What is the charm of dried vegetables? Why are people in the north and south obsessed with them?

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As winter approaches, people are wearing more and more clothes, and the vegetables on the table are becoming more and more expensive.

At this time, the elders in the family would quietly take out the dried vegetables they had stored, quietly saving money, and cook a table of delicious dishes for the whole family, including meat and vegetables, which would make the family want to eat the next meal. For example, braised pork with dried bamboo shoots, braised pork with dried beans, minced meat and dried eggplant, pork with preserved plums, and dried cabbage and pork bone soup, the children next door didn't cry for food, but the adults were salivating.

Braised pork with bamboo shoots. Source: A clip from CCTV program "Nong Guang Tian Di"

What is rare is that dried vegetables are one of the few "north-south" ones. In the north, there are dried beans, dried peppers, dried mushrooms, dried cabbage, etc., while in the south, there are pickled mustard greens, dried bamboo shoots, cucumber strips, dried eggplant, etc. Although the types of dried vegetables in the north and south are different, they are essentially the same and are popular in all regions.

So the question is, what is the charm of dried vegetables that makes people from both the north and the south love them so much?

Tracing the roots

Dried vegetables are mostly made by drying fruits and vegetables for preservation or storage in the season when fruits and vegetables are ripe. When fresh vegetables are scarce in winter and spring, they are soaked and used for cooking or stewing. Although they are not as nutritious as fresh vegetables, they are salty, fragrant and delicious, with a unique flavor. They are an important part of people's winter and spring tables.

Of course, nowadays it is not only limited to be eaten in winter and spring, you can also go to a restaurant to enjoy it when you are craving for it.

But in ancient times, even decades ago, ordinary people ate dried vegetables not only for the taste, but also to have vegetables to eat in winter and to spend the cold winter in a healthy way.

The productivity of ancient society was relatively low, and it could not be compared with today's society in terms of clothing, food, housing, transportation, etc. However, in order to live a better life, the ancients also spared no effort to create and improve, especially in terms of diet, which can be said to be painstaking.

However, not everyone can eat meat, such as eggs and meat. Due to economic and other reasons, the people at the bottom of society can only eat meat during the New Year, festivals or other opportunities to improve their lives. In their daily lives, they can only eat vegetables that they grow themselves.

In summer and autumn, most vegetables are harvested, and you can tell what vegetables are grown by looking at the table of ordinary people. In winter, there are basically no fresh vegetables to eat. Even if the ancients later discovered how to grow off-season vegetables, ordinary people could not afford them.

In order to change this predicament of having no vegetables to eat, people made dried vegetables.

According to records, people may have started eating dried vegetables as early as the Western Zhou Dynasty.

More than 3,000 years ago, the Western Zhou Dynasty was mostly located north of the Qinling Mountains and the Huai River. The winters were cold and snowy. At that time, when productivity was not well developed, winter was a very difficult time to endure. Countless people starved to death or froze to death every year.

In such an environment, it is necessary to stockpile food to survive the winter.

Part of the map of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Source: Tan Qixiang's edition of "Chinese Historical Atlas"

In fact, since ancient times, our ancestors have lived a farming life as described by "spring ploughing, summer weeding, autumn harvest, and winter storage". In the Book of Songs, there is a poem in "Gufeng" (Beifeng) that says: "I have stored vegetables for the winter." Zheng Xuan's annotation says: "Storing delicious vegetables is to prevent the shortage in winter." It can be seen that the ancients called the high-quality and delicious vegetables for winter storage "zhixu".

As far as food storage is concerned, grains are fine as they have a long shelf life; but vegetables, fruits and melons will not last more than a winter if they are not processed.

In order to extend the shelf life, the ancients discovered various methods of "cutting" vegetables in practice.

In fact, there are more historical records about pickled vegetables, namely "菹". In the "Explanation of Names and Food" by Liu Xi of the Eastern Han Dynasty, it is said: "葅, means to block. It is brewed raw, and then blocked between cold and heat, so it cannot rot." The so-called "old-style pickled vegetables" nowadays are processed in this way.

Sour cabbage. Source: A clip from the documentary "A Bite of China"

Pickled vegetables have been popular since the pre-Qin period. According to the "Book of Zhou", all vegetables can be pickled, but the main vegetables are leek, green onion, thatch, sunflower, celery, reed and bamboo shoots, which are called "seven pickles".

In addition to pickling whole vegetables like "菹", the ancients also created a pickling method called "虀" (pronounced as jī, the same as "齑" in ancient times), which is to cut the vegetables into pieces and then pickle them. The vegetables made in this way will taste better. "Shi Ming·Shi Yi Shi" once recorded: "虀, 济, with all kinds of flavors to complement each other."

This complicated method of soaking in liquid for preservation had already been circulated in the pre-Qin period, and the natural method of drying the water in the sun was also common at the time and has been preserved ever since. The "Four People's Monthly Orders: September" describes the tradition of the Qin and Han people hoarding dried vegetables in autumn: "In September, ginger and lotus are stored, and sunflower pickles and dried sunflowers are made." This means that in the ninth month of the lunar calendar, fresh ginger and lotus are collected, and sunflower pickles and dried sunflowers are pickled. It can be seen that this hoarding seems to have become a custom at the time, and it must have been circulating for some time.

During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, cellar-stored vegetables also appeared, mainly cabbage and radish.

Cellar-stored cabbage. Source/Internet

It can be found that dried vegetables and pickled vegetables are not only representatives of traditional food culture, but also reflect the changes in the living history of the ancients.

Production method

So how did the ancients make dried vegetables?

Dried vegetables, as the name suggests, are vegetables that have lost moisture. Although they are eaten by people from both north and south, in fact, their production is still different due to regional differences. Whether it is the craftsmanship, process or taste, they are basically the same, except that the vegetables used are different and the flavors are different.

