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Written by Wei Shuihua Header image | pixabay Due to their geographical proximity and similar cultural traditions, East Asian countries have many common eating habits. For example, using chopsticks, drinking grain wine, dipping in soy sauce, eating chili sauce, eating pickled vegetables, eating white rice, eating dog meat... Almost all the elements of the Chinese table that are clearly labeled by the Chinese can be found in North Korea, South Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. Fermented bean curd may be the only exception. This side dish made from pickled and fermented tofu is cheap, delicious and widely used. At the same time, it also perfectly solves the problem of soy products being unable to withstand storage and transportation, and is one of the most common side dishes across China. But the amazing thing is that North Korea, South Korea, Japan and Vietnam, which also love tofu, hardly see the shadow of fermented bean curd. They have their own reasons for not eating fermented bean curd, such as "smell", "high salt" and "unhealthy", but they seem to have completely forgotten about Japanese natto, which has a stronger odor, and Korean kimchi, which has a similarly high salt content. The Okinawa Islands, which have had a close historical connection with China, still have a food called "tofu cake" popular today. Like fermented bean curd, it relies on fermentation to improve the taste of tofu.
Because tofu cake cannot be too salty, its production process can only rely on alcohol to control the growth of mold. After adding the local Okinawan liquor "Awamori", a large number of beneficial bacteria were killed, which resulted in the tofu cake not being fermented deeply enough, with only the texture of fermented bean curd, but lacking the explosive umami flavor that amino acids bring to fermented bean curd. In essence, Okinawa tofu cake is just a snack similar to fermented bean curd, and it is far from reaching the taste level of fermented bean curd. What kind of soil has created the taste of Chinese food fermented in fermented bean curd, the Chinese charm hidden outside of fermented bean curd, and the Han and Tang aesthetics built on fermented bean curd? No.1 The raw material for making fermented bean curd is tofu, and the water content of tofu cannot be too high, and it needs to reach a certain solid density. The "silken tofu" invented by the Japanese cannot be used to make fermented bean curd. Brine is a prerequisite for making fermented bean curd.
Although this salt production waste composed of impurities such as potassium chloride, magnesium chloride and magnesium bromide has certain chemical toxicity and is often used as a negative example of healthy eating, without the simple brine, it is impossible to "make" tofu with appropriate dryness and wetness, and appropriate softness and hardness. Looking at many long-standing fermented bean curd production areas, such as Shaoxing, Zhejiang, Guilin, Guangxi, Linqing, Shandong, Chuxiong, Yunnan, Putian, Fujian... they have one thing in common, they are all salt production areas or salt distribution centers.
At the same time, soybean production capacity is also an indispensable external condition for the birth of fermented bean curd. This plant, native to the East Asian continent, has extremely strong soil adaptability and excellent protein, fat, and starch ratios. The only problem is that it is difficult to digest and tastes bad. Even if you spend a lot of effort to make tofu and soy milk, without the addition of seasonings, they will appear bland and tasteless. This is incomparable to the wheat that exudes a caramelized aroma after baking and the rice that exudes a jasmine fragrance after steaming. The monotonous taste of soybeans is destined to be only a side dish, not a staple food.
Therefore, in areas with flat land and fertile soil, soybeans will never replace grains as the main crop. Only in places where rice and wheat cannot be grown will soybeans be unusually prolific - because there are too many to eat, so various practices and preservation methods surrounding soybeans will come into being. Take Shaoxing, Zhejiang as an example. This city is sandwiched between the Ningshao Plain and the hills of eastern Zhejiang. On one side is a densely populated city and the vast East China Sea, which creates convenient conditions for the production and transportation of sea salt; on the other side is a mountainous area with densely covered high mountains and valleys, and there are more hillsides suitable for growing beans than fertile fields suitable for growing rice.
