Introduction to Yueshengzhai
It is responsible for supplying halal meat to ethnic minorities who believe in Islam in the capital all year round, and is responsible for special supplies for important meetings of the party and the country. Customers include local and out-of-town meat food wholesalers, retail businesses, chain stores, restaurants, hotels and restaurants.
Deals in cooked meat products
Deals in "Yue Sheng Zhai" five-spice sauce beef, sauce lamb, roast beef, roast lamb and other unique traditional products as well as multi-flavor beef cubes, fragrant Halal flavor products such as leaf beef tendons, five-spice sauce chicken, fragrant ostrich meat, white water sheep trotters, etc. There are also nearly a hundred varieties of newly developed Arabic-style Western products such as fragrant beef, beef sausage, chicken sausage, double-flavored sausage, beef sandwich, chicken sandwich, etc. The nationally famous Yueshengzhai was founded by Ma Qingrui in the 40th year of Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty.
Ma Qingrui originally helped people look after the altar tables when the Ministry of Rites held ceremonies. Sometimes officials rewarded him with some of the offerings used in sacrifices. Once he got a whole sheep, took it home, ate some, and then took it to the street to sell its raw meat.
From then on, he no longer went to the altar table, but bought sacrificial sheep from the guards at a low price, and started a business selling raw mutton. But he found that although the business was good, he didn't make much money, but people selling cooked meat made a lot of money even though they didn't sell much, so he also wanted to cook some cooked meat and sell it.
When Ma Qingrui was looking at the altar table, he had a good relationship with a cook who specialized in mutton in the imperial kitchen. Ma Qingrui secretly paid attention to it and learned it secretly. In this way, he started selling soy mutton. Ma Qingrui's stall was set up in Hebao Alley outside Qianmen. There were many officials and people coming in and out. Many of them knew him and knew that he had helped in the imperial kitchen and learned some skills from there. At that time, people thought that the chefs in the imperial dining room were the most skilled, so everyone wanted to try it. In addition, Ma Qingrui's sauced mutton tasted really good, so there were many customers.
In the 40th year of Qianlong's reign, Ma Qingrui rented three rooms on Qianhubu Street and turned the stall into a shop. He named it Yueshengzhai, which means "prosperity every month".
During the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, Ma Qingrui modified the original seasoning recipe for making soy mutton and summed up a set of experiences. First of all, choose Dabaiyang at the west entrance. Because this kind of sheep was not easy to buy at that time, Yueshengzhai raised sheep in the backyard for backup. Secondly, the seasoning is fine. Yueshengzhai Sauce Lamb uses cloves, amomum villosum, cinnamon, aniseed, etc. as the main ingredients, plus sauce and salt for seasoning. Furthermore, controlling the heat is a crucial part.
The season for making mutton is from autumn to spring, and the peak season is mainly in winter and March. Every year when summer comes, soy sauce mutton enters the off-season. In order to have business in the summer, Ma Qingrui studied and trial-produced roasted mutton, a summer food. The roasted mutton has a wide soup, with more meat and more soup. The roasted mutton soup is boiled over the water, served with cucumber shreds, and eaten in your mouth. It is a summer delicacy with a special flavor.
For five generations since Ma Qingrui, Yueshengzhai has always been done by the Ma family themselves. In 1956, Shengzhai became a public-private partnership, and the Ma family abandoned the traditional idea of ??"doing not teach art to outsiders". The new Yueshengzhai is prosperous.
Detailed explanation
Jingyun Food
- Yueshengzhai
Wang Yumei
Beijing is a city of history and culture As a famous city, Beijing’s special political, economic and cultural background, as well as its special geographical and humanistic environment, gave birth to the current Beijing-style food culture. Yueshengzhai is a typical representative of Beijing-style food culture. The founders and inheritors of Yueshengzhai are old Beijingers who have lived in Niujie for a long time. The processing technology is a comprehensive absorption of the sauce meat technology of the imperial kitchen of the Qing Dynasty and the traditional folk skills of the imperial city. It was formed on the basis of its main business targets from the imperial palace in the Qing Dynasty to the high-end society of Peiping in the Republic of China to the common people today. It can be said to be the best witness to the history of Jingyun food culture.
Yueshengzhai was first located on the south side of Xiyueqiang Road in the old Qianmen Jianlou. It was named Yueshengzhai after the moon-shaped wall, which means "prosperity every month". It was later moved to the Ministry of Household Affairs. street.
