Most emperors in the Song Dynasty liked to eat mutton. It is said that this kind of mutton steamed bread was invented by Song Taizu and Zhao Kuangyin. After becoming the emperor of Zhao Kuangyin, he still can't forget the delicious mutton soup, so there is a saying in the palace that "chefs no longer use mutton". This sentence does not mean that mutton can't be used, but mutton will do. It is said that hundreds of sheep are eaten every day in Song Zhenzong and Song Renzong. The emperor of the Song Dynasty liked to eat sheep, but ignored pigs and even ordered not to eat pork. Why on earth?
It is said that before Zhao Kuangyin became rich, he wandered on Chang 'an Avenue. Hungry, he had to bow his head and ask the bakery for two leftover baked cakes. However, the sesame seed cake that has been put for several days is dry and hard, and it is impossible to chew. Zhao Kuangyin had to have the cheek to ask the store for a bowl of mutton soup, pound the dry sesame seed cake into small pieces and soak it in the soup.
Unexpectedly, after inhaling the broth, the sesame seed cake is moderate in hardness and delicious in taste. When eaten directly, Zhao Kuangyin is hot, cold, hungry and full of energy. A few years later, Zhao Kuangyin came to power and mastered the military power. He became the first emperor of the Song Dynasty. He still remembers the taste of mutton, so he likes sheep very much. According to records, the first meal for Wu Yue Wang Qian was a "spinning catfish" made of mutton.
According to historical records, one day, Zhao Kuangyin suddenly sat up in the middle of the night, neither sleeping nor talking. It turned out that he wanted to eat mutton liver soup at this time, but hesitated and refused to order. The waiters on both sides looked at each other and said,' If you have something to say, we will do it.' Zhao Kuangyin thought and thought, and finally replied, "I won't tell you. If I do this, you will kill a sheep every day! "Of course, there is another saying that Zhao Kuangyin belongs to pigs, so he not only doesn't eat pork, but also keeps pigs as pets. This ancestral family rule has been strictly observed since Emperor Taizong. Later emperors did not eat pork until Xining came to power. Anyway, Zhao Kuangyin passed on his hobby of eating sheep to his descendants.
It is said that the imperial palace in the Song Dynasty "no longer cooks with mutton". In Song Zhenzong, chefs slaughter 350 sheep every day, while in Renzong, they slaughter 280 sheep every day. In Renzong, this number is reduced to 40 sheep a day. In Shinjuku, Kaifeng kitchen consumes "434,463 Jin of mutton and 49 lambs" every year. According to records, Song Renzong hoped that mutton was particularly delicious, and even regarded mutton as the salary of officials. One morning, he sighed to his closest priest. He lost sleep last night and was very hungry. He wants to eat roast leg of lamb. Jin Chen, why didn't you say anything last night? Injong: I'm afraid I'll eat it this time. The cook will kill a sheep every night until I am hungry.
Although the royal family loved sheep very much in the Song Dynasty, there were not many sheep producing areas in the Song Dynasty, mainly relying on imports. However, Liao also stipulated that sheep were not allowed to leave the country and could only engage in ethnic trade. During the reign of Song Renzong and Yingzong, the imperial court bought tens of thousands of Qidan sheep from Kuichang, Hebei. During Zongshen period, the imperial court spent 40 million yuan to buy sheep from Qidan every year, a small part of which was exclusively used by the imperial court, and most of them were sold at high prices in the domestic market.
Why didn't people in Song Dynasty keep their own sheep? Mainly not cost-effective. Song Taizong bought lambs from Xixia and transported them to Hebei for grazing, which eventually "invaded civilian fields, hindered coconut cultivation and harmed several counties". He calculates the successful and failed accounts and saves them himself instead of importing them. When Song Shenzong turned to small-scale agriculture, only 3,000 sheep were raised every year, which was dedicated to cooking and rewarding ministers.