Picture | Fermented bean curd porridge, a Jiangnan flavor. Bean production, grinding; salt making, brine making; during the fermentation process, salt is added to remove bacteria, and the famous Shaoxing drunk recipe was born. All the processes are logical because of local products - as early as the era when the natural geographical pattern was formed, the path of fermented bean curd as a regional specialty was destined.
No.2 The story of Liu An, King of Huainan, inventing tofu is just a rumor, but the middle and lower reaches of the Huaihe River are the birthplace of tofu and fermented bean curd. The keyword "Huaishu" appears many times in early literature such as "Shuowen", "Huainanzi" and "Book of Rites", and the large wild soybean population preserved in the Huainan area proves the inseparable relationship between this land and beans.
The climate between the north and the south, the huge annual temperature difference, and the landforms with hills and plains all provide good growth conditions and a long filling period for soybeans. The Huaihe River waterway conveniently connects the salt production area in northern Jiangsu with here, providing objective conditions for the import and application of salt and brine. Although as a place of four wars, the northern nomadic peoples went south many times and fought with the Han regime in the Huaihe River basin, breaking and reconstructing the eating habits of this area for thousands of years. But the love for fermented bean curd has never changed.
In Luoshan County, Xinyang, Henan, people like to eat Luoshan large intestine soup, which is stewed with pig intestine, pig blood and tofu, and served with Luoshan fermented bean curd soaked in camellia oil. This is the most down-to-earth appetizer breakfast; in Yingshang County, Fuyang, Anhui, people are used to adding oil, salt, onion and chili to the thick batter, stewing it into a special snack "spicy paste", and eating it with rice crust buns. With a plate of local Huangba fermented bean curd, all Fuyang people will give a thumbs up and praise it as "authentic". In Huainan, Anhui, the famous beef soup has two companions. Most people would pair a bowl of beef soup with a fried sesame cake, but only a few gourmets know that the meal is incomplete without a piece of Bagongshan fermented bean curd.
Further downstream, in Huai'an, Jiangsu, one of the birthplaces of Huaiyang cuisine, although people cannot do without long fish and crabs in formal banquets, fermented bean curd is still present in the real street snacks. The famous local mutton soup in Wharf Town is made by boiling mutton and mutton offal into a thick white soup. A bowl of it is half meat and half soup. The original soup, green onions and fermented bean curd are used to make a dipping sauce, which is very enjoyable to dip in the meat and drink the soup.
These fermented bean curd-related foods in the Huaihe River Basin have a common feature: as a salty snack, it needs to be eaten with a staple food that is half soup and half vegetable. The soup and vegetable, which have been diluted with water, have regained their rich flavor, and the originally cheap bean products have taught people the principle of making the best use of everything as they are savored bit by bit. The ancient eating habits hide the national character of the farming people who are frugal, good at adapting, and cherishing what they have. No.3 Although fermented bean curd is highly correlated with agricultural geography, what is particularly dramatic is that the first documentary record of fermented bean curd may have originated from the regime established by the northern nomadic civilization. In the "Record of Buddhist Monasteries in Luoyang" written in the Northern Dynasties, a special snack is recorded: "Pounding beans into milk, and leaving them for a long time will turn them into cheese." This means that if soybeans are beaten into fine mud and left for a period of time, they will turn into cheese. Obviously, this is a substitute for cheese.
Its emergence is related to the technological and cultural explosion during the Northern Wei Dynasty; to the Xianbei people’s migration to the south, changing their surnames and clothes, and gradually changing their grassland eating habits; and even more to the integration of the northern and southern ethnic groups and the convergence of their lifestyles. Behind the small piece of fermented bean curd is the direction of the East Asian empire at the crossroads of history.
