Recipes from the past (1) Ancient Chinese Hamburger

Introduction

When we talk about hamburger origins theories , all of thinks of America as land where hamburgers first made, but some will say its originated to Germany exactly in Hamburg , but the idea of meat between 2 slices of bread has been a part of many cultures throughout history , so in this article we will focus on one the oldest recipes related to this idea .

origins of our dish

Rou Jia Mo is popular street food originating from the cuisine of Shaanxi Province, and the reason why it is considered to be one of the world's oldest types of hamburgers, is due to the bread or the "mo" dates back to the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) and the meat to the Zhou dynasty (1045–256 BC). However, since people have been stuffing meat inside bread all across the world for centuries, it is unknown where it was done first, as we said before , but now it is found with regional modifications across China. For example, in Muslim areas in Xi'an, the meat is usually beef (seasoned with cumin and pepper), and in Gansu Province it is often lamb. The meat is then minced or chopped and stuffed in baijimo (mo) .but we are going to make the traditional one.

notes before start cooking

I’d encourage you to try cooking the meat the day before you’re looking to serve it, in order to let the sauce soak in overnight and intensify the flavors. Heat it up the next day before serving.

Don’t overcook the pork belly. If it’s too soft, you won’t get that “sink your teeth into it” experience!

If you like it spicy, chop one or two raw jalapeno peppers finely, and mix in with the meat mixture. You could get really crazy and use pickled banana peppers too!

If you have leftover buns, store them in a zip-lock bag to prevent them from drying out.

And if you only want to make the meat filling and use a hamburger bun or a Kaiser roll instead, you wouldn’t hurt my feelings in the least

*the recipe will take 2 hours to be ready , so lets go

Ingredients

For the dough (Mo or bread)

1- 200 g plain flour

2- pinch of salt

3- 1 tbsp. vegetable cooking oil

4- 100 ml water

5- ¾ tsp. instant yeast

The Meat Filling

1- 800 g pork belly

2- ½ cup crystal sugar

3- 2 large onion ,cut into sections

4- 2 tbsp. light soy sauce

5- 1.5 tbsp. dark soy sauce

6- 1 inch root ginger , divided

7- Water or stock as needed

8- 1 tbsp. Shaoxing cooking wine

9- 1 tbsp. salt

10- 4 cloves garlic

Spices

1- 1 tsp. Sichuan peppercorn

2- 2 star anises

3- 1 small cinnamon bark

4- 2 bay leaves

5- 4 ~6 cloves

6- 1 tsp. fennel seeds

7- 1 dried chili pepper

8- 1 piece of dried tangerine peel

9- 1 tsp. whole white pepper

10- 1 chunk galangal ,optional

11- 1 Fructus Amomi , optional

12- 2 pieces of dried ginger , optional

13- 1 piece of sand ginger , optional

14- 1 nutmeg , optional

15- 1 Tsaoko Amomum ,optional

Instructions

Soak the spices with hot water for 5 mins and then wrap well with a bag

To make the pork belly

Cut pork belly into small pieces. Load wok with a large pot of water, add ginger, Sichuan peppercorn and cooking wine, cook the pork belly for 2-3 minutes after boils. Transfer out and drain.

Add pork belly cubes in and fry until slightly seared. Transfer out and the pour the extra oil. The animal oil can be saved for noodles and soup.

In a large pot, add pork belly, the spice bag, ginger, crystal sugar, green onions, salt, light soy sauce and dark soy sauce. Pour enough water to cover the pork belly. Bring all the content to a boiling and then slow down the fire to simmer for around 1 hour.

Turn off the fire and then soak the pork belly within the soup. Reheat it before assembling.

To make the bread/mo/bun

Mix yeast with water and set aside for 5 minutes. Add salt and oil to flour and then pour yeast water in. Mix and knead the dough until smooth. Cover with a wet cloth or plastic wrap to rest for around 15 minutes to 30 minutes depending on your temperature until the dough is ⅓ bigger than the previous one. (this is just a semi fermented dough).

Knead the dough again to pinch the air out. Then roll the dough into a long log and divide 5 equal portions.

Get on portion and then shape it into long log with two small ends . Roll it out to a long facet. Roll the facet up and suck the very ending in one end of your roll. Press it down slowly. Turnover and roll out to a bread until 1.5 cm thick. Shape it to a bowl with a hand.

Heat up a pan. Place the bowl shaped dough in to fry until slightly brown over slow fire. Turn over to fry the second side.

Repeat the process to finish all the buns. Preheat oven to 190 degree C.

Transfer the bread to a baking sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes so the breads are completely cooked through. This helps to create a crispy shell and soft inside texture.

To assemble the bun

Transfer the meat out and finely minced. If you like, you can add chopped coriander and cumin powder.

Cut ⅔ of the bun from the middle. Lay minced pork and other ingredients within the bun.

Serve warm!