There are different types of meat that we are familiar with like pork, chicken, beef, lamb etc. Meat in China has a long history and there were even evolutions to meat consumption and production. Pork was a commonly consumed meat from 4000 to 3000 BC. Generally, the term “meat” refers to all edible animal tissues that are suitable for human food in China which ranges from livestock, poultry and aquatic species. Given the nomadic influence, the people in the North consumed more meat and dairy foods as compared to people in the South who consumed rice, fish and vegetables as their daily foods. However, in Wang’s reading he argued that during the Tang period, lamb had already replaced pork to become the more consumed meat in North China. The Tang government often rewards its officials with lamb meat but seldom with other animal flesh. Hot-fresh meat, chilled fresh meat and frozen meat are 3 main sectors of fresh meat marketing for consumption in China in modern times.
How meat is prepared is quite important to the Chinese people. Firstly, meat should be cut into small and exact pieces. During the Zhou period, a new culinary practice appeared: cutting and slicing meat into desirable portions and arranging them properly are for a better visual presentation and dining experience. Since the foods items are small in a stir-fried dish, chopsticks become an effective tool for picking them up. Confucius was known for being meticulous about whether or not meat was minced into the right size. People in the past cared a lot about producing a maximum surface-to-volume ratio. Hence, when food items were prepared in similar sizes and cooked together in a pot, chopsticks became the best tool for eating them, irrespective of whether they were meat, vegetable or something else. One example is Zhou Yafu, when he saw uncut meat in front of him, he turned around looking for chopsticks. It can be said that the Chinese began using chopsticks to handle all non-grain foods and convey food items in dishes – covering the period from the Han to the Tang dynasty (618-907). In Wang’s reading, it mentioned that the practice of cutting meat into small pieces could have arisen because of the scarcity of animal meat at that time. Other animal meats, such as lamb, pork and even dog, were mainly reserved for special occasions.
Secondly, roasting, grilling, and baking were once common, at least for meat, but now stir-frying is a more popular option. Usually, when we stir-fry a dish, we use the wok over high heat to enhance the wok hei smell. Stir-frying seems to have replaced roasting probably due to the rising price of meat as the population grew denser in ancient times. Stir-frying gained popularity in the post-Han period. Stir-frying basically requires that one heat the cooking oil in a pan or a wok before putting in the ingredients, which are already cut into small pieces for easy frying and better mixing. One important advantage is its energy efficiency – cooking food rapidly on the flame instead of heating it for a long time like roasting. And to me the most prime example in showing how meat is being appreciated is the Spicy Szechuan chicken. This dish that you all are eating today, so for the cooking method, I think they deep fried the chicken then stir fry. This probably makes the chicken more crispy and “tsui” in a sense.
- Spicy Szechuan chicken
The Spicy Szechuan chicken is a sweet and spicy dish from the Chinese province of Szechuan. It incorporates Szechuan peppercorn which gives a slightly citrusy flavour to the whole dish. It is best prepared using chicken breasts into cubes. This is the modern-day recipe for this dish and we can see 2 essential ingredients which are the Szechuan peppercorn and red chilis.
2. Szechuan peppercorn
There are 3 main parts in preparing this dish: Preparing the chicken, cooking the stir-fry vegetables and then mixing them together. The most important ingredient is Szechuan peppercorns/chilli peppers. As it has trademark mouth-numbing effect which helps the spiciness of the chilli peppers stand out more. The chilli oil is what gives the Szechuan chicken its spiciness. Alternatively, if you don’t have Szechuan peppercorn, you can use some jalapeno or habanero peppers. The peppercorns only kicks in after a few minutes in your mouth, and there is a bit of the ma taste to it. The best way of preparing this dish is deep-frying or stir-frying.
Overall the significance of meat in Chinese cuisine is quite huge and to a large extent. Given the nomadic influence, people in the North consumed more meat and dairy foods. Whereas people in the South took rice and vegetables as their daily foods. The phenomenon of increased meat consumption in Tang society can also explain the majority of metal utensils excavated from that period. Metal is more hard-wearing than wood and bamboo and that cooked meat remains tougher than fish and vegetables – the latter tend to dissolve after heat is applied. Eating meat and meat-based dishes often turns people to the knife and fork. But in Tang China, the most common utensils still remained bizhu (spoon and chopsticks). Following the culinary tradition of the Han and pre-Han periods, the Chinese continued to prepare meat in bite-size forms for conveying food. As a result, chopsticks remained the ideal tool for conveying food.
3. Making of Spicy Szechuan Chicken
References:
https://tasty.co/recipe/spicy-szechuan-chicken
https://www.ancienthistorylists.com/china-history/top-10-traditional-ancient-chinese-foods/
E. N. Anderson. Some Basic Cooking Strategies. Yale University Press, pg 182-193,1988.
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What is meat in China? Nanjing Agricultural University, pg 53-56, October 2017.
Wang Q. Edward. “Dish, Rice or Noodle? The changing use of chopsticks,” Cambridge University Press, pg 41-66, 2015.
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