It is said that the method of making this kind of mutton was handed down from the court of the Ming Dynasty.
Mentioning stacks of mutton, you can't leave out Guan Jingde, an old family member of Dongguan in Ningling County.
He graduated from elementary school when the family is difficult to eat on the next, Guan Jingde will be at home with his parents farming, living
Piles of mutton
food days. In addition to farming, he followed his elder brother to slaughter sheep and make stacks of mutton. Guan Jingde said, his family to do stacks of mutton to his generation has been five generations, he can say clearly, only to the grandfather's generation. At that time, the family's living conditions were not too good, grandfather slaughtered sheep, steamed buns, the main thing is to make stacks of mutton. However, the population was small in those days, and even fewer families could afford to eat meat, so the business was very slow, just enough to make ends meet. In his father's generation, Guan Jingde's father did not make stacks of mutton, but went to Bozhou, Jining and other places to sell things, and passed the craft to Guan Jingde's brother. Guan Jingde's brother continued to make palletized mutton until he was 80 years old. Guan Jingde learned the art of making palletized mutton from his brother. According to Guan Jingde's memories, when he was a child, he saw his grandfather making stacks of mutton in a very sloppy way and cooking the meat only with spices, and the meat was pressed into a pile with a wooden bar, which was very troublesome.
Guan Jingde
In 1989, Guan Jingde opened a halal restaurant in Ningling County, focusing on stacks of mutton. At that time, Guan Jingde had already got the true tradition of making stacks of mutton, the flavor is authentic and pure, and the business was very prosperous once it opened. He improved the process of making stacks of mutton by replacing the wooden bar with a jack, which made the stacks of mutton pressed out more solid and tasty.
Guan Jingde had a friend named Yao Changli, who was the director of Ningling County Hospital at the time, and a very famous medical expert, enjoying the State Council's special allowance. After eating Guan Jingde's stacks of mutton, he said that the mutton itself is a great tonic, and if you can add Chinese medicine, not only is it good food, but it can also play a health role. Guan Jingde was energized by this, and the two of them immediately set to work on it. They cook two or three pounds of lamb at a time, with more than 20 flavors of traditional Chinese medicine, and then add ingredients, cooked out of two people first taste. But every time either the Chinese medicine flavor is heavy, or the flavor of the ingredients is strong. Two people are not discouraged, constantly increase or decrease the amount of medicine, and then choose the local one-year-old fat goat's lean meat as the main ingredient, experiments more than 100 times, and finally succeeded in developing a kidney tonic stacks of mutton. This stacks of mutton is not fishy, not stinky, not greasy, especially for kidney deficiency, diabetes and other patients to eat. This kind of stacks of mutton, but also the traditional stacks of mutton a revolution, flavor and utility closer to the people.
Originally, there was an ancestral rule that the craft of making palletized mutton was passed down from man to woman. But Guan Jingde doesn't think so, he said that although he inherited this craft from his ancestors, he has made great improvements, in a sense, it is also his own invention. In addition, the practice of passing on the skill to a man and not to a woman hinders the circulation and further development of palletized mutton. As the saying goes, the heart of the hand is meat, the daughter and son are their own children, not to mention that some girls learn better than boys. Guan Jingde said, his children as long as they are willing to learn, he is teaching.