First of all, the most basic step is that people wash the freshly picked vegetables with clean water, put them in a pot to boil and then dry them.

Drying plums. Photo by cjp, source: Tuchong Creative

Secondly, there are differences in the choice of vegetables when making dried vegetables between the north and south regions.

In the northern region, cabbage, potatoes, beans, mustard greens, etc. are generally used to make dried cabbage, dried potato slices, dried beans and dried mustard greens. These are the must-have dishes for northerners to "survive the winter." Of course, there are many other kinds of dried vegetables, such as spinach, lettuce, etc., which can also be made into dried vegetables.

Dried beans. Photography/Nongfu Spring is a little sweet, source/TuChong Creative

In the south, mustard greens, rapeseed, Chinese cabbage, and Chinese mustard are the main vegetables. People living in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, are famous for their special pickled mustard greens, such as Chinese mustard and nine-headed mustard. In addition, due to the superior climate in the south, both grains and vegetables can be harvested 2-3 times a year, so southerners can make dried vegetables at any time, regardless of the season.

Now, when you walk into a rural courtyard in autumn and winter, you may still see racks and round plates filled with vegetables drying in the sun.

From the perspective of production methods, dried vegetables and pickled vegetables are opposite in production methods, but overall, both are the crystallization of the wisdom of ancient people. As for their subsequent processing, from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the present, the ancients have been more particular about the eating methods of dried vegetables and pickled vegetables, and later generations have made new innovations based on the delicacies created by the ancients.

The Book of Rites recorded that the emperor of Zhou used different meat sauces with different pickled vegetables. For example, he used snail sauce with 苽菹 (now wild rice stem) , rabbit meat sauce with celery pickle, fish sauce with bamboo shoot pickle, and goose meat sauce with cattail leaf pickle. It can be seen that the ancients were very sophisticated and were very particular about even a simple pickled vegetable.

With the development of the times, the pickles and pickles mentioned above are no longer limited to pickling with salt. There are more varieties in the selection of ingredients, ingredients and methods of making. "Qimin Yaoshu" records the methods of making more than 20 kinds of pickles. It can be said that the ancients were really foodies! Among these more than 20 kinds of pickles, "Auricularia auricula Pickles" uses fresh auricularia auricula grown on jujube, mulberry, elm and willow trees. After blanching and draining, put them in the soursop to wash, then cut them into small pieces, add coriander, green onion, soy sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, mix well, and then add ground ginger and pepper powder to enhance the flavor, which is very smooth and delicious. In addition, there are soup pickles made with cabbage or turnip, pickles made with sunflower, and seaweed pickles made with seaweed, which are very similar to the methods of today's cold dishes. The Ming book "Yinzhuan Fushijian" once recorded the method of making "Guaci" - pickled cucumbers, dried bamboo shoots and chicken breast as the main ingredients, ginger and green onion as auxiliary ingredients, cut into shreds and stir-fry with sesame oil, which is very similar to the method of cooking today.

It can be seen that the ancients ate dried and pickled vegetables in a similar way to modern people, mixing or frying them, and basically paired them with meat. However, the Zhou emperor's way of eating pickled vegetables with meat sauce seems to be relatively rare nowadays.

To this day, the pickles, pickled vegetables, sauerkraut, and preserved vegetables we eat can be said to be the culinary treasures left to us by the ancients.

Pickled mustard tuber. Source: A clip from the variety show "Please Take Care of My Refrigerator"

Survival Wisdom

Dried vegetables and pickled vegetables have a history of about 3,000 years, and they are still popular in modern society. Why do they have such great appeal?

It can solve the problem of people having vegetables in winter and relieve people’s life pressure.

The reason why dried vegetables and pickled vegetables have been on people's tables for a long time is firstly related to the social environment in the old times. At that time, people lived in poverty, natural disasters and taxes affected people's agricultural production and limited people's living standards. In order to solve the problem of daily food, dried vegetables and pickled vegetables were invented. What's more, perhaps being able to eat dried vegetables and pickled vegetables in winter instead of starving to death was already quite satisfying.

This invention of the ancients has had a profound impact on later generations. Even without large-scale storage and preservation equipment, the grain that people worked hard to grow would not be completely lost, but could be simply processed into portable dried goods and stored for winter consumption or sold to others. In terms of buying and selling, the sales distance of dried vegetables is much longer than that of fresh vegetables, and it also plays an important role in promoting the launch of local specialty products.

Secondly, dried vegetables can be easily paired with any meat to make memorable dishes, and can be called a natural "hard dish companion". This is one of the reasons why dried vegetables and pickled vegetables are so popular among people.

The production of dried and pickled vegetables is extremely free in itself, and the inheritance and innovation of later generations have allowed this delicacy to continue to be revitalized. Even today, many regions across the country have their own representative special dried and pickled vegetables.

Various dried vegetables. Source: CCTV program "Beautiful China Tour" clip

The invention of dried vegetables that are easy to store and cook truly reflects the survival wisdom of the ancients in being able to adapt to circumstances and the environment. What are the "representative" dried vegetables and pickled vegetables of your hometown in your impression?

References:

Ni Fangliu, "What Vegetables Did Ancient People Eat in Winter", "Wanqing", Issue 12, 2020, pp. 39-40.

Xiao Hu's Stars: "Zhejiang Traditional Dishes: When did the history of pickled mustard greens originate? Why did it become a food trend?"

Huang Lu's "Thousands of Years of History in Praise of Vegetables".

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Author: Polarized Blue

Editor | Zhan Xihui

Proofreading | Qiu Sha

*This article is an exclusive article of “National Humanities and History”.