In the matter of eating candy, the ancients also loved and feared it
2023-07-14
Recently, the topic "Aspartame causes cancer" topped the microblog search. Aspartame is a kind of sweetener which is widely used in food processing. It can not only meet people's demand for sweetness, but also avoid the health risks caused by excessive sugar consumption. Chinese people have a long history of eating sugar, so let's take a look at how ancient people found a hint of sweetness on their tongue in nature. When it comes to honey with a hint of sweetness on its tongue, it's hard not to recall the taste of honey. Since the Zhou Dynasty, there have been written records of ancient people collecting honey for consumption, and the actual time when ancient people consumed honey must have been earlier than recorded in historical documents. By the Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern dynasties, the wise ancients were no longer satisfied with collecting wild honey from nature, but began to conduct artificial beekeeping. This method of collecting honey not only allows for the selection of suitable locations, but also controls the size of the bee colony to facilitate bee farmers' collection. At the same time, honey has become a convenient and stable source of sugar. The honey source is guaranteed, but if you want the sweetness of honey to linger on your tongue, you must first refine it. The ancients referred to honey that was not cooked over fire as white sand honey, while honey that was cooked over fire was called purple honey. According to the "Summary of Nongsang Clothing and Food": "Those who do not see the fire are white sand honey, and those who see the fire are purple honey. Put them in a basket and cook them. However, put the honey from the buttocks into a pot and simmer it slowly until it melts and turns out to be cooked. Pre arrange for tin spinning or pot tiles, each with cold water, and pour the wax juice into it again to solidify into yellow wax, using the wax from the inside of the pot as a measure." The honey refining technique of the Ming Dynasty was even more exquisite, According to Li Shizhen, "Every kilogram of sand honey goes into water for four liang. The silver stone ware is made with mulberry wood and torch, and the foam is picked up. When it comes to the new moon, it is used instead of being scattered. It is called fire refining. Another method is to place heavy towel in a container, and boil it for a day. The drop of water will not dare. It is also good to use, and it will not hurt the fire." The refined honey is "as white as congealed, sweet in quality, and durable in storage." Such delicious honey must be enjoyed slowly. In addition to the most common way for ancient people to drink honey mixed with water, honey, as a sweetener, gained great popularity on ancient dining tables. Pastries in the Qin and Han Dynasties, such as Lufang (paste ring), pith cake, thin ring cake, cut cake, cocoon sugar, were made by adding honey to glutinous rice flour or flour. From the Southern Dynasty to the Sui and Tang dynasties, ancient people actually ate "honey made animals such as squid, crabs and fish, as well as honey made ginger". In the Song Dynasty, in addition to various types of honey made pastries, such as honey cakes, bee candy cakes, honey sesame cakes, honey spicy pies, etc., the candied fruit industry also developed with the popularization of honey. In addition, the Song people also used honey to make wine. Su Dongpo once mentioned in his poem "Honey Wine" that "skillfully refining honey into jade liquid is better than ten thousand times the strength of gold elixir." This shows how sweet this honey wine is. The sweet taste of 'Yi' is as ancient as honey, and there is also maltose as a natural sweetener. As early as in the Book of Songs, the people of the Zhou Dynasty used the phrase "Zhou Yuan's land is as fertile as sugar" to praise the ancient Gongdan father, meaning that he brought the fertile land of Zhou Yuan. It can be seen that ancient people living in the Zhou Dynasty had already tasted the sweetness of malt candy. In the book "Zhou Li Tian Guan Ji Yi", Jia Gongyan once said, "The five flavors are sour and bitter, while the alcohol is bitter. Yimi is sweet, ginger is spicy, and salt is salty. These five flavors are sour, bitter, spicy, salty, and sweet." It is explicitly stated that Yimi is the sweetest of the five flavors
Edit：XiaoWanNing Responsible editor：YingLing
Source：Beijing Youth Daily
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