Instant-boiled mutton brings warmth and happiness to the cold winter in Beijing. Donglaishun, a time-honored Chinese brand, is second to none in eating instant-boiled mutton.
Donglaishun, founded in 1903, is famous for its instant-boiled mutton. Its mutton tastes mellow and unique, and it has become a food memory of many Beijingers. In 2008, the processing technology of Donglaishun instant-boiled mutton was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage.
Nowadays, when tourists from all over the country come to Beijing, they will definitely go to Donglaishun to taste the smell of instant-boiled mutton and feel the flying knife skills of Master Chen Lixin, the fourth generation inheritor of national intangible skills, and his disciples.
Flying knives are like gods
Chen Lixin, the first master of China traditional skills in Beijing, 1989 won the Golden Summit Award of the Ministry of Commerce, 1994 won the gold medal of the first national Muslim cooking competition, and in 2008 won the title of the fourth generation inheritor of national intangible skills.
When Chen Li was only a teenager during the Chinese New Year, he studied from He Fengqing, the third-generation meat-cutting inheritor of Donglaishun, specializing in the processing technology of instant-boiled mutton for nearly 50 years.
Donglaishun hot pot is a big-tailed sheep in Xiwu Banner of Xilin Gol League in Inner Mongolia, and it must be a newly weaned and castrated sheep. This will make the mutton smell less. For rinse meat, Donglaishun only selects five parts: upper brain, small fork, big fork, cucumber slices and grinding teeth. At the bottom of the clear soup pot, in order to let customers taste the most delicious taste of mutton, only simple ingredients such as onion, ginger and mushroom soup are put.
Instant-boiled mutton is the representative dish of Donglaishun, and cutting meat is the key link. The mutton slices cut by master Dong Laishun are famous for their thinness, uniformity, uniformity and beauty. Half a kilogram of mutton can be cut into 80 to 100 pieces of meat with a length of 20cm and a width of 8cm, each piece weighs only 4.5g, each piece is folded in half, and the texture is clear, "as thin as paper, as even as crystal, as neat as line and as beautiful as flower", and it can be cooked by putting it into soup.
Donglai's cut mutton pays attention to knife work and appearance, so it needs to be frozen to a certain hardness before cutting. There used to be no cold storage, no refrigerator. Every winter, Donglaishun's master digs river ice and stores it in the cellar. After the mutton selected from Inner Mongolia is delivered, the masters should flatten and compact the meat layer by layer, so that the meat slices can be shaped. It is really a chore for ordinary people to practice cutting frozen mutton every day. Chen Lixin is open-minded, eager to learn, and diligent. After careful teaching by the master, he quickly mastered the whole set of skills such as deboning, selecting parts and cutting meat, and became a leader among other disciples.
Chen Lixin successively served as the group leader, deputy manager, manager and management minister of Dong Laishun. In recent years, together with the human resources department of Donglaishun Group, he started the training course of "Quality Inspector of Donglaishun Mutton Base", which provided technical support for standardizing processing technology and improving the quality of semi-finished products of Donglaishun instant-boiled mutton. At the same time, in order to make Donglaishun mutton processing technology successful, he also started a training course on manual meat cutting technology, and the trainees played a key role in technology. After Donglaishun established a non-genetic inheritance team, retired technicians from Chen Lixin and Donglaishun served as skill training lecturers and consultants. At present, the traditional dishes and halal pasta in Donglaishun are being excavated and sorted out.
"We can't spoil our craft."
Chen Lixin often recalls that Master He Fengqing was angry because he cut the meat irregularly. At that time, he was less than twenty years old, but he had been an apprentice under He Fengqing for several years. At that time, guests who went to Donglaishun to eat instant-boiled mutton often had to queue up. Chen Lixin felt that he had mastered the skill of cutting meat. One day, while the master was taking a lunch break, he cut several plates of mutton slices. Unexpectedly, without waiting for praise, he was severely scolded by the master: "Boy, what do you think you cut?" Uneven thickness, crooked, are you worthy of the craft I taught you? Are you worthy of the guests? Customers are coming for Donglaishun's signboard. If we treat our customers like this, will they come again? "
Master He, who has always been kind-hearted, was angry for the first time. He felt very wronged at that time. But later, he really became a good craftsman. Recalling this experience, he felt that the master's words were too reasonable. One minute on stage and ten years off stage, Chen Lixin often said, "We can't spoil our own craftsmanship." In this sentence, there is the ingenuity passed down from generation to generation by the masters of Donglaishun.
Spring went to Qiu Lai, and the years passed. Now, Chen Lixin has become a master and has his own apprentice. He taught them skills and truth. Those truths were taught to him by the master, and the master's truths were taught to him by the master's masters. The reason is simple, but it is the "foundation" of Donglaishun's development since the late Qing Dynasty, and it has become the golden signboard of the "first halal rinse" of the old Chinese brand.
Witness foreign affairs activities many times
Chen Lixin's "blade career" of nearly half a century is an era of great changes in China, and instant-boiled mutton can be seen in both diplomacy and politics.
In the early 1970s, China used "small ball to big ball" and "ping-pong diplomacy" to ease Sino-US relations and shake the world. 1973, the Asian, African and Latin American table tennis invitational tournament was held in Beijing Capital Gymnasium. The athletes all ate in the Friendship Hotel, and the Muslim restaurant arranged for three days of instant-boiled mutton and handed it to Dong Laishun. At that time, the Beijing Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government specially approved Dahongmen Muslim Slaughterhouse to provide 100 live sheep for Donglaishun, and slaughtered more than 30 live sheep every day for three days. Usually, the master cuts 90 plates a day and the apprentice cuts 60 plates. But this time, it is required that 10 master and apprentice cut 1000 plates of meat slices a day. The comrades in the meat cutting group worked overtime, basically running day and night for three days and nights, and accomplished the task brilliantly. Many years later, Chen Lixin met Zhuang Zedong, the leader of ping-pong diplomacy in Donglaishun, and talked about the past. Chen Lixin joked: "You are the world champion of table tennis, and I am the world champion of cutting mutton!"