Due to its unique geographical location, Yueshengzhai’s business targets are mostly palace servants and government officials. Even Cixi was particularly fond of Yueshengzhai’s roasted mutton. In order to make it easier for Yueshengzhai to eat meat into the palace, Empress Dowager Cixi gave Yueshengzhai four waist badges as a voucher for entering and leaving the palace. Every other day, the descendant of Yueshengzhai personally led the porters to deliver specially made meat with sauce to the imperial dining room outside Jingyun Palace for Cixi and the royal family members to enjoy. The four waist cards proved that Yueshengzhai was deeply loved by the Qing royal family.
It was this privilege reserved exclusively for Cixi that saved the shopkeeper of Yueshengzhai from a death sentence.
It is said that the Empress Dowager Cixi went to the Summer Palace every summer to escape the summer heat and listen to the government. She would have a night meal every night, and the food she ate would include meat with Yueshengzhai sauce, sesame seed cakes and porridge. The freshly cooked roasted mutton emits an appetizing aroma in your mouth, and the more you chew it, the more fragrant it becomes, leaving you with an endless aftertaste. Therefore, the shopkeeper of Yueshengzhai has to take turns guarding the longevity dining room. Later, Cixi withdrew the curtain and returned to power, retreating to the Summer Palace, while Yueshengzhai sent someone to be on duty. One winter day, the shopkeeper of Yueshengzhai smoked in the back mountain, which did not cause a mountain fire. According to the law, he should be sentenced to death. The Queen Mother said, "If you kill him, what will I eat?" The death penalty was immediately avoided. Who would have thought that delicious sauced lamb could become a talisman? This story has been widely spread among the people!
Yueshengzhai's business is booming and it is loved by the Empress Dowager Cixi and the princes and nobles. This is not a temporary success. Rather, it is inseparable from Yueshengzhai’s spirit of absorbing and absorbing the strengths of others. Zhu Yixin, the supervisory censor of the Qing Dynasty, once described Yueshengzhai in "Jingchengfangxiangzhi Manuscript": "The mutton restaurant at the entrance of the household is famous all over the world for its five-spice sauce mutton."
Yueshengzhai processing techniques have distinctive national characteristics. They are formed on the basis of comprehensively absorbing the sauce meat technology of the imperial kitchen of the Qing Dynasty and traditional folk techniques. They not only widely absorb traditional Chinese cuisine from the palace and the people The essence of culture also introduces spices from Arabia into its own formula, and draws on the traditional health theory of "medicine and food come from the same source" of traditional Chinese medicine, combining the important nourishing functions of beef and mutton with medicinal materials and spices with fitness value. The combination of auxiliary materials and unique processing techniques are unified. The production techniques are known as the "Three Essences" and "Three Wonders" in the world, that is, "excellent material selection will never save trouble; exquisite formula will never save money; exquisite production will never save labor." . When it comes to the control and use of heat, we pay attention to the "three flavors", that is, boiling over a high fire to remove the flavor, simmering over a slow fire to add the flavor and adding the "old soup" to enhance the flavor. The techniques for making roasted beef and mutton are known in the world as the "Three Goods" - the selection of fat and lean ingredients, the recipe of good color and taste, and the preparation of sauce and roasting. Yang Jingting, a poet during the Daoguang period, once wrote a poem praising the roasted mutton of Yueshengzhai in "Miscellaneous Odes of Dumen": "Feed the sheep to be fat and tender for several days in the capital. The sauce will be boiled red with clear soup color. It will be burnt and rotten at noon. I am happy to have no mutton." It tastes greasy in the throat."
The secret recipe of Yueshengzhai is as perfect as the sun, and the royal doctor also played an important role. Every year on the first ten days of the Beginning of Summer, Yueshengzhai adopts a summer break system. During this time, the shopkeeper of Yueshengzhai often invited the imperial physician to drink tea and cool down in the backyard. The topics discussed were quite diverse, but the main purpose was how to improve the meat-making formula. In the midsummer, Yueshengzhai's backyard is simple and elegant, fresh and refined. The descendants of Yueshengzhai cook out special summer roasted mutton, paired with tea and wine. The evening breeze blows by, and the tea is fragrant and the meat tastes tempting! In this scene, Yueshengzhai's recipe was continuously improved and perfected day by day, and inadvertently created a unique and delicious dish - summer roast mutton!
