What oil did ancient people use for cooking?

The earliest edible oil used in ancient times was animal fat, such as pigs, cattle and sheep.

I remember when I was a child, I used to fry fat pork into lard, which was especially fragrant and often used for bibimbap. Every time I eat lard bibimbap, my mother tells a story: when my grandmother was young, she used meat coupons to buy meat, but she couldn't buy more. Grandma is honest and uneducated. I get bullied every time I buy meat. The butcher always gives her lean meat, and grandma will cry when she comes back.

At that time, I thought grandma was really stupid, and lean meat was delicious. Why are you crying? I didn't know until I grew up that I couldn't eat lean meat without oil at home.

The history of ancient edible oil

There are countless delicious foods in our country. As early as ancient times, our ancestors had already started cooking food. Since Suiren invented fire, barbecue was born. Later, with pottery, stewing and boiling became popular. However, these cooking techniques do not require the participation of edible oil, and the use of oil was not revealed until the emergence of "fried" vegetables.

The first stir-fried dish in history should be fried eggs with leeks. According to Zhou Li, "Shu Ren recommends leeks in spring, wheat in summer, millet in autumn and rice in winter. Leek takes eggs, wheat takes fish, millet takes dolphins and rice takes geese. " Among them, "leek eggs" are scrambled eggs with leeks, because leeks can't cook eggs, right?

But before the Han Dynasty, the edible oils used by the ancients were all animal fats, mainly pork. At the end of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Qi Yao Min Shu recorded the process of fat pork becoming pig fat, but this kind of lard was not called "oil" at that time, but "paste". Because the ancients called the oil fried from horned animal fat as grease, and the oil fried from hornless animal fat as ointment, all animal fats and vegetable fats were collectively called oil until the word "oil" was invented.

It was in the Han Dynasty that ancient edible oil changed from animals to plants. Zhang Qian brought back sesame from the Western Regions, which was called "flax" at that time. People find that the oil squeezed from this kind of thing is very fragrant and can be used for eating, so sesame oil is the earliest plain oil. But before sesame oil, our vegetable oil extraction technology has been produced. At that time, it was extracted from almonds and tallow, not for eating, but mainly for lighting. Tian Ji, written by Chen in Ming Dynasty, recorded in detail the process of ancient people extracting oil from animal fat.

Since the use of sesame oil in the Han Dynasty, vegetable oil has entered our gourmet cooking. By the Ming dynasty, the types of vegetable oils were quite rich, and the ancients also classified these oils.

It can be seen that rapeseed oil, soybean oil and tea seed oil existed in the Ming Dynasty. Just according to the ranking at that time, the ancients should rank according to the oil production, because tea seed oil is the top grade now and it is very expensive to sell.

When Tiangong Wu Kai was written in Ming Dynasty, corn had already entered China and began to be planted in large quantities, but there was no record of corn oil in the book, because corn oil was extracted from corn germ, and there was no such technology at that time.

The most controversial peanut oil

Among the ancient edible oils, peanut oil should be the most controversial one. Many people think that peanut was introduced into China only in the Ming Dynasty, so peanut oil appeared after that. In fact, peanut oil existed as early as the Song and Yuan Dynasties.

According to Zhi Heng in Yuhai, Yunnan, peanuts were planted in the Song and Yuan Dynasties and used to extract oil. Peanut oil is not only used for eating, but also for lighting.

Therefore, the order of oil used in ancient cooking should be animal oil, sesame oil, peanut oil and various rapeseed oils.

Speaking of what oil ancient people used for cooking, it may be a bit complicated. In order not to be bored, let's talk briefly.

Let's talk about what oil the ancients used first.

At the earliest time, it was mainly animal fat. In the Explanation of Names written by Liu Xi at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, it is recorded that "those with horns on their heads are fat, and those without horns are ointment", which means that what is boiled by long-horned animals is called grease, and what is boiled by short-horned animals is called ointment. For example, butter and sheep oil are grease, and lard is ointment. Of course, these can only be enjoyed by most ancient dignitaries.

In addition to animal fat, the history of eating vegetable oil is not short, but it is a bit different from the current situation. For example, soybean, called glutinous rice in ancient times, was one of the five grains as early as the Spring and Autumn Period. But at that time, soybean was not used to extract oil, because the output was too low and the oil yield was not ideal. The earliest plant used to extract oil was sesame brought back from Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions, which was called "flax" at that time, so the extracted oil was also called "sesame oil" and "sesame oil".

