In summer, there is nothing more pleasant than going out to eat barbecue with a friend or two while taking advantage of the night wind. Barbecue, the oldest way of cooking for humans, has occupied a corner of the recipe for tens of thousands of years.
How we treat food is a manifestation of civilization, a way of life, and a philosophy of life.
Barbecue is between the avenue and Jane, enjoying its wisdom.
Text | Xiaoxiang Water Cooling
This article is reproduced from the WeChat official account "National Humanistic History" (ID: gjrwls). The original text was first published on July 6, 2022. The original title was "A Brief History of Barbecue: What is the difference between ancient and modern Chinese and foreign eating methods?", which does not represent the views of Outlook Think Tank.
1
Who was the first person to eat barbecue?
This matter probably started hundreds of thousands of years ago. The cooking method of barbecue was synchronized with the process of human cooking cooked food. At present, the more common understanding is that the transformation of human beings from drinking blood to eating cooked food originated from an accidental consumption of food cooked by lightning strikes or mountain fires, which led to changes in the structure of human food and the use of fire.
Archaeologists have found burnt bones of many animals at Paleolithic sites. Pottery barbecue grills have been unearthed at Neolithic sites.Barbecue is not only important in the history of cooking, but also has a profound impact on human evolution and the development of civilization.
The long fire rack unearthed in the Majiabang cultural site may be the "ancestor" of today’s barbecue grills. Source/Lin Huadong, "General History of Zhejiang"
The reason why grilling has become the oldest cooking method is undoubtedly because of its ease of use.
For humans in ancient times, they didn’t even need any cooking utensils. After beating the animals back, they cleaned them up and threw them into the fire pit, and they could eat a delicious barbecue. But how could the Chinese ancestors, who were full of food talents, be satisfied with such a simple cooking method?
Since the pre-Qin period, the Chinese have developed three kinds of barbecue techniques: burnt, cannon, and roasting. The so-called burnt means that the food is directly roasted on the fire; the cannon requires that the food is wrapped in grass or wet mud in advance. The current "calling chicken" is similar; roasting is to cut the food into small pieces and then skewer it, which is regarded as the earliest "skewers".In the Book of Songs, Xiaoya and Gourmet Leaves, the host family that entertains guests uses these three barbecue methods to take turns to treat a poor rabbit:
There are rabbit heads, cannon burnt…
There was the head of the rabbit, the burning of the burnt…
There are rabbit heads, burnt cannons…
Although the practice of roasting meat was simple, the ancients never thought it was despicable and difficult to be elegant. On the contrary, in various sacrificial and banquet occasions, barbecue is often a must-have food. Not only in the "Gourd Leaves", but also in many sacrificial chapters in the "Book of Songs", roast meat is mentioned.
The mallard is there, and the male corpse comes to stop the fumigation. The wine is rejoicing, and the burnt fenfen is burnt. ("The Book of Songs · Daya · Mallard")
"To hold the cuan and the cuan, for the kongshuo. Either burnt or burnt, the monarch’s wife is Momo. (" The Book of Songs · Xiaoya Chuz ")
In Qu Yuan’s "Great Skill", in order to recall the souls of the distant battlefield, he also took out "fried mallard, quail" and "fried bird". From poultry and birds to live fish in the water, all of them must be roasted, and all of them are tender and refreshing. In ancient sacrifices, it was often accompanied by wine and meat, "Mallard is recommended, or burnt or fried" ("Book of Songs · Daya · Xingwei").
This shows that not only barbecue has a long history,"Drinking and eating barbecue" is also ancient. It’s just that in ancient times, it was a serious sacrificial ritual, but in modern times it’s a pastime.
Time passed through the Qin and Han Dynasties, and into the Sui and Tang Dynasties, which were deeply influenced by Hu Feng, the category of barbecue became even more prosperous. In addition to the common cattle, sheep, and pork, camel meat was also included in the recipe, that is, "hump grilled".
The famous frontier poet of the Tang Dynasty, Cen Shen, wrote in his poem: "The roast oxen is cooked with wild camels, and the wine from Jiaohe is returned to Hualuo." What a heroic atmosphere this is! In order to eat barbecue reasonably, Tang Dynasty doctors even turned barbecue into a medicinal diet.
The famous doctor of the Tang Dynasty, Ji Yin, recorded a variety of barbecue recipes such as wild boar and mandarin duck in the Heart of Food and Medicine. According to his research, many of these can be used to treat hemorrhoids and their complications.Fortunately, chili peppers were not introduced to China until the end of the Ming Dynasty, and the local prickly ash alone did not make Tang Dynasty barbecue lovers feel the "counterproductive" effect of using barbecue to treat hemorrhoids.
