Mongolian Traditional Diet Making Techniques

It is of great significance to research into the Mongolian cookery techniques.To some extent,this kind of subject has become an important topic for many scholars who are working on the history of Mongolian diet,culture and cookery.From existing documents,the academia has already achieved certain results.But the former study lacked the systematic research on Mongolian traditional diet as well as the knowledge to some degree.Besides this,there also existed omission of analyzing the historical materials and archaeological facts.Based on that,the paper was finished on the basis of former scholars' research achievements.Through conducting in depth study and organizing those documents systematically,it was the first time that a work written from the technological history perspective concerns the record of the evolution of Mongolian traditional diet,also integrating it with on-the-spot investigation.This thesis contains the investigation of the process,techniques,culture,experiences and rules.And specific researches are mainly as follows.Firstly,through searching,arranging and explaining the historical documents as well as the unearthed materials from Inner Mongolia and Mongolia,the author went through the development of production skills,discovering many descriptions of related process and techniques,and both are expressed with simple words.Moreover,there is little specific explanation of the usage for this techniques.So the writer found it difficult to draw the deep-seated cookery knowledge and system from the literal meaning,that is to say,it is hard to upgrade the information to rational thoughts.Additionally,the writer concludes that the specific time when Mongolians ate and made food should be earlier than they united the grassland,and the custom of drinking tea arose after Yuan,by looking up the documents remaining,which corrects the view held by some present scholars who hold different views-Mongolians didn?t have grain food and the custom of drinking tea in Mongolian daily diet was ahead of Yuan dynasty.From above,the writer did a research into these crafts of local herders,which includes herders from Xilamuren grassland,Xilin Gol,and Hinggan.And the author examined them carefully by means of talking,investigating,recording,photographing,videoing,etc.It is useful for the analysis and study of historical information to record the skills such as the so-called three skills(slicing technique,heat control,raw material processing).More importantly,arranging and recording these traditional as well as endangering crafts which are deemed as intangible cultural heritage provides precious visual materials for us to preserve and research them.Thirdly,the present cookery is the development of the ancient one,and is a good approach to researching the process of its evolution.By tracking survey,summarizing systematically,recording carefully,the writer discusses if the herders' practical experiences and cookery are reasonable,talking about the advantages and disadvantages of them,and introduces the methods of improvement.Fourthly,under the guidance of Chinese outstanding professor Zhang Qing and some herdsmen,the writer himself learned part of the Mongolian traditional cookery crafts both in the past and at present(e.g.the crafts of Mongolian vrum,milk curd,hand grilled meat,Mongolian meat porridge and dumplings),thus making a summary and conclusion of the crafts and specific operating process,from the perspective of the history of technology and giving explanation and instruction to the purposes of using these techniques and the roles they are to play.In addition,by comparing the specific making techniques learned in person with those recorded in the document,the writer finds that some of the present crafts are much easier and more practical than those in the past in the operation process.According to the research on ancient and modern Mongolian diet making techniques and other relevant cooking skills,we can come to the conclusion that Mongolian diet and its cookery can hardly become an independent system under the background of the integration of multiple ethnic diet cultures.Even to this day,still no certain explanations were made on which style and school of cooking Mongolian diet belongs to.In addition,it is worth mentioning that the formation and development of ancient and modern Mongolian diet making techniques are closely linked to its inherent ecological environment,production level,diet custom and diet structure.It was within the frame of traditional lifestyle and production mode that the simple,convenient and practical Mongolian traditional diet making techniques came into being,which not only has typical features of Mongolia,but has absorbed a lot of elements of diet culture from other ethnic groups.By mixing its own cookery with the wisdom of non-Mongolian peoples,the nomadic people in northern China has formed a distinct feature in diet making techniques.However,the research on traditional Mongolian diet making techniques,to some degree,will be deepen provided specific surveys are done to make a comparison between Mongolian and multiple ethnic diet making techniques,which will be greatly helpful to study further on the occurrence and evolution of Mongolian diet making techniques.