Instant-boiled mutton is not only loved by ordinary people, but also by party and state leaders and foreign politicians. So chef Dong Laishun often appears in Zhongnanhai and Diaoyutai. Speaking of this, Chen Lixin has a sense of pride: "When meeting in the State Council, two tables 15 diners are both at the level of prime minister and deputy prime minister, and they are also hosted by Donglaishun. Chairman Mao once hosted a banquet in honor of Indonesian President Su Jianuo in a beekeeping. In addition to the chef being Donglaishun, the service staff also directly transferred the waiter from Donglaishun. "
Donglaishun instant-boiled mutton also played an important supporting role in the historical event of establishing diplomatic relations between China and the United States. Before and after the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States, Deng Xiaoping hosted two banquets for the US Secretary of State in Donglaishun. At that time, Donglaishun had been closed for three days for hygiene, and specially added a red carpet to the stairs from the 0 th floor to the 3 rd floor of 65438+.
1975, US President Ford was invited to visit China, and Deng Xiaoping hosted a banquet in his honor at the Great Hall of the People. I arranged instant-boiled mutton in Donglaishun. In order to maintain the original flavor of Donglaishun instant-boiled mutton, Donglaishun is responsible for cutting meat, pastry and waiters. Young Chen Lixin was chosen to take part in this glorious task.
"At that time, although my technology was not top-notch, I was honored to be selected because of my simple thinking and honesty. So, on behalf of my master, I went to work in the Great Hall of the People with the head of the meat cutting team and two party member masters. Braised mutton with fresh water, 40 slices per plate, uniform thickness, three fat lines and straight pen tube; The hieroglyphics are vivid and lifelike, and even the chopped green onion and coriander cut by the waiter personally amazed the colleagues in the General Assembly Hall. With the joint efforts of everyone, the task was successfully completed. The mutton in Donglaishun also played a role in the normalization of Sino-US relations! " Speaking of this story, Chen Lixin's face was full of pride.
There is a knife in the heart, and the skill is passed down from generation to generation.
Going to Chen Lixin has almost become the last master in Donglaishun who is good at cutting meat by hand. Originally, after starting his career in Chen Lixin, most of the meat cutting work in Donglaishun was gradually replaced by machines from 1975.
Chen Lixin personally participated in the development of the meat cutter and made many suggestions. The machine is designed to imitate the way of cutting meat by hand. After the machine is put into use, it greatly meets the needs of diners, and there is no need to wait in long queues. This is also the reform road chosen by many time-honored brands, and the traditional manual technology has been replaced by the efficient standardized production of machines. However, when more than a dozen meat cutters lined up in front of the glass window in Donglaishun, the grand occasion of performing meat cutters and competing skills in front of diners never appeared again, and the exquisiteness and human touch of handmade products disappeared.
Although it is no longer necessary to engage in high-intensity labor of cutting 100 plates of meat every day, Chen Lixin's heart is still somewhat lost. Later, he changed many positions, from the front line to the management, but he never put down his craft. Even when he was a manager in Donglaishun Wangfujing Head Office, he liked to wear white work clothes, cut a plate of meat and stir-fry several dishes in the kitchen, which made him feel very comfortable.
Time has entered 2 1 century. Just when many old crafts were on the verge of extinction, Chen Lixin heard an exciting news that Donglaishun instant-boiled mutton craft was selected as a national intangible cultural heritage, and he also became the fourth generation inheritor of this craft. "The masters are all dead, and the brothers are retired. Now I'm the only one left. I want to pass on this craft. This is fate and mission. " Chen Lixin took out the meat cleaver handed to him by Master and pondered for a long time.
It is said that a real chef can make people drink the tea in his cup without touching his knife. Chen Lixin still remembers that when he was young, he didn't know the rules of the kitchen. He used to hold his master's knife and use it all morning. Other people in the kitchen saw it and said, how dare you touch your master's knife.
"It took me a while to understand this truth with my own knife. Everyone has different habits of exertion, and the intensity of sharpening the knife is also different. So it looks like the knives in the kitchen are all the same. In fact, every knife feels different. " When Chen Lixin was a teacher, she received a one-and-a-half-foot-long mutton knife from Master. All this happened in the past 50 years. This knife has brought all the skills, habits and experience of a chef.
Now, Chen Lixin has received dozens of apprentices and given everyone a meat cleaver. The inheritance of knife is the inheritance of art. A disciple said to him, "Master, who doesn't know that there is a meat cutter for cutting mutton slices now?" Guests are still unwilling to cut with a knife. " Chen Lixin said to him, "That's not true. No matter how mechanized the meat is, we can't lose the traditional skills, because this is our ancestral food culture. "
He often asks his disciples to show him the meat cleavers he gave them. Disciples know that Master is not quick with knives, but whether he has them in his heart. The disciples understood Master's painstaking efforts and said to Chen Lixin, "Master, please hold on. People are in the knife, and the old Beijing mutton will definitely be passed down. "
What is inheritance? In Chen Lixin's view, inheritance means doing a good job with your life. Many times, he will miss his late master. He said to him gently in his heart, "The apprentice didn't humiliate you, he is worthy of the skills you taught me!" " .