Roasted hump in film and television dramas. Source/Screenshot of the TV series "Chang’an Twelve Hours"
In the Song Dynasty, when culture was extremely prosperous, the popularity of barbecue was needless to say. According to the "Miscellaneous Notes of the Age of the Year", barbecue has become a daily life of the Song Dynasty people during the winter. After they lit the heater for winter warmth, they "made the best use of everything" and put a grill on it by the way, which became a wonderful indoor grill. The family sat around the stove, drinking warm wine and eating barbecue meat, and enjoyed it.
As for the "Northern Song Dynasty Food Encyclopedia" and "Tokyo Dream Hualu", there is no shortage of barbecue figures. A snack called "Grilled Pork Skin Meat" is undoubtedly a "popular food" in Tokyo in winter. As for the evening market on weekdays, it is "bursting cooked food".As early as the Song Dynasty, people could experience the pleasure of eating barbecue late at night!
Talking about this, I believe everyone has a rough guess about "who was the first person to eat barbecue". Unfortunately, if you ignore the essence of "eating barbecue" and just say the word "barbecue" itself,The first person to eat roast meat was probably neither Peking Man nor the ancient people who sacrificed roast meat in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, but the painter Qi Baishi.
因为“烤”这个字是他老人家“自创”的。据说，曾有一家清真烤肉馆请齐白石题字，可是齐老翻遍字典，都找不出一个字来恰当表达“烤”的意思，只好取形声之法，以火之形和考之声，造出了如今广为使用的“烤”字。题完字后，齐老还有担心，又在其下注了一行小字：“钟鼎本无此烤字，此是齐璜杜撰。”齐璜就是齐白石的姓名，意即古来文字中皆无“烤”字，这是他凭空的杜撰。
如此来看，虽然用火灼烧出来的熟肉古已有之，可这“烤肉”，实实在在只能是给人店家开业题字的齐白石老先生最先一享口福了。
齐白石题字。来源/北京卫视《快乐生活》截图
2
烧烤大家族
其实，烧烤对人类烹饪的贡献是世界性的。在许多国家和地区，因为自然环境、文化传统的不同，烧烤文化也丰富多彩。
说起国外的烧烤，我们最先冒进脑子里的词是“BBQ”。这是一种常见的户外野餐方式，来源于英文单词“barbecue”。
事实上，国外烧烤也被分成两类：一类是有盖、利用烟熏来弄熟食物，被称为“barbecue”；另一类则是无盖，用火来烧熟食物的方式，被称为“grill”。我们常说的烤串，其实更接近“grill”的范畴；而“barbecue”更类似于我们理解的烤鸭。
不过，这两个词与食材并没有太大关系，大概是因为家庭性的户外烧烤很难达到“grill”的温度，且一样会产生很多烟，便用“barbecue”代之。
在美国，BBQ几乎成了一种生活文化。许多家庭都备有自己的便携烧烤架，每当遇到假期、家人团聚时，便驱车前往附近的公园、海滩，也可以一切从简，直接在自家小院、露台上支起烧烤架，来一场轻松惬意的烧烤趴。若是家里没有烧烤架也无妨，美国在公园或绿地等许多地方都贴有“BBQ”的标志，并且提供桌椅和公共烤架，游人只需携带食材和木炭即可。
"BBQ" quickly spread around the world because of its simplicity and fun. As long as conditions permit, you can also go out with one or two friends to experience it.
However, there is another type of barbecue that can only be found in the United States, and that is the Texas barbecue.
Texas barbecue is a combination of slow-fire barbecue in the Caribbean and German bacon barbecue. It was originally used by butcher shop owners who couldn’t sell out to prevent leftovers from spoiling. The oldest Texas barbecue was full of primitive heroism: they didn’t need any oven, they dug a big hole in the ground, burned an open flame, and put the food directly on it to cook. When the meat is overflowing and fuming, it blatantly teases people’s taste buds.
Later, the standardized Texas barbecue could not continue this practice of digging holes anywhere, but the barbecue grills they built with bricks and stones were also very large, showing their heroic nature.Texas barbecue has a very high status in the American food industry. In 1964, US President Johnson even hosted the Texas barbecue as a state dinner for the then President of Mexico.
In addition to Texas barbecue on the North American continent, Brazilian barbecue on the South American continent is also quite unique. Unlike the "Turkish barbecue" that sounds similar, Brazilian barbecue is indeed Brazilian barbecue. It originated from the barbecue eaten by Brazilians in the countryside at that time, and later spread to the city, and was loved by the cowboys who also came to Brazil to colonize.
But in harsh conditions and with inadequate cooking utensils, they can only use the long swords they wear to poke at the meat. Over time, this has become a distinctive feature of Brazilian barbecue. Unlike other barbecues that only use a fine braze of the right length, Brazilian barbecue specializes in a thick, long iron braze skewer – better known as an iron stick if you see it for the first time. After the meat is roasted on it, the waiter will help remove it and cut it.Among the various meats, Brazilian roast meat especially prefers beef.
