, which had strong currents, making it difficult to cross. He was informed by the locals that the only way to cross this river is to make offerings of human head sacrifices. Feeling unable to take the lives of innocent human beings, Zhuge Liang ordered for meat to be stuffed into flour dough and shaped into a human head to be steamed, the resulting product is then thrown into the river as the offering instead. [1] The word 蛮头 is a play on the actual word 馒头, referring to the heads of the southern barbarians.

 

So does mantou refer to a bun with filling or not? Across different Chinese forums and certain sources, over time, mantou is used to refer to buns with no filling and baozi became the term for the ones with filling. However, these terms are still being used interchangeably in China today.

The mantou recipe is in fact, very simple and easy to follow. It involves only 3 main ingredients, wheat flour, water and yeast, as what most ‘traditional’ recipes claim. Preparation methods include making the dough from flour and water, then adding yeast to let it ferment, before being portioned and steamed. The mantou to should out in a relatively rectangular shape, glossy white surface and soft to the touch.

Mantous today has evolved into many variations, such as the example that I brought into class, plain mantou made with different other ingredients to increase its visual appeal and nutritional value.  The ones I bought for the presentation comes from this ‘artisan’ bread shop called Just Dough in Suntec City, they are an example of a contemporary adaptation of traditional food.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little sidetrack, in the regions around China, there are similar food items with similar naming patterns. [2]

• • Mantu – Afghanistan / Iran
  • Mandu – Korea
  • Manju – Japanese
  • Manti – Central Asia
  • Momo – Tibet

Going back to the question of why did I choose what? There are three main reasons for this;

1. The grain is one of the Five Sacred Grains, known as wu gu五谷 in Chinese historical text. 
2. When wheat is milled into flour, it’s versatility increases several folds, forming the Foundation of much Chinese pastry cuisine, known as bing 饼.
3. One of the most eaten staples in the world, ranking 3rd behind corn and rice, with 600 million metric tons consumed by humans last year alone. [3 & 4]

Physical evidence of wheat was found its several sites. Firstly, In Sichuan province, an archaeological site called Ashaonao was discovered, early human settlements dating back to 1400BCE, wheat was found and upon genetic testing, it was identified as the species Triticum Aestivum, the same species as the ones we eat today. [5] Secondly, in a tomb located in Xinjiang, called XiaoHe cemetery, a near perfectly mummified body of a female was found, carbon dating traces her back to between 1800BC – 1500BC, that’s old! Guess what, wheat grains were found to be buried with her. [6]

Methods of farming have changed as well, mainly credited with the onset of human progress and technological advancement. In the past, a lot of manual labour was involved, the soil had to be loosened and levelled, only then would the seeds be planted. When the wheat had grown and is ready to be harvested, the farmers would then start this process by hand, it is a harsh gruelling process. [7]

However, in the modern era, we have machinery such as the harvester which is able to do 2-3 tasks independently. Genetic research also helps increase the survivability of crops against natural hazards such as pest and climate. However, this is only possible with capital. In relatively rural/untouched lands, people still use manual labour to grow wheat.

 

 

 

 

 

The next process is milling, converting the reaped wheat grains into flour. Wheat was initially cooked and eaten without much complexity such as just boiling it in water, however, technology moved toward smashing then grinding the grains. A round stone mill was invented in the Qin / Han dynasty, it consisted of 2 stone wheels, the bottom piece was stationery, the top wheel had a hole in the centre for the user to input the grains. The wheel is then concurrently spun, the grains fall into the gaps between the 2 wheels and is crushed and ground into powder. [8]

Lastly, I would like to share about the fermentation process in ancient china. The fermentation mixture was known as ‘Qu’, Qu was mentioned several times in ancient text such as the Liji and ZhouLi. This Qu was not a pure yeast mixture, it contained other microbiota such as bacteria and mould. One source share how yeast used for fermenting is grown on wheat which had been left to mold in warm and wet conditions. [9]

 

References

1. Knechtges, David R. “A Literary Feast: Food in Early Chinese Literature.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 106, no. 1 (1986): 60. https://doi.org/10.2307/602363.
2. Gordon, Stewart. When AsiaWhen Asia Was the World: Traveling Merchants, Scholars, Warriors, and Monks Who Created the “”Riches of the “”East”” (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2007)
3. Pariona, Ameber. “What Are the World’s Most Important Staple Foods?” WorldAtlas. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/most-important-staple-foods-in-the-world.html (accessed July 31, 2019).
4. https://www.uswheat.org/wheatletter/human-wheat-consumption-sets-new-record/ (accessed September 1, 2019)
5. Guedes, Jade A. D’Alpoim, Hongliang Lu, Anke M. Hein, and Amanda H. Schmid. “Early Evidence for the Use of Wheat and Barley as Staple Crops on the Margins of the Tibetan Plateau.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 112, no. 18 (2015): 5625-630. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26462636
6. ANDERSON, E. N. “China’s Early Agriculture.” In Food and Environment in Early and Medieval China, 35-54. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt83jhpt.7.
7. Smil, Vaclav. “Traditional Farming.” In Energy and Civilization: A History, 49-126. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: MIT Press, 2017. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1pwt6jj.6.
8. Wang Renxiang 王仁湘 (2015) ‘xiaomai heshi kaishi zuocheng mantou he bing’ 小麦何时开始做成馒头和饼 (When was wheat used to make mantou and pastry), 中国文化报, 7.
9. Deng, Yinke, and Pingxing Wang. Ancient Chinese Inventions. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011)

Additional References

• Jina (2006) ‘Mantou de lishi’ 馒头的历史 (The History of the Mantou), 中国国学网. http://www.confucianism.com.cn/html/A00030020/276251.html
  (accessed on July 31, 2019)
• Eileen Guo, The Origins of the Barbarian Head. https://www.eileenguo.com/mantou
  (accessed July 30, 2019)

Pictures