But the flaw of this soy-made "fake cheese" is equally significant - instability. Soybeans are different from cow and goat milk, which have their own probiotic flora. Soybeans are completely dependent on the flora in the air for fermentation. Any change in temperature or humidity may lead to the failure of fermented bean curd production. A new auxiliary ingredient came into being - fermented bean curd koji. Like wine koji, this is a cluster of fungal spores that forms the framework for the fermentation process. In the process of making fermented bean curd, people select the varieties with the best taste and the strongest aroma, dry and cultivate them, domesticate microorganisms, and continue to use them in new fermented bean curd production. The invention of fermented bean curd koji completely changed the production process of fermented bean curd: the original method of boiling the tofu embryo, adding salt and sealing the jar, and directly pickling it has evolved into putting the fermented bean curd koji and tofu together to promote mold and hair growth, and then adding salt and wine to pickle and sterilize it after fermentation to a certain extent. Obviously, the latter is more fermented, and therefore has more amino acids. After the Northern and Southern Dynasties, fermentation first and then pickling became the mainstream method of fermented bean curd. People also classify fermented bean curd by the length and color of the hyphae on the surface of tofu. White long hyphae are called Mucor fermented bean curd; yellow-gray short hyphae are called Rhizopus fermented bean curd. Mucor is resistant to low temperatures, ferments slowly, and has a deep taste. It mostly appears in the pickling of fermented bean curd in the northern region or the south in winter. People in Taiyuan, Shanxi call fermented bean curd "soy sauce tofu", which is a typical Mucor fermented bean curd.
The famous Jin cuisine "Plum Sauce Pork in Lotus Leaf Pancake" is made by mixing this kind of soybean sauce with sliced pork belly, steaming it and then wrapping it in lotus leaf. The solid chewiness of the wheat pancake further delays the release of the flavor of soybean sauce, making the aftertaste of this dish extremely long, with the aroma of meat and soybean sauce lingering for three days.
The opposite is true for Rhizopus. The higher the temperature, the stronger its activity. It can even work smoothly in the high temperature environment of nearly 40 degrees in the southern summer. For example, the hot and humid climate of Guilin, Guangxi, is the perfect environment for the birth of Rhizopus fermented bean curd.
Compared with Mucor fermented bean curd, Rhizopus lacks the delicate and complex taste due to its fast fermentation speed, but its explosive lipid aroma is incomparable. The standard method of Guangxi Lipu taro braised pork is to marinate and season with fermented bean curd without adding a grain of salt. The starch of taro and pork belly provide enough rich taste, while the aroma of Guilin fermented bean curd brings the flavor of this dish to the top.
Nothing has a fixed taste, only what is palatable is precious - these eight words are exactly appropriate when applied to the world of fermented bean curd.
No.4 In the 14th century, the southeastern coastal area of Fujian became the largest commercial trade center in East Asia due to the developed maritime trade during the Song and Yuan dynasties. Arabs, Hui people, Southeast Asians and Europeans came and went here, the economy was highly developed, the culture was rapidly integrated, and many interesting new eating styles became popular here, such as red yeast rice.
Red yeast rice is a kind of Aspergillus, which is named because it grows rose-red mycelium during fermentation and is rich in natural pigments. Today, Fuzhou people use it to brew a red rice wine called "Qinghong Wine", and use the red lees to cook seafood and pickle fish and shrimp.
But what really made red yeast rice go beyond Fujian and become popular all over the country was fermented bean curd. After adding red yeast rice to the fermentation, the originally light yellow and light white fermented bean curd turned into a charming rose red. The polysaccharides, alcohol and other organic substances produced by the red yeast fungus were also mixed with the original flavor substances of the fermented bean curd, resulting in a new taste. Soon, red yeast rice became a popular subject in the world of fermented bean curd. Today, almost all sauce factories that produce fermented bean curd have a product line of this kind of fermented bean curd. People gave it a nice and vivid name: rose fermented bean curd. Because it originated in the south, it was called "Southern fermented bean curd"; or perhaps to distinguish, people called the yellow-white fermented bean curd without red yeast rice "white bean curd" and the one with red yeast rice "red bean curd".
