On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 1082

Mediterranean world long before Marco Polo Noodles in China Despite the fact that wheat was grown in the Mediterranean region long before it arrived in China, the northern Chinese appear to have been the first to develop the art of noodle making, sometime before 200 BCE Around 300 CE, Shu Xi wrote an ode to wheat products (bing) that names several kinds of noodles and dumplings, describes how they’re made, and suggests their luxurious qualities: poets frequently likened their appearance and texture to the qualities of silk (see box, p 572) In 544, an agricultural treatise called Important Arts for the People’s Welfare devoted an entire chapter to dough products These included not only several different shapes of wheat noodle, most made by mixing flour with meat broth and one made with egg, but also noodles made from rice flour and even from pure starch (p 579) China also invented filled pasta, the original ravioli, in which the dough surrounds and encloses a mass of other ingredients Both small, thin-skinned, delicate hundun or wontons, now usually served in southern soups, and the thicker chiao-tzu or pot sticker, often steamed and fried in the north, are mentioned in written records before 700 CE, and archaeologists have found well-preserved specimens that date to the 9th century Over the next few hundred years, recipes describe making thin noodles by slicing a rolled dough sheet and by repeatedly pulling and folding a dough rope; and the doughs themselves are made with a variety of liquids, including radish and leaf juices, vegetable purees, juice pressed from raw shrimp (which makes the noodles pink), and sheep’s blood Noodles — mian or mein — and filled dumplings began in the north as luxury foods for the ruling class They gradually became staples of the working class, with dumplings ...China also invented filled pasta, the original ravioli, in which the dough surrounds and encloses a mass of other ingredients Both small, thin-skinned, delicate hundun or wontons, now usually served in southern soups, and the thicker chiao-tzu or pot sticker,... pressed from raw shrimp (which makes the noodles pink), and sheep’s blood Noodles — mian or mein — and filled dumplings began in the north as luxury foods for the ruling class They gradually became staples of the working class, with dumplings... making thin noodles by slicing a rolled dough sheet and by repeatedly pulling and folding a dough rope; and the doughs themselves are made with a variety of liquids, including radish and leaf juices, vegetable purees, juice