The taste imprint nourished by rice farming civilization: the historical origins and folk customs of rice cakes
The taste imprint nourished by China's rice culture includes rice cakes, whose history can be traced back to the beginning of agricultural civilization thousands of years ago.
Archaeological data show that at the Hemudu Cultural Site more than 7,000 years ago, ancestors had mastered the primitive skills of rice cultivation and grain processing.
Since the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, there have been detailed records of rice cakes in agriculture-related classics such as "Qi Min Yao Shu". At that time, what was called "bait" or "獍" was the original form of today's rice cakes.
In essence, the technique of making rice cakes is a deep deconstruction and reconstruction of the physical and biochemical properties of rice. It carries the simple philosophy of the Chinese nation that "food is the first priority for the people", and plays an indispensable role in the seasons and life rituals, thus becoming an important carrier of the social and cultural memory of rural China.
The code of craftsmanship in the technical system: an academic analysis from material selection, grinding to fermentation
The key to making rice cakes is to accurately control the characteristics of raw materials, the physical transformation, and the biological fermentation mechanism.
In terms of material selection, it pays attention to the amylopectin content of rice varieties. In the traditional inheritance system, most of them use glutinous rice or high-viscosity japonica rice. After being soaked in water, this kind of raw material has excellent gelatinization properties and gel forming ability.
The rice soaking process is the beginning of the technique and can last up to four hours or even last overnight. The purpose is to allow the starch molecules inside the rice grains to fully absorb water and swell, thereby creating ideal conditions for subsequent wet grinding.
In the grinding process, the ratio of rice to water strictly follows the principle of "rice-water balance" recorded in traditional recipes. Stone mills or modern colloid mills are used to grind them into fine and smooth rice slurry. This procedure is essentially a physical breakdown of the rice cell structure, thereby releasing its inherent gel potential.
The fermentation process is the essence of the technique that determines whether the texture of the finished product is soft or not.
Traditional processes mostly rely on wild yeast in nature or traditional starters, which use long-term resting at room temperature to promote the fermentable sugars in the rice milk to produce carbon dioxide under the action of microorganisms.
When fine bubbles appear on the surface of the rice milk, this marks the completion of the biological puffing process. This is the key to forming the honeycomb sponge texture of the rice cake.
This step of steaming uses an ingenious method of using the thermodynamic properties of water vapor. Vigorous steaming over high fire can keep the rice milk in a high-temperature and high-humidity environment, quickly completing protein denaturation and solidification, and at the same time completing starch alpha-transformation. Eventually, it will be shaped into a traditional pastry that is shiny, white, soft and delicious.
Aesthetic paradigm and cultural representation: the value dimension of intangible cultural heritage of rice cakes
Rice cake is an important part of the representative items of national intangible cultural heritage. Its value system includes the dimension of artistic aesthetics, the dimension of historical documents, and the dimension of social culture.
Examined from the perspective of artistic aesthetics, rice cakes, with their elegant and bright white color, delicate and flexible texture, and simple yet exquisite form, conform to the aesthetic ideal of "big taste but light, elegant and plain" in traditional Chinese food aesthetics.
In some cases, the surface has a natural cracked texture due to fermentation, and in other cases it is dotted with seasonal ingredients such as red dates, osmanthus, green and red silk, etc., ultimately forming a harmonious unity of vision and taste.
In terms of the value of historical documents, rice cake making skills are a manifestation of rice farming technology, an expression of the evolution of dietary customs, and a living witness to the development of social productivity. Its inheritance pedigree and its technological evolution provide precious physical evidence for studying the history of Chinese folk food culture.
Protection practice and living inheritance path from the perspective of intangible cultural heritage
In the process of globalization and urbanization, rice cake making skills are facing such practical challenges, that is, the inheritance context has changed, and traditional craftsmanship has become marginalized.
At present, my country's intangible cultural heritage protection system gives new vitality and vitality to this traditional skill through various mechanisms such as productive protection, record keeping and inheritor identification.
The contemporary revitalization of rice cakes is reflected in the innovation of product forms, the expansion of consumption scenarios, and the integration of family warmth into modern life, the integration of nostalgic memories into modern life, and the integration of ingenuity into modern life, making it a link between the past and the future, and a link between emotion and culture.
Only by adhering to the protection of authenticity and adhering to active inheritance at the same time can the sweet memory originating from the depths of rice farming civilization continue to shine in the tide of the times.
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