Xiaochi Making Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
The finished Huogongdian stinky tofu is black as ink on the outside while its core is plain and white; the skin is crisp and flaky and the interior soft as down. At first sniff the smell is pungent, but tasted closely it is fresh and savoury and inviting. Chairman Mao loved Huogongdian stinky tofu when he was studying in Changsha, and when he came to Huogongdian to taste it again in 1958 he still praised it highly. The history of Huogongdian stinky tofu can be traced back to the Tongzhi reign of the Qing dynasty, when it was created by accident by a family surnamed Jiang in Xiangyin County, Hunan, who had made bean-curd products for generations. In 1908 Jiang Bingkun, a descendant of the Jiang family, came to Huogongdian to set up a stall selling stinky tofu; because of its distinctive flavour it won the favour of the people of Changsha and its fame grew greater day by day.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The craft of making Huogongdian stinky tofu is a traditional snack-making technique that circulated mainly in Changsha City, Hunan Province. Changsha had convenient water transport and a developed trade, and produced in abundance the shiitake mushrooms, fresh winter bamboo shoots, soya beans and perilla needed for making stinky tofu. Huogongdian, located on Pozi Street in Changsha, originated from the temple of the fire god Zhurong and has a history of more than 440 years, with incense burning in abundance through the ages. The Pozi Street area was commercially prosperous and gathered people of talent, so the broad temple yard of Huogongdian brought together many snack vendors who carried poles, set up stalls and built stoves, and this provided the conditions for the emergence and development of the Huogongdian stinky tofu-making craft. Huogongdian stinky tofu is one of Hunan's most distinctive traditional foods: it is a bean-curd product that takes plain white tofu as its main material, is steeped in a specially made brine to take on colour and flavour, and is eaten with a dip after deep-frying. Huogongdian stinky tofu is square in shape and black in colour and is named for its smell, making an exception in Chinese food culture. Making Huogongdian stinky tofu requires five stages - preparing the brine, making the tofu blocks, steeping, frying and making the dipping soup - and more than 30 process steps. The brine is best prepared in winter: fresh winter bamboo shoots, shiitake mushrooms, perilla and Liuyang fermented black beans are boiled in winter water to make a liquor, cultured wine is added, and the liquid is put into a vat to ferment for a year or more. For the blocks, soya beans from the north-east that are plump and high in moisture are used to make white tofu 5 cm long and wide and 1 cm thick. Steeping means placing the white tofu in the brine for 2 to 6 hours to ensure that the colour and smell permeate fully. For frying, camellia oil is best, and the oil temperature, heat and frying time must be precisely controlled. The dipping soup takes chilli and minced garlic as its main ingredients and is the most fresh and savoury of all. Eaten with the soup, the stinky, fresh and spicy aromas fill the nose, and crispness and tenderness meet in one bite as the soup spills and runs over, leaving people deeply attached. Historically this craft was passed down from generation to generation by master and apprentice succeeding one another. The craft of making Huogongdian stinky tofu carries the nostalgia of the people of Hunan and, with its inventive conception and distinctive technique, displays the regional character of Huxiang culture; it has relatively high historical and cultural value.
Archival Records of Process Steps
Making Huogongdian stinky tofu requires five stages - preparing the brine, making the tofu blocks, steeping, frying and making the dipping soup - and more than 30 process steps.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Huogongdian stinky tofu has become a culinary cultural symbol of Changsha and has formed an independent industry, with annual sales totalling 6 billion yuan, providing jobs for nearly 65,000 people and promoting the coordinated development of the local economy and society.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
After reform and opening up, Huogongdian recorded the craft's historical origins, recipes and processes, and at the same time stepped up its efforts to train inheritors, actively promoting the spread and transmission of the craft across the whole city, the whole province and the whole country; it has also set up inheritance and sales outlets overseas.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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