The diversity of food is the basic principle of balanced dietary pattern, in which cereals are rich in carbohydrates, which is the most economical and important food source to provide energy for human body. The new dietary guidelines suggest that you should consume 200,300 grams of cereals and 50,0 100 grams of potatoes every day, including 50,0 150 grams of whole grains and miscellaneous beans.
For coarse cereals, miscellaneous beans and potatoes, we generally call them coarse cereals. In different historical periods and regions, various miscellaneous grains have played a role in the dining table of China people, such as cassava, highland barley and naked oats. Today, I would like to invite Shi Jun, a botanist, to talk about the table history of these miscellaneous grains in China.
Text | Shi Jun
Figure | Zhang Yang
Cassava-"Dangerous" Grain
Producing as much food as possible in the shortest time is the core principle of choosing food crops in wartime. Cassava was introduced into Gaozhou, Guangdong, China from 65438 to 2009 in the 1920s, and then its planting area gradually expanded to Hainan Island. 1840 The Records of Xinhui County compiled by Lin et al. recorded the form, planting and eating methods of cassava for the first time. This shows that this special food has been noticed by people at that time.
The pearls in bubble tea are usually made of cassava flour.
Cassava is a Euphorbiaceae plant, and its hometown is Brazil in South America. According to records, local people began to eat cassava more than 4000 years ago. When Columbus arrived in America, cassava had become one of the staple foods of the local people. Pottery with cassava images has also been found in many ruins in South America. However, compared with corn and potatoes, the image of cassava is not so tall. I can't help it Just look at his cousin in Asia and you will know that he is not a tough guy. Euphorbia fischeriana, Euphorbia fischeriana, Black-faced God and other plants are poisonous weeds that can kill people.
/kloc-in the 6th century, with the surge of colonial tide, a large number of blacks were sent to America as slaves. How to solve the food problem has become a problem that colonists need to consider. Cassava, which is resistant to diseases and insect pests, has become the best choice for high yield and good varieties, and the planting amount has increased sharply. The Portuguese sent cassava and corn to Africa together, and unexpectedly smashed the local staple crops without any suspense, creating a unique African cassava dish.
However, cassava has a very clever chemical defense means, which comes from the cyanide contained in its body-flax picroside and anemonin. These two substances are not directly toxic, but once they enter the stomach, they will hydrolyze under the action of gastric acid and release a lot of hydrocyanic acid, so human poisoning is inevitable.
In the long-term activities of eating cassava, human beings have accumulated a lot of experience. For example, cassava has the highest cyanide content. As long as you peel it, soak it for a period of time (it used to be soaked for more than 6 days), remove more than 70% cyanide, and then cook it at high temperature, you can eat it with confidence. Now through improving varieties, the toxicity of cassava is gradually decreasing, and the taste quality is getting better and better.
After cassava was introduced into China, it soon became an important supplement to major food crops such as rice. From 19 14 to 19 19, the experiments of cassava variety collection, selection, processing and nutrient composition analysis were carried out in Guangdong Agricultural and Forestry Experimental Field. During the period of 1940- 1944, researchers from Guangxi Agricultural Experimental Site studied the content and distribution of cyanide in cassava, and Li Xikai, Huang Ruilun and others also published monographs on cassava toxins. These studies laid a theoretical foundation for the popularization of cassava in China.
When cassava became the research object of southern researchers, highland barley, naked oats and buckwheat jointly propped up the dining table in the north in a special period.
Barley —— An Important Member of Barley Family
Speaking of highland barley, what's your first impression? For most friends, highland barley is a familiar and unfamiliar crop, and Ciba and highland barley wine are the most common highland barley foods. During the Long March more than 80 years ago, highland barley was also one of the food of the Red Army. What exactly is highland barley? Why do you want to make highland barley into Baba?
The name highland barley sounds mysterious, but its other name will make people feel much more intimate, and that is naked wheat. Yes, highland barley is a kind of barley. China has a long history of planting and cultivating barley. Highland barley was one of the main grains in the Yellow River Basin during the Qin and Han Dynasties. Today, highland barley is still the main grain crop in high altitude areas such as the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
In the west before17th century, barley was always the main raw material of bread. Today, barley is still an important crop, because most beer is brewed from barley malt. It is no exaggeration to say that there is no beer without barley.