However, cooking can't just use oil, and the pot is also a key. In fact, for the limitation of cooking, the pot is more important. Of course, this issue is still controversial, which is normal. The general view is that "iron pot" and "vegetable oil" only became popular in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. It was not until the Song Dynasty that some dishes named after "Fried" were recorded in writing, such as the method of scrambled eggs in Qi Yao Min Shu: breaking, stirring in a copper pot, and mixing yellow and white. The fine army is blue and white, and the salt rice is muddy. Fried with sesame oil. It smells good and looks good.

Therefore, what oil ancient people used for cooking depends on the times and the social status of the people. Basically, it is made of cattle and sheep oil, lard and vegetable oil.

Friends who are interested in food, healthy diet and food anecdotes can pay attention to and like it, and share interesting and useful related content together in the future!

In the ancient primitive society of China, people lived by fishing and hunting, and generally barbecued their prey.

But from the Shang and Zhou dynasties, clever ancients invented cauldrons, which were used for cooking, equivalent to the current pots. But at that time, there were no "fried" dishes, only stew and cook the meat. Naturally, no oil was used.

animal oil

Man discovered oil in baking. Before the Han Dynasty, people used animal oil, and most of the oil was extracted from pork, because pork was rich in fat. When the ancients roasted fat meat, they found that liquid would fall down, which was delicious. However, in ancient times, this lard was called "paste".

Since Zhang Qian brought back sesame oil from the Western Regions, he found that people in the Western Regions are using edible linseed oil, which is very fragrant and easy to obtain. Later, Zhang Qian brought sesame back to the Central Plains. The "paste" extracted from animals and plants after the establishment of the world in the Han Dynasty is called oil.

vegetable oil

I believe that most of our families are now using peanut oil, which was also controversial in ancient times. Peanut was introduced into China only in the Ming Dynasty, but it was recorded in the history books of Song and Yuan Dynasties that people used peanut oil and could afford it. I believe the cost is very cheap.

Therefore, the order of cooking with oil in ancient times is: animal oil-vegetable oil-mixed oil of animals and plants.

After the founding of New China, the edible oil in China still can't meet the needs of families, so people will extract oil from pork in an ancient way.

However, this method is not desirable. After all, at that time, meat also needed meat coupons to buy, and pork, a scarce product at that time, could not be bought with money. Therefore, in the early days of the founding of New China, many people used "water" instead of oil, but the food fried with water had no taste and was only eaten as oil.

Let's carefully analyze what oil the ancients used for cooking. We can learn a thing or two from the habits of the older generation.

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Many times, when adults buy meat, they will choose some fat meat. And these fats are the raw materials for refining oil mentioned above. They will fry the fat in the pan until the oil is extracted. When it solidifies, they will put it in the refrigerator. These solidified white lumps will come in handy the next time you cook. Seriously, the dishes fried with these pig fat are really delicious.

I personally know whether the stone mill sesame oil is fragrant or not. Every time we meet a traditional craftsman who uses a stone mill to extract oil, we will smell a rich aroma from a distance and stay there for a long time.

But this kind of oil is time-consuming, so it is more expensive than ordinary oil, especially in ancient times. Although the smelting technology is poor, sesame oil is still regarded as the best oil by many dignitaries.

In ancient times, there was less oil. Ordinary people sometimes didn't even put oil in cooking, but occasionally put some salt to taste.

Before the Ming Dynasty, cooking in people's homes was a luxury. In ancient times, people who could eat cooking were either rich or expensive, and ordinary people generally lacked raw materials. Although oil is scarce, they can be extracted from cheap fat pork.

In ancient times, an ordinary leek egg on our dining table was not eaten by many people. The reason is that leeks can be made from local materials, while eggs are generally sold by others, and they simply can't take care of themselves, although everyone knows that eggs have high edible value.

But since the Qing dynasty, this phenomenon has improved a lot, and many farmers can actually eat simple fried vegetables. Before this, this kind of life phenomenon was unimaginable.

What oil did ancient people use for cooking? There is a reliable answer here, which is clearly recorded in the Book of Rites.