It is popular in Chaoshan area to use red fermented bean curd to make cakes and pastries. The process is very complicated: first, marinate pork fat with sugar to make it crystal clear "ice meat", then cut it into cubes and mix it with fried peanuts, sesame seeds, minced garlic, and fermented bean curd to make the filling. After wrapping it in alkaline skin similar to Cantonese mooncakes and baking it, it becomes the famous Chaoshan snack "fermented bean curd cake".
When you break it open, the light red filling inside is the most distinctive feature of Chaoshan fermented bean curd cake. After heating, the charming meaty aroma of melted fat blends with the sweet aroma of fermented bean curd, and paired with a cup of Fenghuang Dancong tea, this is the most pleasant moment of the day for Chaoshan people.
In the Pearl River Delta region, fermented bean curd is even more useful.
In addition to replacing salt and soy sauce, and being stewed with pork belly to make bright red, oily and fragrant fermented bean curd pork, it can also be used as a dipping sauce for mutton pot; it can also be soaked in peanuts and fried to make fermented bean curd peanut kernels; it can be ground and fried with water spinach to make fermented bean curd vegetables with distinct red and green colors; it can be wrapped in rice dumplings leaves together with glutinous rice and pork belly to make fragrant fermented bean curd rice dumplings; or it can be added to stewed pig's trotters to make fragrant and delicious fermented bean curd pig's trotters.
In Guangzhou, the capital of fermented bean curd, "Nanru" is no longer just a kind of food, but a synonym for a cuisine.
No.5 Wu After the invention of fermented bean curd, the imagination of Chinese people seemed to be enlightened. Various kinds of alcohol, vegetable oil, sesame, peanuts, taro, kidney beans, and peppers introduced to China later, all participated in the production of fermented bean curd. The pedigree of Chinese fermented bean curd has become extremely rich, and some places with rich products have also stood out in this wave of "fermented bean curd inventions". For example, fermented bean curd with fermented glutinous rice, taro grains and salted green plums is popular in Taiwan. It is a tradition of Fujian Hakka people to add fermented glutinous rice to dishes, betel nut taro is a local specialty of Taiwan, and salted green plums soaked in wine is a custom of Japanese people. Taiwanese people use extremely inclusive fermented bean curd to mix and match, and even creatively add some red beans, kidney beans and other beans to enrich the taste level of fermented bean curd.
"Taiwanese milk tea in a fermented bean curd jar" is well-deserved reputation. Mouding oil fermented bean curd from Chuxiong, Yunnan, is another example. Chuxiong is located in the transition zone between the eastern Yunnan Plateau and the Hengduan Mountains. It has both gentle hills and majestic mountains and deep valleys. Various animals and plants thrive here, making it a veritable kingdom of biodiversity.
As the name suggests, oil-fermented bean curd is fermented bean curd soaked and seasoned with oil. It contains vegetable oils squeezed from woody oil crops such as walnuts, camellia oil, and olives, as well as spices such as chili peppers, green prickly ash, golden cap, and coriander, and fat-soluble flavor substances that are precipitated from the oil. Ultimately, the complex and rich oils contribute to the unique flavor of Mouding fermented bean curd; it also reflects from one aspect the historical trend of the southern part of Yunnan being integrated into the Chinese territory after the Ming and Qing Dynasties. But whether it is Taiwan's plum fermented bean curd or Yunnan's oil fermented bean curd, they can only be regarded as improvements to the taste of fermented bean curd at the level of "technique". A real fermented bean curd revolution, initiated from the level of "Tao", is brewing in the center of the empire. In the eighth year of Emperor Kangxi's reign, Wang Zhihe, a native of Anhui, went to Beijing to make a living. There are many different opinions about whether he failed the imperial examination or was a red-topped Huizhou merchant. But one thing is certain: the sauce garden run by Wang Zhihe made the world's first can of "Qingfang".
