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Copper hot pot "tong guo"

Northern Style

"Shuàng Yáng Ròu" also known as Beijing Copper Pot is a traditional hot pot popular in Beijing and the surrounding Northern China areas. It is named because the main ingredients are mutton. In fact, traditional hotpot mutton also pays attention to several types of ingredients other than mutton, such as cabbage, tofu, and vermicelli. In modern times, beef slices have also begun to be used as an ingredient for Beijing Copper Pot. At the same time, in the past, poor people may not be able to afford meat, and they often only cooked other ingredients. Therefore, Beijing locals also called Beijing Copper Pot "Shuàng Guō Zì" which means "rinse the pot" in English.

The most popular theory is that the origin of Beijing Copper Pot is related to Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan Dynasty. According to legend, Kublai Khan led his army southward. One day, he was sleepy and hungry. He suddenly remembered the dish of his hometown -- stewed mutton, and immediately ordered his subordinates to kill the sheep and make a fire. While the cook was slaughtering the sheep and cutting the meat, he discovered that the enemy was coming. The chef knew that he wanted to eat mutton, so he cut off more than ten thin slices of meat with a flying knife, stirred it for a few times in boiling water, and when the color of the meat changed, he immediately took it into a bowl and sprinkled with fine salt. Kublai Khan ate several bowls, mounted his horse to face the enemy, and won the victory. When preparing for the celebration banquet, Kublai Khan specially ordered the mutton slices. The chef chose tender sheep meat, cut it into thin slices, and served it with various condiments. The generals were full of praise after eating it. The chef hurriedly stepped forward and said, "This dish doesn't have a name yet. Please give me a name." Kublai Khan replied with a smile, "I think it will be called 'Shuàng Yáng Ròu'!"

Traditional Beijing Copper Pot uses a charcoal-fired copper pot. Before use, the charcoal needs to be pre-lit and placed in the center of the copper pot. However, black smoke and carbon monoxide will be produced during this process. The base of the traditional Beijing Copper pot is just water with one or two green onion slices, ginger slices, a few wolfberry and shrimp, etc., without other auxiliary ingredients.

Beijing Copper Pot is different from other Chinese hot pot that the ingredients are basically fixed and not all ingredients are used. The most important ingredient is the meat. Beijing copper pot itself is limited to using mutton. The store's menu has different parts of the sheep for diners to choose from. In modern China, beef and prawns have also been added. Other animal meat is not used. The lamb should be made from Inner Mongolia sheep. Both of the fat and lean parts should be used and cut into thin slices. It will be cooked after being lightly rinsed in the pot. It will be soft and delicate in the mouth. In recent years, there are also mutton slices made by freezing the mutton and cutting it with a machine, but the taste is dull. Therefore, handmade mutton slices and machine-cut mutton slices still coexist on the store's menu.

In addition, the beef used in the pot also focuses on fatty beef slices with fat. Also, there are sheep tripe or beef louvers cut into 6 to 7 mm width, and tripe shreds are also divided into different parts for diners to choose from. Next is cabbage. The pot need to use plump and tender Chinese cabbage, mainly cabbage with a few leaves, cut into small pieces no more than 10 cm long and 3 cm wide. And then is Tofu. The use of tofu is divided into two types: frozen tofu and fresh tofu. Due to different production techniques, tofu made with gypsum has gradually become the mainstream in the market in recent years, but there are still tofu made with brine on the store menu for diners to choose from. The last key ingredient is the vermicelli. Vermicelli is made by mung bean starch with a diameter of about 1 mm and soak it slightly in water beforehand and set aside.

There are many kinds of seasonings for Beijing Copper Pot, but the essential ones are sesame sauce, chive flowers and soybean curd, along with chopped green onion and coriander. People can also add a little more sesame oil and sprinkle a few sesame seeds. Non-halal restaurants often add a little wine to the seasoning. In the traditional way of eating, people can also add more than a dozen condiments such as fish sauce, shrimp oil, cooking wine, chili oil, soy sauce, and vinegar according to their own taste. But after 1949, this traditional way of eating gradually disappeared. In the past 15 years from 2023, other dipping methods such as seafood sauce and shacha sauce have also been introduced from the south.The material's unique ability to conduct heat efficiently ensures that the contents of the pot are cooked uniformly. Furthermore, copper reacts with certain acids in food, adding a subtle yet distinctive taste, which is often described as 'brightening' the flavors. Over time, as the pot is used, it develops a patina, a testament to the many meals it has helped create and the stories it has been a part of.