A Carnivorous Culture: The Historical Roots of China’s Fat Obsession

From the Song dynasty’s lavish banquets to the Ming-Qing era’s street food, one culinary preference remained constant: the pursuit of fatty meats. Historical records reveal that when the outlaw hero Shi Jin gifted “three fat sheep” to mountain bandits or when the Ruan brothers enthusiastically ordered “ten pounds of fatty beef,” they weren’t just satisfying hunger—they were participating in a deep-rooted cultural tradition.

This preference emerged from practical necessity. In pre-industrial societies where famine loomed constantly, calorie-dense foods meant survival. The fatty cuts that modern diners often avoid were prized treasures in ancient China—a single pound of fatty meat could sustain a laborer far longer than lean cuts. As Confucian scholar Zhu Xi noted, hosts would “constantly worry their meat wasn’t fatty enough” when entertaining honored guests.

The Fat of the Land: Status Symbol and Culinary Currency

During the Song dynasty (960-1279), when Emperor Taizu welcomed the King of Wuyue with a grand feast, the centerpiece wasn’t exotic spices or rare delicacies—it was a whole roasted fatty lamb. Given the Song’s limited grazing lands, imported mutton became a luxury item, with the fattiest cuts reserved for royalty and special occasions.

Ming dynasty language textbooks for foreigners included dialogues about group meals where participants pooled money specifically to buy “twenty fat sheep and one fat ox”—never lean meats. The Qing dynasty’s The Scholars repeatedly describes characters scrutinizing meats for fat content, even using hairpins to test the thickness of duck fat before purchase.

The Science of Succulence: Ancient China’s Molecular Gastronomy

Song dynasty chefs elevated fatty meats into an art form with creations like shuijing kuai (crystal jelly), a translucent pork skin aspic that required:

– 4 hours of steaming pig skin
– Multiple filtrations to remove impurities
– Precise fat content adjustment for desired transparency
– Expert knife skills to slice at temperature-dependent thicknesses

This collagen-rich delicacy, served with mustard and Sichuan pepper oil, was so temperature-sensitive that vendors could only sell it during winter months—a seasonal luxury documented in both Dream Pool Essays and Old Events in Wulin.

The Dark Side of Delicacies: Food Fraud Through the Ages

Beneath this celebration of fat ran an undercurrent of deception that would feel eerily familiar today:

– Song Dynasty: Markets sold “venison jerky” actually made from disease-ridden horse meat buried in fermented beans to mask the odor
– Ming-Qing Period: Vendors developed early “meat glue” techniques to reconstruct cheaper proteins into premium cuts
– 19th Century: Even literati like Lu Xun fell victim to food scams, famously unwrapping what was advertised as lotus-wrapped chicken only to find molded clay

A Southern Song magistrate’s verdict on a counterfeit medicine case reveals period attitudes: “Faking foods merely disappoints the palate, but fake medicine kills people.” Notably, he considered food fraud relatively harmless—a stark contrast to today’s concerns about carcinogenic additives.

Lasting Legacies: From Imperial Kitchens to Modern Tables

The ancient fat preference echoes in contemporary Chinese cuisine:

1. Cultural Memory: Lunar New Year feasts still feature fatty pork belly as a prosperity symbol
2. Culinary Techniques: The Song dynasty’s aspic methods evolved into modern liangfen (jelly noodles)
3. Dining Customs: Unlike modern restaurants that ban outside food, Song establishments welcomed street vendors selling supplementary dishes—a practice now reemerging as “cloud kitchens”

Perhaps most telling is how modern health trends have inverted ancient values. Where diners once prized fatty mutton as the ultimate luxury, today’s upscale hot pot restaurants highlight lean wagyu slices. Yet in rural areas and traditional festivals, the old wisdom persists—that nothing satisfies quite like a properly marbled cut of meat, connecting modern diners to a thousand years of culinary history with every juicy bite.