The song "Black Plum Sauce" made popular by Li Ronghao actually doesn't exist?

Review expert: Shi Jun, Ph.D. in Botany

"...your faint smile is like plum jam

I tasted the mint on your lipstick..."

In the past two days, the phrase "black plum sauce" has suddenly become a sweet song that is sung non-stop on major platforms. The sweet lyrics remind people of the sweet and sour first love in their school days, and also arouse the cravings of many foodies for black plum sauce, making the same product on e-commerce platforms a hot topic.

Source: Weibo screenshot

So, what does this “black plum sauce” taste like whose search volume increased 200 times because of a line of lyrics?

What is ebony?

When you hear "black plum jam", the first thing that comes to mind is black plum. When you mention black plum, you must first know what kind of fruit plum is.

In our perception, plums, apricots, and plums seem to be similar in appearance, and sometimes we even confuse them together. But since we are talking about plums, let's talk about them briefly today.

Plum source: Sakurai Midori on Wikipedia

In taxonomy, these three plants are closely related, but there is also some confusion. Plum, apricot and plum all belong to the genus Prunus (also known as Prunus) under the Rosaceae family; the genus Prunus includes three subgenera: Prunus, Prunus and Prunus; the subgenus Prunus is further divided into Prunus sect. Prunus and Prunus sect. Armeniaca.

Apricot source丨Wikipedia Fir0002

The plums we eat as fruits are mainly Chinese plum (P. salicina) and European plum (P. domestica) under the plum group; apricot and plum are more closely related and both belong to the apricot group. Apricot as a fruit is mainly apricot (P. armeniaca), and several other fruits under the apricot group are also grown and sold as fruits, such as purple apricot and northeastern apricot; and plum is also a member of the apricot group, namely plum (P. mume).

European plum source丨Wikipedia Maciarka

As for Wumei, it is not a specific fruit at all, but a kind of preserved fruit food made from plums. When making it, unripe plums are smoked and processed to obtain a candied fruit similar to dried plums, which is Wumei. This kind of Wumei can be used to make sour plum soup, and it also has certain medicinal value.

Of course, some of you have seen a kind of "fresh black plum" that is shiny, black and delicious in major tourist areas, but it is actually waxed grapes, and at best the heads are cut off to make it look rounder. It has nothing to do with black plums, nor with what some other businesses call "jaboticos".

We are experts in eating plums

Eating plums is one of the specialties handed down by our Chinese ancestors. As early as the Neolithic Age, archaeologists have discovered plum pits in relics.

As early as the Xia, Shang and pre-Qin periods, there were already written records of eating plums, and there were no less than three ways to eat plums: eating them fresh, drying them in the sun, and making them into plum sauce for seasoning.

When it comes to the Three Kingdoms period, we have to mention Cao Cao, a famous plum-eating celebrity in history. Not only did he and Liu Bei use green plums as snacks, but he also made a big deal with them, leaving behind the idiom "looking at the plums to quench thirst" which has been passed down to this day.

As time goes by, there are more and more ways to eat plums. For example, as a snack to quench thirst, as sour plum soup to relieve summer heat, as well as various pickled plum meats, etc.

Source of plums丨Wikipedia Alancrh

In addition to being used for eating, people have also discovered the medicinal value of plums. The Shennong Herbal Classic records that "plums are sour and flat in taste. They are used to relieve qi, remove heat, relieve fullness, soothe the heart, relieve limb pain, hemiplegia, dead muscles, remove blue and black will, and treat malignant diseases. They grow in rivers and valleys."

To this day, plums still account for a large proportion of preserved fruit snacks. When I was in school, I used to go to nearby parks and schools to pick unripe plums and bring them back to the adults to add sugar and cook them into cans. It was a rare dessert snack at that time.

Roast goose flavored plum sauce

The black plum jam mentioned in the song should be the jam made from plums, but it may not be related to smoked black plums.

Many provinces in southern China make plum sauce . The simplest way is to wash and soak the green plums in salt water, put them in a ceramic pot and slowly boil them, then add rock sugar to get a plum sauce that is bright yellow, transparent, sweet and sour. Depending on the recipe, there are also ways to add mulberries, licorice, hawthorn, tangerine peel, roselle and other ingredients. The finished plum sauce is crystal clear in appearance and is also called ice plum sauce .

Plum sauce source: Wikipedia Badagnani

As mentioned earlier, people in the Xia, Shang and pre-Qin periods already knew how to make plum sauce for seasoning. At that time, plum sauce may have played the role of vinegar to some extent. The Book of History says, "If you want to make a soup, you need to use salt and plums." It literally means that if you want to make a meat soup, you need to use salty salt and sour plums to mix it to make it delicious, which is used to extend the principle of governing a country.

With the progress of history, probably due to climate change and social development, the production area of ​​plums has gradually shifted to the south, and the variety of condiments in the home has become more and more numerous and richer. The sour plum sauce, which once rivaled salt in importance, has basically given way to other condiments.

Although plum sauce no longer plays an important role in the kitchen, it is still the finishing touch of some dishes, the most important of which is roast goose.

Roast goose with sour plum sauce Source: Picture material website is not authorized to reprint

Plum sauce is to roast goose what sweet noodle sauce is to roast duck. The roast goose that is roasted to perfection has a crispy and fragrant skin and the goose meat is full of fat, but it always seems a bit too greasy when you bite it alone. Only by dipping it in sour plum sauce can you achieve the perfect balance of meat, fat and skin.

Perhaps at this moment, we can finally understand the true meaning of "Er Wei Yan Mei" which has been passed down in the mouths of ancient people for thousands of years.

After writing this article, I also checked the inspiration for Li Ronghao's song. The result is -

Source: Screenshot of interview video

Emmmm, as expected, foodies are a powerful driving force for inspiration.