Chinese salt delicacy

 The kitchen is full of seasonings

If only one of them can be kept

Who will you keep?

I believe most people will choose: salt

Why can't we do without salt?

The salt we usually eat

The salty taste mainly comes from sodium and potassium ions

They are essential to the human body

All the cells in the human body

Whether it’s nerve cells, muscle cells, etc.

Need to rely on them to maintain the "osmotic pressure"

For material exchange and metabolism

For every ordinary person

Salt is a key to unlock the taste bud code lock

Even Cantonese with light taste

Lao Huo Tang served on the table

Still have to put in the right amount of salt

In this way, a large number of only through the sense of smell

You can only feel the original taste of the ingredients

Become an umami that taste buds can recognize

In the same way, when we make beets or even desserts

I also put a little bit of salt

This is what we often say "If you want to be sweet, add some salt"

Not only that

Salt can also change the texture and taste of certain foods

Such as when making meatballs and stirring the meat

Adding a small amount of salt can change the osmotic pressure of muscle cells

Make it need to absorb more water to maintain osmotic pressure balance

This makes the meatballs cooked

More elastic due to rich moisture

It is not difficult to see

Salt is indeed the most important seasoning in the kitchen

The reputation of "Master of Hundred Flavors" is also well-deserved

Where does the salt come from?

Humans have long analyzed the chemical composition of salt

But if you want to make it, you have to get it from nature

Because its reserves on the earth are too large:

The sea, salt lakes and underground salt rocks are all natural salt storage plants

The result is sea salt, lake salt and well salt

September 15, 2019, Binzhou, Shandong

The northern saltworks of Zhanhua District ushered in the autumn harvest season

Workers are working on mechanized salt collection in the crystallization pond

Among them, sea salt has the largest reserves

As early as the Xia and Shang period

The Chinese are in the coastal area of ​​Youzhou

Set up salt farms to produce salt

China's central and western regions far away from the ocean

People use large and small salt lakes to make lake salt

Such as Yuncheng Salt Lake in Shanxi, Qinghai Lake in Qinghai, etc.

Inland areas that do not rely on the sea and do not have salt lakes

The ancients dig a mine

Rock salt and bittern were excavated from the ground

Used to refine table salt

Limited by the conditions of the times

Well salt did not appear until the Warring States period

And these salt wells are mainly distributed in the south-central and southwestern regions

Such as Sichuan, Jiangxi, Hubei and other places

Colorful Salt Lake in Yuncheng, Shanxi

Salt, creating a gastronomic capital

Salt as a necessity for human survival

Its production and trafficking

It gave birth to the Sichuan-Yunnan Salt Road, the Chuan-Qian Salt Road, and the Hui'an Salt Road

Many ancient salt roads such as the salt road

The towns along the route are also flourishing because of salt

These "salt" places also retain one thing in common:

There are so many delicious foods

Zigong, Sichuan

The Sichuan cuisine faction was born

Zigong enjoys the reputation of "Millennium Salt Capital"

Its well salt mining history has been nearly two thousand years

Zigong is the largest well salt producing area in Sichuan

There are unique conditions for salt formation here:

The huge anticline covers an area of ​​200 square kilometers

The structural base is stable and the sedimentary cap layer is thick

Moreover, this area is the central zone of the ground hydrodynamic field

Formed the characteristics of thick brine layer, large concentration, large reserves, and deep burial

But the most attractive here now

It's still the famous salt gang dish

Shenhaijing with a history of 170 years in Zigong, Sichuan

It is the first artificially drilled well over a kilometer deep in human history

The bittern produced from this well is still producing table salt.

Mid Qing Dynasty

It attracts investors and operators from Jiangxi, Guizhou, Hubei and other places

There are also workers in the surrounding areas and in Guizhou and Yunnan

Blending of dietary preferences and dietary cultures from different regions and levels

Zigong gradually formed a unique flavor of salt dishes

Yanbang cuisine is a genre of Sichuan cuisine

Zigong salt gang dishes are divided into

Three branches of salt commercial cuisine, salt industrial cuisine and guiguan cuisine

With strong flavor, strong flavor and rich flavor as its distinctive features

Pay the most attention to and pay attention to seasoning

This undoubtedly matches the reputation of the "Millennium Salt City" here

Fireside beef, boiled beef, steamed beef, etc.

Become a representative dish of salt gang dishes

Yunnan Heijing

"Eight seats" absolutely conquer your taste buds

Heijing is located in Lufeng County, Yunnan Province, the hometown of dinosaurs

It has been a place where tribute salt has been produced since ancient times

It is by the mountain and the river

It's a small town that has been sealed in the Longchuan River Valley for a long time

During the Nanzhao period, the pond was digging for bittern, and the salt was fried in a kettle.

