Shuowen said, "The sheep are auspicious." "Zhou Li Shimonoseki Yang Ren" records: "Yang Ren is in charge of sheep and livestock, and he sacrifices here, with lambs as ornaments." Sheep were endowed with auspicious symbols and important sacrificial food in ancient times. Compendium of Materia Medica also says that mutton is a tonic, which can be compared with ginseng and astragalus.

Hand-grabbed mutton has a long history, and it is a traditional food loved by Mongolian, Tibetan, Hui and Uygur people living in the northwest of China. In the long years, hand-grabbed mutton was originally eaten by herders only in tents on the plateau and grassland where ethnic minorities live in northwest China. It is rare in the city, and celebrities regard it as embarrassing and dismissive.

Hand-grabbed mutton really became a famous national cuisine more than 20 years ago. It is said that in a remote alley in Linxia City, a courageous Dongxiang man took the lead in putting up the sign of "Dongxiang people grabbing mutton". For a time, Malik was so excited that the smell of hand-grabbed mutton floated around the surrounding counties and became popular in Lanzhou, Xining, Yinchuan, Urumqi, Hohhot and other cities.