The Book of Rites is a classic work of Confucianism in China, the theoretical basis of China's philosophy, and vernacular Chinese is the root of China culture. There are very detailed records about what oil was used for cooking in the pre-Qin period:

"It is advisable to eat mutton dolphin paste in spring, glutinous rice paste in summer, glutinous rice paste in autumn and fresh feather paste in winter."

What it says is:

Spring food is mutton and suckling pigs, which should be cooked with butter;

Summer food is dried chicken and dried fish, which should be cooked with dog oil;

What is delicious in autumn is beef mutton and deer mutton, which should be cooked with lard.

What is delicious in winter is fresh fish and geese, which should be cooked in sheep oil.

The wisdom of the ancients, different ingredients use different oils. Today, we have more cooking oil than more than 2500 years ago, but the usage is not as exquisite as it was then.

In history, oil was called "fat" or "paste", Zhou Li Tiangong recorded that "those who coagulate are fat and those who release are paste", and it was called "fat" when describing various animal oils, while the book in the Western Han Dynasty said that "beans have paste", which means vegetable oil is paste, until Tiangong Wu Kai devoted himself to oil products in the Ming Dynasty.

Ancient oil pressing technology and tea oil workshop preserved in Mu Feng Village, Huitong County, Hunan Province.

There were only two sources for the ancients to eat oil, one was animal oil and the other was vegetable oil. In primitive society, ancestors invented kindling and oil was born. At that time, when burning meat, it was found that oil flowed out of the meat during cooking, accompanied by attractive fragrance, so ancestors collected animal oil as seasoning and humans began to use animal oil.

Ancient oil press equipment.

The appearance of vegetable oil is also related to kindling. In addition to meat, the ancients also picked wild fruits to satisfy their hunger. After some nuts are cooked in the fire, liquid similar to animal oil will flow out, which is full of fragrance and can even be used for lighting. According to "Biography of the Yellow Emperor", the Yellow Emperor got the river book and watched it day and night, which made Li Mu pick wood oil, taking cotton as the heart, burning it at night, and the oil began. Although the above is a fairy tale, it also shows that vegetable oil is not only used as food, but also used as lighting.

The picture shows the tickets for oil mill in Qing Dynasty.

The oil we are familiar with now didn't appear for a long time. Although sesame was recorded in the Book of Songs, it was used as food and medicine at that time. According to Hanshu, Zhang Qian brought back soybeans and rapeseed from the Western Regions as vegetables and food. It was not until after the Song Dynasty that soybeans and rapeseed were used as oil. According to the Northern Song Dynasty's Classic of Materia Medica, rapeseed is both oil and medicine. In Song Dynasty, Herbal Yi Yan also recorded an important oil crop. Tung trees and tung trees are divided into two types: tung trees and white tung trees, whose seeds can be used to extract oil. In the Song Dynasty, there was a special organization called "Tung Tree Workshop".

Wood pressing, also known as impact oil pressing.

Oil-pressing technology was first recorded in Qi Yaomin's Book in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. At that time, marijuana and rapeseed were mainly used as candles and medicines. A few of them are so expensive that ordinary people can't enjoy them. It was not until after the Song Dynasty that the technology was developed, and grinding began in the north, and the oil yield in the south was greatly improved, so that ordinary families could eat it. Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica describes oil crops in detail.

What oil did ancient people use for cooking? We should be able to see a thing or two from the living habits of the older generation.

(1) The ancients would definitely cook with sesame oil.

When I was a child, every time I went to school, I met a shop that specialized in grinding sesame oil with a stone mill. This shop is owned by a friend of my grandfather's, and every time I pass by that fragrance, I can't forget it. Especially when I went to school in the winter morning, it was still dark and cold, but every time I passed this grandpa's shop, I was attracted by the thick sesame oil residue, and I stole a handful of sesame oil residue at the door of the shop several times, which was dark and oily.

Later, I asked grandpa why he used a stone mill to grind oil. How troublesome it is. Grandpa said it was handed down from ancient times, so you can't throw it to me. Therefore, although the sesame oil output of stone mill is not as high as that of machine, it is better to grind sesame oil with stone mill.

From this grandfather's description, I know that although the ancient people's cooking oil refining technology is backward, sesame oil is definitely edible.

(2) All kinds of animal fats are indispensable.