For South East Asia barbecue, represented by Malaysia, there is a unique "artifact" – the banana leaf. South East Asia barbecue has few places without the banana leaf. Food grilled over the fire is wrapped in banana leaves to make the spice tasty; when grilling large pieces of meat such as suckling pigs, the internal organs are also pulled out and filled with banana leaves.
Even when making the staple bamboo rice, people in South East Asia will seal their mouths with banana leaves to prevent the juice from overflowing. The banana tree is undoubtedly the best friend of the people in South East Asia. Not only can the fruit be exported to generate income, but also the leaves can be used for wonders.
3
Barbecue Wisdom of "The Road to Simplicity"
Barbecue has such a long history and is loved by people, and there are naturally many stories about it.
A short story about Mencius, a famous roast-meat enthusiast, is recorded in "Mencius · Dedicated Heart". The father of Mencius’ student Zeng Zi liked to eat goat dates (a kind of fruit), so Zeng Zi stopped eating goat dates. Another student of Mencius asked Mencius: "Which is better, roast skewers (a kind of fruit) or goat dates?"
Mencius, a barbecue enthusiast, did not hesitate. "Of course it’s a skewer!"
So Gongsun Chou asked:"Since roast meat tastes better, and everyone loves roast meat, why does Zeng Zi still eat roast meat even though he doesn’t eat jujube?"
Mencius said, "The kebabs are what everyone loves to eat, and the jujube is what only Zeng Zi’s father loves to eat. In order to show filial piety, of course, I have to avoid the jujube that only my father likes to eat!"
Portrait of Mencius. Source/Lu Yuanshan’s "Three Transfers"
Although this story is teaching everyone the principle of filial piety to their parents, it also reflects that barbecue has had a high national popularity since ancient times, so that even Mencius tacitly agreed that "no one doesn’t like barbecue".In order to eat delicious barbecued meat, the royal family and nobles even almost killed themselves.
In "Han Feizi," the famous fable master Han Fei recounts a time when Duke Wen of Jin ate a skewer. Although you are a vassal, Duke Wen of Jin still encountered food safety problems: a hair appeared on the skewer he ate. Duke Wen of Jin was furious and ordered someone to bring the cook of the barbecue and interrogate him himself. The cook was a smart man and immediately knelt down to apologize.
Duke Wen of Jin asked, "Tell me, what is your crime?"
The chef said solemnly, "Your Majesty, I have three sins in total: I sharpen my knife every day, which is as sharp as a famous sword commander, but I don’t cut off my hair when cutting meat, which is one sin; I skewer meat piece by piece with wooden sticks, but I don’t see this hair, which is two sins; I roast meat, and even the meat is cooked, but I don’t burn this hair, which is three sins."
The words woke up Duke Wen of Jin, and he immediately ordered someone to strictly investigate the person who had taken over the barbecue at the scene, and indeed found the person who deliberately murdered the cook. Without a word, Duke Wen of Jin ordered someone to behead the person. This story was later reduced to an idiom"Chef" meant that people needed to see the essence through the phenomenon. Although everyone was happy with the result, if it wasn’t for this chef’s shrewdness and good words, he would have died unjustly.
However, barbecued meat does not necessarily kill people, and sometimes it can save a life.
There is such a story in "Shishuo Xinyu": When Gu Rong, a famous minister in the Western Jin Dynasty, was at a banquet, he saw the person in charge of serving the barbecue looking at the barbecue all the time, as if he wanted to eat it. Gu Rong rewarded him with his share of the barbecue. Everyone present was very puzzled about this, but Gu Rong explained with a smile, "How can people carry the barbecue every day, but they don’t know the taste of the barbecue?"
Later, the political situation in the Western Jin Dynasty was turbulent, and the northern ethnic groups invaded the capital. Gu Rong followed the people who fled across the river to the left of the river, and they were displaced along the way. Naturally, he no longer talked about the scenery of the banquet that day. But every time he encountered a critical moment, there was always someone to help. Gu Rong never understood why this person helped him until he found an opportunity to ask,The man said, "I am the one who received your reward for roasting meat that day."
The kindness of a barbecue will also be rewarded like a spring.
Barbecue is not only a delicacy, but also a cultural symbol deeply rooted in history. Summer is hot, hurry up and meet friends and "eat barbecue" together!
References:
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4. Annotated by Liu Ping. The Book of Songs [M]. Beijing: Democracy and Construction Press, 2020.05.
5. Han Feizi School Note [M]. Changchun: Changchun Publishing House, 2006.06.
6. Annotated by Miao Tianshou. Mencius [M]. Commercial Press, 1926.02.
7. (Southern Song Dynasty) by Liu Yiqing; compiled by Zhu Mengjuan; edited by Zhi Xuzhong. Shishuo Xinyu [M]. Xi’an: Sanqin Publishing House, 2018.05.
The original title: "Who was the first person to eat barbecue?"
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