The so-called "Qing Fang" continues the color classification of "Bai Fang" and "Hong Fang", referring to the bluish-gray appearance of fermented bean curd. Wang Zhihe's hometown, Huizhou, Anhui, has a custom of eating stinky vegetables. The famous local ingredients, stinky mandarin fish, stinky tofu, fermented thousand sheets, and fermented beans, all have a bluish-gray appearance similar to Qing Fang.
However, the process of making green bean curd is completely different from these stinky vegetables. Two "new partners" - yellow pulp water and saltpeter - make their debut. Yellow pulp water is actually the light yellow liquid left after making tofu. It contains a large amount of water-soluble protein and sugar, but because it is very easy to spoil, it is often regarded as wastewater. Saltpeter is sodium nitrate, a common mineral in saline-alkali areas, toxic and a strong oxidant. When Nobel invented nitroglycerin explosives, he used purified saltpeter.
The process of making Qingfang is not complicated. In the process of making ordinary fermented bean curd, yellow pulp water and trace amounts of saltpeter are constantly added. Yellow pulp water provides more raw materials for tofu fermentation and accelerates the metabolism of the flora; saltpeter promotes the rapid oxidation of organic matter in tofu and inhibits the growth of miscellaneous bacteria. This is a risky move. Accelerating the fermentation speed and increasing the intensity of fermentation can allow tofu to release more amino acids and obtain a stronger umami taste. But the price is that the balance of the flora is very easy to get out of control, and if you are not careful, the fermented bean curd will deteriorate.
The high-purity saltpeter played a role in sterilization and preservation, which contributed to the birth of Qingfang, which has a strong odor, thorough fermentation and a more delicious taste. Obviously, this is an example of the progress of people's wisdom and livelihood, the dividend brought by technological development, and also a microcosm of the great economic and social development of the unified country after the chaos in the late Ming Dynasty.
Picture | Sesame sauce, green onion, and chives are the best dipping sauces for Beijing shabu-shabu mutton
-END- Foreigners are often curious about Chinese fermented bean curd, calling it "Oriental cheese." This metaphor is both right and wrong.
In terms of texture and taste, fermented bean curd has a similar delicate and dense taste to cheese; in terms of usage, fermented bean curd, like cheese, can be used as a side dish, can be used for frying, boiling, deep-frying, and can be eaten alone as a snack; as the most important by-product of agricultural society, the status of soy products on the Chinese table is indeed as important as that of dairy products in Western cuisine. However, in the process of dietary development, cheese, which was originally invented only to facilitate the preservation and transportation of cow and sheep milk, has achieved refinement of grades with the leap forward in economic conditions, just like alcohol, tobacco, coffee and other hobbies, and has half a foot in the door of private enjoyment of the nobility. Its class attributes have therefore been completely changed. The growth path of fermented bean curd is completely different. From its birth to today, no matter how the craftsmanship is improved or how the categories are derived, it has always stood behind the ordinary time and ordinary alleys of the Chinese people. It is a market delicacy that everyone can enjoy regardless of gender, age, identity, or income. Just like this ancient country where history is written by the land and created by the people. Where there is fermented bean curd, there must be ink and color paintings, clear wind and bright moon; people who love to eat fermented bean curd must be brave and kind-hearted, and their voices must be clear and articulate.
| Heilongjiang·Kedong fermented bean curd| | Beijing·Tongzhou fermented bean curd|
| Shandong Linqing Fermented Bean Curd|
| Shanxi Fenyang Fermented Bean Curd |
| Sichuan Jiajiang Fermented Bean Curd|
| Chongqing·Zhongzhou fermented bean curd|
| Anhui Jiujiang Fermented Bean Curd|
| Zhejiang Shaoxing Fermented Bean Curd|
| Hunan Pingjiang Fermented Bean Curd|
| Fujian Nan'an Fermented Bean Curd|
| Guangdong Kaiping Fermented Bean Curd|
| Guangxi Guilin Fermented Bean Curd |
| Guizhou Tongzi Fermented Bean Curd |
| Yunnan·Mouding Fermented Bean Curd| |