By the end of the Qing Dynasty, the area around Yueshengzhai was already prosperous. Dong'an Market stands in the northeast of Yueshengzhai and extends from north to south. The Wangfujing commercial district has begun to take shape. For a time, the shop was established, bustling with people, and prospering to this day. Yueshengzhai was also renovated at this time, and the production room was boldly opened. The craftsmanship of cooking treasures for hundreds of years is now on display in front of the world: two special large iron pots with a history of more than a hundred years, carved blue brick stoves, and dark blue clothes by the kitchen master. Wearing colorful aprons and shoe covers, holding shiny bronze meat picks and wooden square bases, as well as calligraphy mentioned by celebrities, diners can experience the profound culture of Yueshengzhai while savoring the delicious food. When the sauced meat comes out of the pot, it is fragrant and appetizing, and the diners are full of praise. It is a good story.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, because the adjacent area had become a prosperous commercial place in the capital, Yueshengzhai took the opportunity to renovate it. Wu Zengshou was specially asked to inscribe the three words "Yue Sheng Zhai", and the old plaque was replaced and hung in the middle of the door. He also asked a calligrapher to inscribe a banner and place it directly above the entrance. On the plaque, the fonts are powerful and handsome, floating like floating clouds and like a startling dragon, adding a strong cultural atmosphere to Yueshengzhai store. After the liberation, Pu Jie, the younger brother of the last emperor Pu Yi, also wrote an inscription for Yueshengzhai, "Fine cuisine from heaven, reputation all over the world", showing the great love for Yueshengzhai from all walks of life.
Yueshengzhai has been inherited and developed through oral and mental teaching, and has continuously improved and improved the auxiliary ingredient formula and processing technology of meat products. After several generations of exploration, food production techniques with rich connotations have been formed, containing a strong Beijing flavor and legendary anecdotes. Yueshengzhai's representative "two roasts and two sauces" - "roast mutton, roast beef, sauce mutton, sauce beef", are called "exquisite Yuexin food, a unique product in the prosperous age".
It is said that the craftsmanship of Yueshengzhai Sauce Lamb is the most exquisite - the meat must be selected from the finest sheep produced in Inner Mongolia, and the slaughtering is also very particular, and it is strictly forbidden to store, transport and trade with other meat; Yuesheng The managers and production staff of Zhai food are generally ethnic workers, which can be said to be truly "pure and authentic"; for meat, fresh and tender meat from the tendons of the front legs, chest, waist, neck, etc. After washing, remove the tendons and abdomen, cut the meat into pieces; when making soup, put water in the pot, pour in the yellow sauce, bring to a boil over high heat, add green onions, fresh ginger slices, refined salt, and rock sugar and cook briefly After a while, filter it with gauze, remove the residue and set aside for later use; when coding the meat, put the mutton into the pot in order according to its parts, so that the old meat is at the bottom and the tender meat is at the top; when it comes to the stew step, pour the miso soup into the pot and use Bring to a boil over high heat, put the medicinal ingredients and spices into cloth bags, tie the bags tightly, and put them into the pot. After boiling the pot, simmer for one hour, then add the aged soup, cover the pot, and simmer for six to seven hours. Uncover the pot, take out the meat in layers, and use the original soup in the pot to wash off the onions and ginger on the meat, and you have the finished product. If you need to store it for a day or two, remove the meat piece by piece and brush the floating oil on the meat. When the oil solidifies, it will act as a natural seal.
It is said that Yueshengzhai cuisine draws on the health theory of traditional Chinese medicine that "medicine and food come from the same source". The cooking skills are combined with diet therapy and food nutrition to form a meaty, sauce, medicinal and oily aroma. Unique features integrated into one. Due to the use of special cooking technology, natural spices and medicinal materials are combined with the natural food habits of beef and mutton, so that the nutrients of beef and mutton can induce appetite and be fully absorbed by the human body with the help of the aroma and therapeutic value of spices and medicinal materials. Spices such as fennel, cloves, cinnamon, amomum villosum, and cinnamon with medicinal value, with the help of the mellow and delicious taste of mutton, play a role in opening the chest and regulating qi, awakening the spleen and stomach, harmonizing digestion, nourishing yin and kidneys, replenishing qi and activating blood circulation, etc. Strengthen the body and other effects. These unique food cultures that combine cooking with diet therapy have been completed by generations of Yueshengzhai people through constant exchanges and discussions with famous Chinese medicine practitioners.
In the process of inheritance, Yueshengzhai has also accumulated rich social history and culture, such as various rich slang, legends, customs, cultural context, etc. These rich social history and cultures involve politics, Various aspects such as economy, folk customs, and life have become a microcosm of old Beijing.
Regarding Yueshengzhai, many literati and poets left many oral ballads, some elegant and some vulgar. Li Shijing, president of the Beijing Food Association, once wrote an acrostic poem: "Celebrate the new life of the old store. The moon turns and the stars turn two hundred years old. Never stop under the great reputation. The vegetarian delicacies are famous throughout Beijing." Among the people,: "Buffalo" "Ear, buffalo, grow its horns first and then its head. Your father and mother bought you roasted lamb bones and roasted mutton..." Many old Beijingers grew up singing this song.