Liuweizhaijiangrouchuantong Making Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
Liuzhizhai in Taiyuan City, Shanxi province, was founded in the third year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty (1738). It is a famous 'China Time-honored Brand'; the sauce meat it produces is a renowned delicacy of Shanxi, and was once offered as tribute to the Qing court, thereby gaining fame in the capital.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Liuzhizhai sauce meat is cooked yet not mushy, sweet yet not heavy, salty yet not astringent, pungent yet not fierce, light yet not thin, fragrant yet not cloying, rich yet not greasy, lean yet not dry — fully embodying the characteristics of Chinese meat-eating culture. To preserve the original flavor of the traditional food, Liuzhizhai to this day still produces entirely according to the traditional method inherited for over 260 years. Its production process includes steps such as selection of materials, cutting, and boiling; in boiling, a gentle fire is used for slow simmering, allowing the several dozen Chinese medicinal herbs in the recipe to be infused into the sauce meat. The sauce meat thus produced is not only excellent in color, aroma, and taste, soft and delicious with a rich aroma, but also very nutritious; compared with other meats, its saturated fatty acids are reduced by 30%–50% and its cholesterol lowered by more than 50%. Because the traditional making process of Liuzhizhai sauce meat is fairly complex and is entirely hand-operated, it is not easy to transmit, and should be conscientiously protected.
Selecting and dividing the meat
The craft runs selection, dividing and boiling; the size of each cut decides how far the slow simmer will reach into the meat.
Slow simmering with dozens of medicinal herbs
A low simmer lets several dozen medicinal ingredients enter the meat one by one instead of masking one another.
The six tastes as a standard
Eight parallel clauses that say one thing from two sides: the flavour must be full, but never overwhelming.
The reduction in fat and cholesterol
Slow cooking leaves much of the fat in the broth, cutting saturated fat by 30-50% and cholesterol by more than half.
Two centuries of unchanged method
Created in 1738, the shop still produces by a method over two centuries old, its cured meat having once been tribute to the Qing court.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Liuzhizhai is rooted in Taiyuan; its sauce meat spread along with the traveling merchants and eateries of central Shanxi, and holds a place on the banquet tables and festival food lists of the central-Shanxi, Taiyuan, Datong, and Linfen areas. In method, Liuzhizhai's cooked food belongs to the northern sauce-goods line, of the same stock as the sauce meats of the northern provinces; it is only that it has established its own measure in the control of heat — 'cooked yet not mushy, sweet yet not heavy' — which other places need not copy wholesale. It is not conspicuous among the shops of the Beijing–Tianjin area, yet it gained fame in the capital because it was once offered as tribute to the Qing court. This tributary path linked a Taiyuan shop with the fame of the capital, and also gave Liuzhizhai an extra channel of intercourse with time-honored brands elsewhere that did not depend on its own shopfront.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Its craft is but three steps — selection, cutting, boiling — yet the difficulty lies entirely in the gentle-fire slow simmering at the boiling end: rush the fire and the several dozen Chinese medicinal herbs yield only a medicinal smell, and none of their aromas come through. This is the part of the skill most resistant to acceleration and most difficult for a machine to take over. The traditional making process of Liuzhizhai sauce meat is fairly complex and is entirely hand-operated, so it is not easy to transmit and should be conscientiously protected. Compared with processes that can be mechanically replicated, this entirely hand-done one loses a generation with each passing generation: once the person who can boil is gone, no one tends that gentle-fire old stock. For more than 260 years, Liuzhizhai has never changed this method. The weight here lies entirely in the word 'entirely': not that it does not improve, but that it does not change the method.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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