After Pangu's creation, he first entered the Chao period, and his diet was like eating birds and eating blood. There is no food culture at this time. In the era of Suiren, people knew how to drill wood for fire. Since then, cooked food has entered the era of stone cooking. The main cooking methods: ① cannon, that is, drilling and burning slurry; (2) stew: wrap it in mud and burn it; ③ Fill water and food with a stone mortar, and cook food with red-hot stones; (4) Roasting and frying: the stone slices are heated, and then the plant seeds are fried on them.
In the Fu era, people learned to cast nets to fish and domesticate animals, and began to "build nets to teach tenants to fish and improve sacrifices to serve as chefs".
In the Shennong era, we entered the era of "the tiller has his pottery", agriculture began to develop, ancient medicines and medicines were invented, and people learned to grow crops.
Pottery made it possible for people to have cookware and artificial containers for the first time, making it possible to ferment food, such as wine, sugar, acyl (vinegar), cheese, vinegar, glutinous rice and so on. Ding is one of the earliest cookers.
During the period of the Yellow Emperor, the diet of the Chinese nation improved again. When the emperor makes a stove, the stove can concentrate fire to save fuel and make food cooked quickly. "Steaming grains for drinking and cooking grains for porridge". During this period, cooking was used to distinguish food for the first time.
A tribe invented the steamer, also called Zan, and people in the tribe also took Zeng as their surname. Steamed salt industry was invented by Su Sha (the salt mother, known as the only land god in Tianjin), a courtier of the Yellow Emperor. Since then, it has not only learned to cook, but also knows how to adjust it, which is good for people's health.
Legend has it that in the period of Emperor Yao, there was a chef named Qiankeng, who was good at cooking and making healthy soup. The health soup he made also cured Yao's illness. Yao named him Pengcheng (now Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province) when he was happy, so people called him Peng Zu. Peng Zu became the ancestor of keeping in good health.
The Zhou and Qin Dynasties were the formative period of China's food culture, with grains and vegetables as its staple food. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were basically self-produced grains and vegetables, but the structure was different from that of now.
Modern people's "staple food" refers to all kinds of whole grains that people eat, or "whole grains"; And "non-staple food" refers to all kinds of meat people eat, as well as vegetables, eggs and fruits.
The ancients thought: "Five grains are the supplement, five meats are the benefit, five fruits are the help, and five dishes are the filling".
Cultural characteristics
China has an ancient civilization and a long food culture. Summarize the following characteristics of food culture:
Four seasons are different
Eating according to seasons all year round is another major feature of China cooking. China has been seasoning dishes according to seasonal changes since ancient times, with strong winter and light summer; Stewed in winter and frozen in summer.
Pay attention to beauty
China's cooking is not only superb, but also has a tradition of paying attention to the aesthetic feeling of dishes and the harmony of color, fragrance, taste, shape and container of food. There are many ways to express the beauty of dishes. No matter carrots or cabbage hearts, they can be carved into various shapes and have a unique style, achieving a harmonious unity of color, fragrance, taste, shape and beauty, giving people a special enjoyment of a high degree of unity of spirit and material.