Heijing salt became a tribute salt exclusively for the royal family

In the early Ming Dynasty, it was supported by the central government

Until the Qing Dynasty, the salt industry reached its peak

Salt tax accounts for 64% of Yunnan's salt tax

The ancient town of Heijing. Photography/Yang Jing

The vicissitudes of change

Although Heijing has lost its former glory as "Yancheng"

But there are still folk houses and lanes with Ming and Qing styles

Of course, there is also a unique cuisine-"eight or eight seats"

8 dishes are served each time, divided into 8 times

64 unique local dishes will definitely make you hooked

The upper left picture shows the fried pomegranate flowers, the upper right picture shows the glazed pomegranate

The picture below shows oily lymph and dryness. Photography/Yang Jing

Among the many dishes of "Eight Eight Seats"

I have to mention two dishes: one meat and one vegetarian:

Burn skin, looks a lot like braised pork

But it's really not braised pork

Boil fresh pork with skin

Then put it in the frying pan to fry

Put sugar and honey in the frying process

Fry to the final shape, pick up and cut into strips

Cook with pickles and other ingredients

The finished product is salty and delicious, oily but not greasy

Burn skin. Photography/Wang Yi

Grey tofu has a nice name:

Heart is too soft

After the tofu is fried in a frying pan

Soak it in alkaline water, then boil it in water

Season with bean sprouts, coriander, salt, etc. in a green bowl

Its skin is a bit like oily tofu

The soft tofu and tender syrup flow into the mouth after biting.

Absolutely fragrant

The heart is too soft. Photography/Wang Yi

Yangzhou, Jiangsu

Yangzhou salt merchants spawned exquisite Huaiyang cuisine

Where is Yangzhou today

In ancient times, it happened because of water transportation

Become the center of Haiyan distribution

Salt played a decisive role in the prosperity here

In Jiangsu

There are two large salt producing areas in Huaibei and Huainan

This was also the largest sea salt field in the country during the Ming and Qing Dynasties

The management center of Lianghuai Salt Industry is located in Yangzhou

Salt has not only achieved the prosperity of salt merchants in Lianghuai

Also contributed to the prosperity of Yangzhou

Huaiyang cuisine, one of the four traditional cuisines

Autumn in Yangzhou Slender West Lake, overlooking Wuting Bridge

Huaiyang cuisine is superior in its original flavor

This seems to have nothing to do with salt

In fact, it is closely connected with Yangzhou's prosperity due to salt:

In ancient China, the social status of merchants was always low

Yangzhou Salt Merchants in the Richest One Party in the Middle and Late Ming Dynasty

Thought of showing off wealth on "eating"

Many rare and novel foods are placed on the table

In addition, Yangzhou salt merchants also require food to be "fine"

Today, Yangzhou people still pay attention to exquisite and tasteful meals.

Tolerance is also a major contribution of Yangzhou salt merchants to Huaiyang cuisine

White dried tofu for boiled dried shreds, formerly known as "Huigan"

It is said to be brought by Anhui people in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties

Huaiyang cuisine absorbs Anhui cuisine and Shanxi cuisine at the same time

Some characteristics of Shandong cuisine and Hangzhou cuisine

Huaiyang people love the freshness, crispness and tenderness of southern dishes

I love the saltiness, color and consistency of northern cuisine

Thus formed the taste characteristics of moderately sweet and salty, and slightly sweet in salty.

It also bred three sets of duck

Huaiyang cuisine represented by crystal meat, squirrel mandarin fish, etc.

A famous Huaiyang dish that tests knife skills: Vance Tofu

Yunnan Nuodeng

The ham here is gradually becoming known

Speaking of ham

Most people think of Zhejiang Jinhua and Yunnan Xuanwei

Actually Nuodeng’s ham has the same good quality

Nuodeng is located in the area of ​​three parallel rivers

It is one of the oldest villages in northwestern Yunnan

Nuodeng is also called "Nuodeng Well", and "well" is salt well

Innodeng salt is extraordinary

Baoshan and Tengchong have been fond of eating "Nuoyan" since ancient times

Ancient Nuodeng's "Salt Horse Road"

East to Dali Kunming, South to Baoshan Tengchong

Connecting to Liuku Pianma in the west and Lanping and Lijiang in the north

Four merchants gathered here

Nuodeng once became one of the commercial centers in western Yunnan

Norden Salt

The reason why Nuodeng ham is so respected

Directly related to the quality of Nuodeng salt

Nuodeng ham is raised in Yunlong County, Yunnan Province

The hind legs of Nuodeng black pig are used as raw material

Shaved and shaped by fresh legs

Use Yunlong Baogu Liquor and Nuodeng Salt

Perform traditional manual pickling, stacking and pressing

It is made by the processes of washing and shaping, hanging and drying, and fermentation and maturation.