Highland barley pancake
Stir-fried highland barley, ground into powder, and served with butter tea, which is Ciba. Then, why not make highland barley flour into noodles and steamed bread? People make flour into noodles and steamed bread, not only for delicious taste, but also for effectively absorbing nutrition.
Starch in plant seeds is mostly in crystalline state, which is not easy to be digested and absorbed by human body. At high temperature, starch crystals will get close to water and become a sticky mass. This process is called starch gelatinization. The gelatinized starch is more easily digested and absorbed by human body. However, in the plateau environment, because the air pressure is too low, the boiling point of water is also reduced, so it is unrealistic to change starch by cooking. This is a bit like soaking instant noodles in warm water. Instant noodles are still like this, not to mention cooked raw flour. Therefore, it is a standard choice for local people to fry highland barley directly with fire and turn the starch inside into a digestible state.
Naked oats and buckwheat in cold regions
In the past, it was said that "millet plus rifle", but in the revolutionary war years, millet was also a very precious food, and naked oats and buckwheat, which could adapt to the cold environment, became important auxiliary food crops.
Speaking of naked oats, many people may not be familiar with it, but oat noodles have been tried in restaurants with northwest flavor more or less. In fact, oat flour comes from naked oats, which is called "big naked oats".
Toona sinensis oat noodle roll
As an oat, the typical ability of naked oats is cold tolerance. When the temperature is above 0, it can germinate. In the growing period, the optimum growth temperature is 13 ~ 15, which is lower than that of rice and wheat. Therefore, naked oats naturally become an important food crop in cold regions. Moreover, naked oats have a strong ability to utilize water in the air: under drought conditions, it takes 550 ~ 650 grams of water to form 1 gram of dry matter; In humid air, this value will be reduced to 300 grams. Then in many places with little rainfall but many clouds, naked oats can show their talents.
Naked oats have a long planting history in China. In the 5th century, China people began to plant naked oats. There are still some controversies about the origin of naked oats. Most scholars believe that naked oats are cultivated from common oats, and the border area between China and Mongolia is probably the origin center of naked oats. As for common oats, their origin is considered to be the Mediterranean region.
In any case, naked oats have become an important food supplement in the cold areas of the northern plateau of China. Today, we can still eat all kinds of oat noodle products in the northwest, which is the mark left by long-term life.
Buckwheat noodles momo
In addition to naked oats, buckwheat is also an important crop in cold regions. Different from other gramineous crops such as naked oats, wheat and barley, buckwheat is a typical Polygonaceae plant, and its identity is marked by the membrane covering the stem under its leaves-membranous leaf sheath and triangular cone-shaped fruit. Buckwheat has a long history of cultivation in China. There is a poem in The Book of Songs, "Look at people like qiáo, which makes me hold peppers", and the word "qi" is homophonic with "buckwheat".
Jia Sixie described in detail the method of planting buckwheat in Qi Yao Min Shu, "Here buckwheat is cultivated in May; After 25 days, the grass began to rot; Plant it three times and plow it three times. Before and after beginning of autumn, it was planted within ten days. If you plow the land three times, you will have three loads. The last two baryons are black, and the last baryon is white. They are all white juice, as thick as thick, that is, they must be cut. " This shows that buckwheat was already a very important food crop in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.
Buckwheat, like naked oats, has strong environmental adaptability. Especially buckwheat and tartary buckwheat can grow healthily in cold areas. At the average temperature of 12 ~ 13, tartary buckwheat can complete the normal flowering and fruiting process. With the support of mycorrhiza, tartary buckwheat can survive in poor soil. As for buckwheat, although it is not as resistant to low temperature as tartary buckwheat, it has wider adaptability and can be planted from northeast to southwest. Buckwheat and buckwheat complement each other and become the star of alpine food crops except Gramineae crops.
It is worth noting that the growth cycle of buckwheat is very short, most varieties are 74 days to 98 days, and some varieties (buckwheat 83-230) can complete the growth cycle within 60 days. This kind of fast-growing and fast-harvesting grain is obviously good food.
Proofreading | Yujin