Of course, the diet is very rich now. When I was poor, life was primitive. However, there is one thing to know. Nomads never eat meat as their staple food, and shepherds don't eat meat with their hands every day as we think.
Even Mongolian herders seldom kill sheep to eat. Only when important festivals and distinguished guests come will they kill sheep to eat. Generally speaking, in Xinbaerhu Banner, it takes 20 mu of land to raise a sheep, and a herdsman's family has 300,400 sheep to feed the whole family, so a herdsman needs 60.008 million mu of grassland in Yi Hui Street.
But a heavy snow or a serious foot-and-mouth disease can turn a nomadic people into beggars in an instant. It is very important to keep a certain number of sheep. Maybe after a winter, half of the sheep will freeze to death. If you eat meat, you will also pay attention to killing barren ewes, too many rams, or weak sheep that can't survive the winter.
However, killing sheep is not easy. Nomads mainly live on dairy products and grains. Don't think that there are no crops in the depths of Mongolian grassland, only a small area.
If you eat sheep every day, the whole family will eat 100 sheep a year, then you have to eat interest, that is, dairy products. Kill the sheep and eat more meat if you can't eat the principal. It is ok to eat frozen sheep in winter. Sheep are too embarrassed in spring, fattening in summer and collecting forage in autumn for winter.
At the same time, nomads need more wool, twisting ropes, weaving, repairing tents, selling money and paying taxes on wool and live sheep.
Zhao Yilu's Miscellaneous Notes under the eaves in Qing Dynasty: Eating cheese, Mongolian customs, meat and milk, not eating meat. But meat-eating princes can do it. I wait for the poor, but I only kill one sheep every day.
How can someone eat meat three times a day? Although others are nomads, it is impossible not to know what equilibrium is. In addition to meat, there are butter tea, barley noodles and purse. Especially milk and dairy products, are the favorite of nomadic people except meat.
Secondly, to correct a statement, before12nd century, Mongolians in ancient nomadic people ate two meals a day instead of three meals a day. It was recorded by a western missionary in his travel notes: On the way, they gave us something to drink or millet porridge in the morning. This proves that in ancient times, nomadic people basically did not eat meat for breakfast. It is mentioned that Mongolians divide food into five categories according to color: white, red, yellow, green and black. "White" refers to white food, milk and dairy products. "Red" refers to red food, meat and its internal organs. "Yellow" refers to yellow food, which refers to fat extracted from animal fat or milk. "Green" means green food, that is, all kinds of green vegetables that can grow locally. "Black" is black food, which refers to tea, white water, broth and so on. There is no milk. If you study hard, you can check eating and drinking.
To be exact, meat must be the staple food of ancient nomadic people in China, but not all meals in a day are meat, and there are many complementary foods to supplement!
First, meat is the staple food of nomadic people.
Mongolian food scene
Take the Mongols as an example. They once built a great empire across Eurasia. Their diet is also dominated by meat. Song Peng Daya recorded in A Brief Introduction to Black Tatar that Mongols "eat meat but not food". Hunters are rabbits, deer, wild birds, stubborn sheep, antelopes, wild horses and fish from Heyuan. But for shepherds, sheep are the most common, followed by cattle. No feast, no punishment for horses. Boiled 189, cooked 123. Drink horse milk and goat milk. Its taste is just salt. "The simple understanding is that Mongolians eat meat most of the time. Some of these meats are from hunting, and some are slaughtered by domestic animals, especially large animals such as cattle and sheep. Unless there is a big banquet, the horse will be killed. Eighty-nine percent of the meat is roasted by fire, and 1% to 2% will be cooked. They drink horse's milk, cow's and sheep's milk, but they can't do without the taste of salt. In addition, the Secret History of Mongolia records that Genghis Khan celebrated his success with whole sheep after winning the world. These are enough to show that meat is undoubtedly the staple food of ancient nomadic people.
Second, complementary food other than meat is also essential.
Momo in Northwest Huaxian County
Although Mongolians mainly eat meat and milk, Zhao Gong recorded in The Tales of Mongolian Tatars that "there are one or two black millet in the Mongolian diet, which is also used to cook porridge", indicating that the Mongolian diet at that time contained a certain proportion of non-meat food. In 65438 AD, the Italian Pran Garbin was sent to Mongolia by Pope Sinibaldo Fieschi. In his "Mission to Mongolia", it is recorded that Mongols "cook, but because they are too thin, they can only drink but not eat." This is actually what we call porridge today. After Mongolia entered the Central Plains and established the Yuan Dynasty, the diet structure changed greatly. Hu Sihui, an official of the Yuan Dynasty, recorded various dishes and pastry diets of Mongolians at that time in his book Drinking and Eating, among which non-meat accounted for 30%. Other nomads are also a mixture of meat and vegetables. The proportion of meat in the diet of aristocrats in the upper class is much higher than that of the lower class, but vegetarianism is an essential part of their diet, and vegetarianism in the lower class accounts for a large proportion. Tibetan Tibetans in Tibet have highland barley flour and highland barley wine; The traditional steamed stuffed bun in northwest China is a good example.
Actually, it's quite understandable Anyone who knows a little about modern health care knows that the combination of meat and non-meat food can provide more rich and varied nutrition for human body and is more conducive to physical and mental health.