It tastes delicious and moderately salty

Fragrant and sweet, with a long aftertaste

Ningxia Yanchi

Salt, awaken the deliciousness of Tan mutton

Yanchi County has been called Yanzhou since the Northern and Southern Dynasties

It was once renamed Yanchuan County in the Sui Dynasty

In modern times, it was renamed as Yanchi

This is a salty name

It's all related to the salty lakes here and the rich salt

The salt here is of high quality and yield

Before the large-scale mining of sea salt

It is one of the main salt producing areas well-known nationwide

It is also the origin of Yanchitan sheep

Haba Lake National Nature Reserve

It is a protected area mainly for protecting desert wetland ecosystem in Ningxia

The picture shows the black-winged sandpiper standing in the water of the reserve

Erliqige (Ningxia Branch)/China News Service/Visual China

Gourmets who have studied lamb must know

The delicious lamb does not come from the grassland with abundant water and grass

But from the semi-desertified grassland

The grassland in Yanchi belongs to the latter

A large number of salt ponds are distributed in Yanchi County

(The locals are used to call it alkali beach)

The Yanchitan sheep who "drink mineral water and eat Chinese medicinal materials" in Jiantan are of high quality

Yanchi is also known as the "Hometown of Tan Sheep in China" because of its abundance of Tan sheep.

Cooking delicious Yanchitan lamb

Just simmer in water

Due to the salt as a strong electrolyte

Will destroy the cell membrane of lamb

Makes the moisture in the meat ooze out, and the taste becomes old

So don’t put salt in the stew

Until the muscle fibers soften, before serving

Salt will make its debut

Awaken the delicious taste of Yanchitan lamb

Hainan Yangpu

You can salt anything

Yangpu Yantian Village is located in Danzhou City in the northwestern part of Hainan Province

This is surrounded on three sides by the sea

Although the salt in Yangpu Salt Field belongs to sea salt,

But its production process is not to boil the sea for salt

Instead, it makes full use of the superior local natural conditions:

Plenty of sunshine and blessed basalt

So as to form a unique sun-dried salt

This is the first place in China where salt production began in the sun

Thousands of ancient salt troughs from the Tang Dynasty are well preserved.

Today, the people of Yantian Village in Yangpu still use them to make salt in the sun

You must try the salt-baked feast here when you come to Yangpu

There is a fixed method of making salt-baked vegetables

That is, sea salt prepared by heating

It’s just simmering food at high temperature with salt

Take salt-baked chicken as an example

Wrap the cleaned chicken with greased paper

Buried in a casserole filled with sea salt

Slowly heat to maturity

The taste of sea salt seeps into the chicken

It tastes smooth and tender, fresh and delicious

It’s not just chicken

Shrimp, fish, crab, pork belly, duck, etc.

These hard vegetables can be eaten with salt

Tianjin

Wharf culture gives birth to heavy tastes

The recorded history of salt production in Tianjin

"Ludaichang" dating back to the Five Dynasties Later Tang Dynasty

After the Ming Dynasty sun-dried salt technology was introduced to Tianjin

 The production of salt industry is managed by the Transit Commissioner based in Changlu Town, Cangzhou

The sea salt produced on the beaches near Tianjin is called "Changlu Salt"

There is more wind and less rain here, and plenty of sunshine

Sea water evaporates quickly and has high salt content

Became an excellent salt field in the north at that time

During the Kangxi Period of Qing Dynasty

Changlu Xunyan Yushi Yamen moved from Beijing to Tianjin

Changlu Salt Transport Envoy Siyamen also moved from Cangzhou to Tianjin

Salt industry and water transportation became the two major economic pillars of ancient Tianjin

They all say "a good cook has a handful of salt"

The concept of Tianjin people is "salty is fresh"

Grilled fish fillets, braised shrimps, independent gluten and other Tianjin dishes

"Salty" is the inseparable taste

The shrimp paste that Tianjin people love is full of salty flavor

The workers are making shrimp paste

It is said that Tianjin people love to eat salty and it is closely related to the water transport salt merchants.

The emergence of dock water transport workers

Intensified the taste of Tianjin Wei

The Tianjin Volume of "Chinese Regional Culture" explains in this way:

Old Tianjin people sweat a lot while working at the wharf

Easy to lose salt

Therefore, the strategy of "salt supplementation" is adopted in eating

Tianjin Famous Dish Paste and Boiled Small Fish

Can reflect the wharf culture of Tianjin cuisine

Old Tianjin people leaned on the dock to eat

Pay attention to convenience, but also require heavy taste dishes, can be served

Therefore, a cooking method that saves time and effort has been developed.