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Chinese Name: 油条
English Name: Youtiao; Fried Dough Sticks
Category: Snack小吃
Main Ingredients: Flour
Youtiao油条, also known as Guozi馃子, is an ancient Han pasta. It is a long hollow-fried food with a crisp and tenacious taste. It is one of the traditional Chinese breakfasts.
The history of the Song Dynasty宋朝 records that during the Song Dynasty, Qin Hui秦桧 persecuted Yue Fei岳飞, and the people expressed their anger by frying a flour food similar to fried dough sticks (fried Hui油炸桧). Similar fried pasta originated far earlier than the Song Dynasty and can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty唐朝, but the specific period cannot be verified.
As early as the Northern and Southern Dynasties南北朝, Jia Sixie贾思勰 was an agronomist in the Northern Wei Dynasty北魏. In his book Qi Min Yao Shu齐民要术, he recorded the production method of fried food. Qi Min Yao Shu said: “thin ring cake, a cold tool, emerald beauty细环饼，一名寒具，翠美”.
During the Tang Dynasty, the poet Liu Yuxi刘禹锡 also mentioned cold ware寒具 in his Jia Hua佳话. However, this kind of food called “cold ware寒具” should look like the arm-wrapped gold worn by women, similar to Zazi撒子, not fried dough sticks. Fried dough sticks should be another innovation of fried pasta after the Southern Song Dynasty南宋.
The name Youtiao is different in different places. Shanxi calls it “hemp leaf麻叶”; Many areas in Northeast and North China call fried dough sticks “Guozi馃子”; Some areas in Anhui Province call it “Youmo油馍”; Guangzhou and its surrounding areas are called “oil bombers油炸鬼”; Chaoshan area and other places are called “fried fruit油炸果”; Zhejiang has the name of “Tianluo tendon天罗筋” (Tianluo is towel gourd. Peeling off the shell of the old towel gourd after drying will leave the towel gourd tendon. Its shape is very similar to that of fried dough sticks, so it is called Tianluo tendon).
There are different and novel ways to eat fried dough sticks everywhere. In Tianjin, it is popular to use pancake roll fried dough sticks to make snacks – pancake fruit煎饼果子. In Henan, people like to eat newly fried dough sticks with paste spicy soup or bean curd as breakfast.
In Guangdong and Hong Kong, it is popular to make fried dough sticks with vermicelli and sprinkle them with soy sauce. You can also add chili sauce and sweet sauce at will. There are also ways to mix porridge directly for breakfast.
How to make Youtiao?
Ingredients：
- 5000 grams of flour
- A proper amount of salt
- Alkali (60g in winter; 70g in spring; 80g in summer)
- Warm water (3000 g in winter; 2750 g in summer)
Instruction:
- Step 1, Mix the alkali and salt in proportion, put them into the basin, add warm water, stir and dissolve them into an emulsion. When a large amount of foam is produced and then there is a sound, add flour and stir it into a snowflake.
- Step 2, Knead the dough to make it a smooth, soft, and strong dough and cover it with a warm cloth or quilt. Wake up for 20 to 30 minutes and knead again. Do this 3-4 times to make the dough produce gas and form holes to achieve softness.
- Step 3, Apply oil on the chopping board, take 1 / 5 of the dough and put it on the chopping board, and drag the long strip.
- Step 4, Roll the strip in the third step into a strip 1 cm thick and 10 cm wide with a small dough stick and then chop it into a strip 1.5 cm wide with a knife. Stack the two strips together and compact them from the middle with bamboo chopsticks along the long axis.
- Step 5, Gently pinch the two ends of the long strip with both hands, rotate, and pull the long strip of about 30 cm into a hot oil pot. Flip while frying to make the dough sticks bulge. When it becomes swollen, crisp, and golden, it is ready.
Tips:
- Fried dough sticks belong to high-temperature fried food. They stay in the stomach for a long time, have high calories, are difficult to digest, and will affect sleep. In addition, most of the nutrients of fried dough sticks are destroyed. High-temperature oil also contains certain toxic substances, which will affect the health of the body, so it should not be used frequently.
