Chinese food culture is extensive and profound, and Chinese pastries are one of the main components of Chinese cooking. They are famous for their long history, exquisite production, rich categories, and diverse flavors. Its history can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period when bronze cookers were used to fry, steam and bake pastries. With the development of productivity, products are becoming more and more abundant, food processing equipment is becoming more and more advanced, and pastry technology is changing with each passing day. According to the different folk customs and eating habits of various places, many Chinese-style pastries with strong local characteristics have emerged. This article conducts a brief study on the historical development and future trends of Chinese pastries from the origin and evolution of Chinese pastries to the modern production technology of Chinese pastries.
Keywords: Chinese pastry; history; development
1. Overview of Chinese pastry
Chinese pastry can also be called "dim sum" or "pastry" "It is made of various grains, livestock and poultry, fish, shrimp, eggs, milk, vegetables, fruits, etc. as the main raw materials, and then mixed with a variety of condiments, and processed into color, aroma, taste, shape, Various nutritious foods of good quality, such as cakes, dumplings, cakes, buns, dumplings, noodles, noodles, porridge, etc., and their production technology is often called "Baiyan" in the Chinese catering industry.
In daily life, the dietary functions of Chinese pastry are diversified—it can be used as both a staple food and a complementary food to adjust the taste. For example, there are rice and noodles as staple food for dinner, breakfast and tea for breakfast, banquet preparations, pastries and snacks for travel and dietary supplements, and gift snacks as festive or holiday gifts, etc.
2. The development history of Chinese pastry
Chinese pastry production has a long history. According to research, the germination of Chinese pastry production probably appeared during the Shang and Zhou dynasties. By the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were wheat, rice, beetroot, broomcorn millet, millet, millet, hemp seeds and other types of grains grown. In history books, they were called five grains, nine grains, and one hundred grains. Among them, wheat was divided into barley and wheat, millet, millet, and millet. , rice also has many varieties. Grain processing technology has developed from pestles and mortars, stone grinding basins, rods, grinding mills, etc. to stone mills. With the emergence of oil, condiments and the use of bronze cooking utensils, fried and steamed pasta appeared at that time. Bronze cooking utensils similar to frying pans discovered by archeology can be used to bake and bake pasta.
During the Han Dynasty and the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, noodles entered a stage of development. For example, "Qi Min Yao Shu" records nearly 20 varieties of white cakes, sesame cakes, etc., with detailed preparation methods. According to historical records, wontons, spring cakes, and pancakes also appeared at that time. During the Sui, Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties, Chinese pastry developed further, not only deriving many new colors from the original varieties, but also a large number of new varieties emerged. For example, there are 24 solar term wontons with “flower-shaped fillings”, wheat products mainly include steamed buns, dumplings, moon cakes, rolled pancakes, siomai, etc., and rice flour products mainly include Yuanxiao, sesame balls, fried fruits, etc. A poem by Bai Juyi, a poet of the Tang Dynasty: "Sesame cakes are like those from Kyoto, with crispy noodles and oily aroma newly baked." This vividly describes the crispy and oily noodles of newly baked sesame cakes at that time. Su Dongpo, a poet of the Song Dynasty, wrote a poem, "Small cakes are like chewing the moon, with crispy and sweet paste in them." It can be inferred that at that time, techniques such as pastry layering and sweetening with sugar were used in pastry making. With the combination of medicine and diet, dietary noodles also appeared, which are recorded in "Dietotherapeutic Materia Medica" and "Dietotherapeutic Minister's Xinjian".
By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Chinese pastry making technology reached a new peak. On the one hand, the varieties of festival noodles are basically finalized, such as eating rice cakes and dumplings during the Spring Festival, and eating Yuanxiao on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month; on the other hand, flavor schools have basically formed, and the varieties of noodles are more colorful, such as: dumplings, noodles, ramen in the north, Pancakes, glutinous rice balls, etc.; Shaomai, spring rolls, rice dumplings, Yuanxiao, fried dough sticks, etc. from the south. There are particularly rich works on noodles, such as "Tiao Ding Ji" which contains more than 200 methods of making noodles. With the increase in dietary exchanges between China and foreign countries, Western cakes, breads, puddings and other varieties have been introduced into our country, and our country's pastry production has gradually begun to incorporate Western pastry techniques.
After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, especially since the reform and opening up, with the integration of East and West and the rapid development of food technology, Chinese pastries and other traditional food types have achieved unprecedented development. Pastry production has also evolved from manual production methods. Gradually transform into mechanized and semi-automated production methods. Various pastry techniques and flavor characteristics have been widely exchanged, and local flavor characteristics have achieved great integration. This has promoted the development of my country's pastry techniques, and a large number of fine pastry innovations have emerged that combine northern and southern flavors, Chinese and Western flavors, and ancient and modern flavors. variety. The scale and level of pastry supply have also evolved from low-end retail snacks to medium- and high-end specialized dim sum banquets and dim sum banquets to adapt to people's changing dietary needs.
3. The development trend of Chinese-style pastry
Today, with the increasing progress of material civilization, pastry is closely related to people's lives and is an important part of people's daily diet. However, due to historical reasons, the production process of Chinese-style pastry lacks the guidance of scientific theory. In terms of production process, nutrition, hygiene, packaging, marketing and other aspects of various varieties, it still cannot keep up with the pace of market demand. Therefore, Chinese pastry must take the road of reform, innovation, pioneering and enterprising in order to be based in China and gradually move toward the world and the future.