Shandong and the North.
The same bones make two soups. Simmer them barely trembling and the stock is clear as tea; boil them hard and the fat beats into a white, milky 奶汤.
Shandong (鲁菜) cooks staffed the Ming and Qing imperial kitchens, and their cooking shaped Beijing's restaurants. Its foundation is stock (汤, 高汤, XXII.2): a saying holds that "the singer's problem is the voice; the cook's problem is the stock" (唱戏的腔，厨师的汤). Two kinds are made. 清汤 is a clear superior stock: chicken, duck, pork and ham simmered just below the boil for hours, then clarified by 吊汤 — stirring in minced chicken breast, whose proteins coagulate and rise, trapping cloudiness, as a French consommé's raft does (XXII.8). 奶汤 is a milky stock: the same bones boiled hard, so that fat and dissolved gelatin are beaten into a white emulsion (X.1).
The second pillar is 爆, explosive frying: thin slices or scored pieces thrown into a very hot wok for seconds — 葱爆羊肉, mutton with a mountain of scallion; 油爆双脆, pork stomach and chicken gizzard — which demands the fiercest fire and perfect timing (XXVII.2). Shandong also gave 糖醋鲤鱼, a whole carp scored, fried crisp and glazed sweet-and-sour, and 葱烧海参 with braised scallion. Across the north, wheat is the staple — noodles, dumplings, steamed buns (XXVI) — with mutton, cabbage stored for the winter, sweet bean paste (京酱肉丝) and vinegar. The workshop simmers a stock.
Below: the temperature of a 4 L uncovered stock pot over a home gas burner at the fire you choose, starting at 95 °C, for an hour (stove bench), with the water boiled off — which marks how violently it boils — and the stock it makes.
- Make clear and milky stocks.
- Clarify a stock with minced chicken.
- Cook 爆 dishes over fierce fire.
- Know the northern wheat and mutton table.
Clear or milky: the fire decides
In the stove model a quarter of the burner holds the pot at about 93 °C, trembling but not boiling — the regime for 清汤, where fat floats undisturbed and can be skimmed and proteins coagulate gently. At full fire the pot boils hard and drives off about 2.0 kg of water in the hour; the turbulence breaks the fat into tiny droplets and the dissolved gelatin coats them, so the stock turns opaque white — 奶汤, or the milky pork-bone broth of Japanese tonkotsu (XXVIII). Neither is a mistake; each is a choice of fire.
清汤 method: blanch 1 kg chicken and pork bones, rinse; cover with 4 L cold water, bring slowly towards the boil, skim; add ginger and scallion and hold just below a simmer 3–4 hours. Strain. To clarify (吊汤), stir 200 g minced chicken breast mixed with cold water into the cooled stock, bring slowly to a tremble without stirring again, and lift off the raft after 20 minutes; repeat with minced breast and leg for a crystal-clear 清汤. For 奶汤: boil the bones hard, lid off, topping up with boiling water, 2–3 hours, until white and rich. Season either only at the end.
Divide a pot of blanched bones and water in two: keep one barely trembling and boil the other hard for two hours. Compare their clarity.
Terms
- 清汤
- Clear superior stock, held below the boil and clarified.
- 奶汤
- Milky stock: bones boiled hard, fat emulsified.
- 吊汤
- Clarifying stock with minced chicken that rises as a raft.
- 爆
- Explosive frying: seconds in a fierce wok.
Sources
- F. Dunlop, Land of Fish and Rice: Recipes from the Culinary Heart of China (2016), The Food of Sichuan (2019) and Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food (2023).
- A teaching value chosen for the course: the right order of magnitude and shape, not a measurement of a particular food.