Jiangrou Making Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
The Qi family's sauce-aroma-source meat saucing craft originated during the Daoguang reign of the Qing dynasty, and has a history of more than 160 years to this day. According to the 'Qi Yuan Food Manual,' Qi Zongni, the founder of Qi's Sauce-Aroma Source, once learned the craft at the palace; after leaving the palace he returned to his hometown in Shandong and passed the skill on to later generations of the Qi family.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Qi family's sauce-aroma-source meat saucing craft is a meat-making craft centered on selected ingredients, a distinctive saucing method, and a 'stock-fixing' (gutang) technique. It originated in Simahe Village, Fangxia Town, Laiwu City, Shandong province, and circulates throughout the urban area of Laiwu. The products of the Qi family's sauce-aroma-source meat saucing craft are of many kinds — more than a dozen varieties including sauced chicken, sauced beef, sauced pork, sauced pig's trotters, and sauced sausage. The finished products are deep red in color, distinctive in flavor, savory with a salty note, rich in nutrition, tender in texture, low in fat, and pleasant to the palate. Its production process is rather intricate, beginning with the selection of superior meat raw materials; every piece of meat is strictly screened to ensure freshness and freedom from blemish. In processing the raw materials, impurities are removed and the essence retained, laying a solid foundation for the delicacy. The unique point of this craft lies in its emphasis on 'fixing the stock' (gutang). So-called 'fixing the stock' means selecting fresh beef (or pork) bones, chicken, and duck, bringing them to a boil over a fierce fire and then simmering over a gentle fire; when the right degree of heat is reached, deodorizing seasonings are added, the bones and dregs are removed, and the stock is drawn off — this is called the 'great stock' (datang). The 'great stock' is then combined with the old stock and simmered over a gentle fire into a 'superior stock' (shangtang), which after cooling is sealed in a jar, becoming aged old stock; and this process is called 'fixing the stock.' The family banquet associated with the Qi family's sauce meat making is also distinctive, divided by banquet grade into three kinds: the 'Eight Crowns and Eight Great' banquet, the 'Eight Crowns and Eight Small' banquet, and the Qi-family small banquet. The Qi family's sauce-aroma-source meat saucing craft observes a formal and solemn apprenticeship ceremony, and has been handed down seven generations to this day. 'Peaceful food' (anshi) is the spirit of the Qi family's sauce-aroma-source traditional craft — the overall requirement for the processing and the quality of the finished product, the greatest expression of respect for the eater, and also the most basic requirement and highest pursuit of Qi's Sauce-Aroma Source. The formal apprenticeship ceremony and the elaborate Qi-family banquet of the Qi family's sauce-aroma-source meat saucing craft are a microcosm of apprenticeship and feasting in former times, containing very detailed information about traditional food culture.
Selecting raw material and removing impurities
Every piece of meat is screened for freshness and blemishes, then trimmed, since the sauce can only carry what the raw material already has.
Making the great stock
Bones, chicken and duck are brought to a boil then simmered, de-fanged with aromatics at the right moment, strained and skimmed into the great stock.
Blending and sealing the aged stock
The great stock is combined with old stock, simmered, cooled and sealed in a jar as the aged base for every batch.
The three scales of the Qijia banquet
Family banquets come in three grades, from the eight-top great feast down to the small Qijia table, governed by the same rules as the meat.
The apprenticeship rite and the Anshi rule
A formal apprenticeship rite runs alongside Anshi, the house ideal of treating the eater with respect as both the lowest requirement and the highest pursuit.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Qi family's sauce-aroma-source meat saucing craft began in Simahe Village, Fangxia Town, Laiwu City, Shandong province, and circulates throughout the urban area of Laiwu. Its approach forms its own system in the central-Shandong area: the sauce meat around Laiwu commonly puts pig, beef, and lamb in the same jar, hence a thick and heavy flavor, distinct from the sauces of western Shandong and the cured meats of eastern Shandong. As to its trajectory: in 1991 the Qi's Sauce-Aroma Source shop was established, and in 2011 it was reorganized into Shandong Qi's Sauce-Aroma Source Food Co., Ltd.; the sauce meat grew from few to many, its varieties increasing to sixteen; the company opened the Qi's Sauce-Aroma Source Museum, and the craft thus turned from a single shop into a place that can be viewed and studied.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Tianfuhaojiangzhouzi Making Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Qi family's sauce-aroma-source meat saucing craft is a fine product of Chinese food culture, with important historical and cultural value, and positive significance for carrying forward China's culinary culture. Qi Fei (per the official archives of the associated inheritor): male, Han nationality, born in February 1973, a native of Jinan City, Shandong province. Representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage item 'Sauce Meat Making Craft (Qi Family Sauce-Aroma-Source Meat Saucing Craft).' Seventh-generation inheritor of the Qi family's sauce-aroma-source meat saucing craft, who from childhood studied the sauce-meat making craft under his grandfather. On the basis of inheriting the traditional craft of Qi's Sauce-Aroma Source meat saucing, he has combined traditional craft with modern techniques. From the founding of the Qi's Sauce-Aroma Source shop in 1991 to the reorganization into Shandong Qi's Sauce-Aroma Source Food Co., Ltd. in 2011, the sauce meat produced has reached sixteen varieties and the brand's fame has kept rising. He has actively carried out inheritance and public-welfare activities, opened the Qi's Sauce-Aroma Source Museum, and cultivated successors. In May 2013 he was awarded the Shandong Youth May Fourth Medal by the Communist Youth League Shandong Provincial Committee.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Qifei 05-2865
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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