Every time my mother buys pork, she will cut off the fat we don't like, cut it into small pieces, boil lard in an iron pot and pour it into a bowl. When it's cold, lard tends to solidify into lumps, so my mother carefully stores it and cooks it next time. Not to mention the oil extracted from this kind of pork, which is especially fragrant when used for cooking.

Now, people all know how to collect all kinds of animal fats for cooking. In addition to the most common lard, there are animal fats such as chicken oil, duck oil and sheep oil, which can be used for cooking. Even now, many factories process animal fat into daily necessities such as laundry soap.

In ancient times, the oil refining technology of plants was too poor, and animal fat, an easily available oil, would not be spared. Therefore, in ancient times, cooking required the use of various animal fats.

(Text/A Bing)

What oil did ancient people use for cooking?

As a modern person, with the development of science and technology, it becomes simple and easy to get the related items and ingredients we need around our lives.

For example, cooking oil, I hardly thought about its history. Modern people use salad oil and blended oil when cooking in the kitchen. After eating the cooking oil at home, they just need to go downstairs to the supermarket opposite to buy a pot. However, think about our ancestors in the long river of history, those who lived in ancient society. What oil do they use to cook in the kitchen? They didn't have modern technology and modern business at that time, so

Speaking of the ancients, it reminds me of the songs of the dynasties when I was a child: "Xia Shang Zhou, Spring and Autumn Warring States, Han Dynasty after Qin Dynasty, Three Kingdoms, Jin Dynasty, Southern and Northern Dynasties" and so on. It tells us that our ancient times were divided into different dynasties according to different historical periods, so we discuss what oil ancient people used for cooking. It also needs to be divided according to dynasties. We choose several important historical nodes to tell you what oil ancient people used to cook in the kitchen.

What oil did ancient people use for cooking?

The historical nodes we choose are: Zhou Dynasty, Han Dynasty, Three Kingdoms Period, Song Dynasty, Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty. Let's briefly talk about what oil the ancients used to cook food in different periods according to a given historical node.

1. What oil did the Zhou ancients use to cook delicious food?

There have been some records about cooking and diet in Zhou Dynasty in ancient books. As for our question and answer, my general understanding is that the ancients had a certain understanding of the nature of various animal oils at that time. For example, it is recorded in the literature that they eat lambs and suckling pigs in spring, cook them with butter, eat fresh fish and geese in winter, cook them with sheep oil, eat calves and deer in autumn, and the ancients used lard;

From the above, we can generally understand that in the ancients of Zhou Dynasty, the main sources of food were raised poultry, captured wild animals and fish, so most of them used animal oil to cook all kinds of meat;

2. What kind of oil did the ancients use to cook delicious food during the Three Kingdoms period in the Han Dynasty?

In the Han Dynasty, sesame was called flax at that time, and it was introduced into the Central Plains from the Western Regions. Vegetable oil represented by flax became possible in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Therefore, in the ancient Han Dynasty, when cooking in the kitchen, most of them chose animal oil, and it is estimated that the amount of vegetable oil would be very small. In the Three Kingdoms period, sesame oil may be eaten in large quantities, and there is a tendency to gradually replace animal oil.

3. What oil did the ancients in Song Dynasty use to cook delicious food?

In the Song Dynasty, vegetable oil became popular. There were more than a dozen kinds of vegetable oils, 5-6 of which were edible.

4. What oil did the ancients use to cook delicious food in Ming and Qing Dynasties?

In the Ming Dynasty, there were more and more kinds of vegetable oils, and systematic methods of making oil began to be recorded in large numbers. At that time, the ancients had a deeper understanding of the nature and different functions of various vegetable oils.

Since the Qing Dynasty, peanut oil, as an edible oil, appeared in the diet and daily life of the people in the Qing Dynasty, and it did not completely exclude animal oil, which may be a bit the same as our view of lard today.

This is an interesting question. As we all know, China is a country of world cuisine. Compared with China's varied and delicious cooking dishes, the French fries hamburgers that the western world often eats can really be called junk food. Gourmets all over the world are proud to taste authentic and exquisite Chinese food. In cooking, oil is a very important material, which can not only prevent the pan from sticking, but also provide nutrition for the human body. Then the question is, what kind of oil is put in ancient dishes? Although meat is more expensive than vegetables, the oil used in ancient times was mostly animal oil.

This extracted meat oil is used in early cooking. According to Qi Shu Yao Min, the extraction method is "fat from pigs", that is, speculation. Peel off animal fat, cut it into pieces, fry it, refine it into paste, and then condense it into fat. The earliest use of animal oil was recorded in the Zhou Dynasty. According to "Continued Jinyang Autumn", "Huan Lingbao is good at storing famous calligraphy and painting. The guest has arrived and has come out to see it. If you eat cold utensils and dye pictures, there will be no cold utensils. " At that time, the cold food utensils were pasta fried with cream.

The extraction of vegetable oil began in the Han Dynasty.

With the increase of population, the production of animal oil can't feed the whole society. When new oil crops were introduced from the western regions, the birth of new oil extraction technology gave people a new choice, that is, extracting vegetable oil from crops such as peanuts. There was a record in the History of the Three Kingdoms: "Sun Quan went to Hefei New Town, and Man Chong rushed there, gathered dozens of strong men, broke them into torches, poured sesame oil, and set fire to thieves from the windward." The sesame oil here is actually very similar to sesame oil.

This is my opinion. Please correct me if there are any differences.

Our Chinese nation has a long history. The long history of 5,000 years has given birth to a rich and colorful history and culture, as well as a rich food culture. Food is the most important thing for the people, and the food culture has been passed down from generation to generation.

Modern people's diets are varied, such as frying, frying, boiling and frying, and all the major cuisines are in full bloom. Even when we usually fry side dishes, we are very particular. All kinds of ingredients and cooking oil are indispensable. Only in this way can the fried dishes taste better and taste richer. Nowadays, the edible oil is very diverse, which also makes the dishes on the table more delicious. We cannot live without oil now. So, in ancient times, what oil did they use for cooking?

We have countless delicious foods now. As early as ancient times, our ancestors had cooked food. At first, there was no oil in society, and it was rarely thought that food would be used. Because at first the food was mainly cooked. In fact, the emergence of oil and animals have great factors!

Animal fat was the thickest in primitive society. At that time, people found that a layer of greasy things in animal fat could make food taste more delicious. So people fry animal carcasses with utensils to "refine oil", which is the earliest source of bio-oil.

The discovery of ancient edible oil changed from an animal in the Han Dynasty to a plant, and Zhang Qian brought back sesame seeds from the Western Regions. It was called "flax" at that time. It is found that the oil squeezed by this plant is very fragrant and can be used for eating, so sesame oil is the earliest vegetable oil, which is sesame oil today. By the Ming dynasty, the types of vegetable oil were quite rich. Rapeseed oil, sesame oil, sesame oil, etc. existed in the Ming Dynasty, and vegetable oil was widely used since then.

For example, Mapo tofu was invented in Qing Dynasty. Mapo tofu is also fried, but it is not the same as our oil. For example, in the past, Mapo tofu was made of vegetable oil and was not eaten at all. And even if vegetable oil is used, it is not the same as our current refining method. At that time, the vegetable oil was rapeseed oil, because it was not very convenient to extract peanut oil in ancient times and it was not widely circulated, and the oil yield of soybean oil was very low. So in ancient times, vegetable oil was used.

Because of the limitation of practice and ingredients, the taste is not as rich as it is now. The raw materials used in the early days of vegetable oil were rapeseed oil and coriander oil, both of which were ground by traditional techniques.

"Compendium of Materia Medica" records vegetable oil like this: "Fried and squeezed, yellow, with bright lights, food is not as good as sesame oil. Being close to the people benefits from oil and is widely planted. " What is said here is that the ancients used the method of oil extraction a long time ago, and they needed to fry first and then extract oil. Because the oil business is booming, the ingredients used to extract oil are also very extensive. Therefore, it is very common to make oil in the early days, and cooking also uses oil.

Nowadays, with the maturity of oil pressing technology and processing methods, great progress has been made. Moreover, vegetable oil is not used in the selection of materials, and peanut oil is used. The oil squeezed from peanuts tastes particularly fragrant, so you can try it. Now it has become a well-known salad oil, and the dishes made in this way will be very fragrant.

The use and processing methods have been greatly improved, but the wisdom and experience of the ancients in oil production have long existed, and have gradually passed down to become the present situation, which has enabled us to evolve into the current oil production method.