Although hamburgers were invented in the U.S. around the turn of the century, meat between two slices of bread is not a new idea in itself. It has been a part of many cultures throughout the centuries. In this recipe, we will recreate the first version of a dish made this way, which is from ancient China around 200 BC.
Rou Jia Mo translates to “meat in Mo.” Mo is a type of Chinese bread. Rou Jia Mo originated in She’an. She’an is one of China’s oldest cities. She’an is famous for its terracotta army that was created to protect the tomb of their first emperor who died in 210 BCE. Rou Ji Mo came out of this same time period.
Ingredients for Meat Filling
- 1kg pork belly
- 60g rock sugar
- ¼ cup Liaojiu (Chinese rice cooking wine) or sherry
- Fermented soybean paste – equivalent to 5 Tbsp of soy sauce
- 10g ginger
- 20 Sichuan peppercorns
- 3 pieces star anise
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- Handful of shanzha berries
- 3 small pieces of liquorice root
- ½ Tbsp salt
How to Make the Meat Filling
- The first thing you need to do is braise the pork belly to make it tender and fall apart. Keep the pork skin too so that you have a nice unctuous braise.
- Take some sugar and crush it. You do not need to crush it into a fine powder; you can crush it roughly, so it melts evenly in the pot.
- Heat some oil and add the crushed sugar. Cook till it turns into a nice caramel. The sugar will not mix with the oil completely, but it’s nothing to be worried about. Cook it till you get some nice color. Keep it moving so it does not burn.
- After you reach the caramel stage, add water into the pot. Then add the ginger, sherry (Chinese wine), Sichuan peppercorns, anise, liquorice, cinnamon, shanzha (it will add some sour tart flavor), and fermented soybeans. Simmer the mixture for three hours.
Food Notes
- Chinese wine dates back as far as 2000 BCE.
- Sichuan peppercorns cause a numbing and vibrating sensation called paraesthesia or “ma`” in Mandarin. It’s good to add it to spicy dishes because it is soothing, an effect that is probably similar to that of menthol.
- King Tut was buried in his tomb with liquorice in 1350 BC.
- Shanzha berries are often used for their medicinal properties, which include helping with multiple kinds of Gl problems.
- Fermented soybeans dating back to 165 BCE were found at the Mawangdui tomb site in China. In olden days, they did not have soybean paste or soybean sauce. It came after a few centuries.
Ingredients for Mo
- 500g all-purpose flour
- 5g yeast
- 25g oil
- 220g water
- ¼ tsp salt
How to Make Mo Bread
You should definitely try this bread. It is flakey and different from other bread. You will like its texture and taste.
- Put some all-purpose flour in a pot. Add some salt and yeast. Mix the dry mixture and then pour in water and oil. Knead the flour and let it sit for 40 minutes. Cover it with a warm, damp towel so it does not form a skin.
- Take the dough and roll it equally. Then cut it into ten portions. Roll each portion till it makes a nice ball. You do not need to be very precise.
- Take one ball and roll it into a snake. Make an equally spread snake. Flatten it using a rolling pin. Make it as thin as you can.
- Put some oil on your finger and spread it on the flat dough. Fold the dough hot-dog style, then roll it up in a cinnamon-bun style and flatten it a little using your palm. Roll the edges of the dough with a rolling pin until it forms a shallow bowl.
- Preheat the oven to 475 degrees.
- Put a pan on the stove on high for 1 minute.
- Reduce heat to medium and add the dough. Toast on one side for 30 seconds. Flip and toast on the other side for another 30 seconds.
- Put the dough back into the oven for 2 minutes to bake.
- Tap on the bun to see if it’s dry from inside. It should sound hollow.
- In the end, the dough should come out kind of laminated.
Food Notes
- Lamination is when you fold fat (usually butter) into the dough by alternating layers of fat and dough.
- Traditionally, this bread was baked in a clay oven.
How to Make Rou Jia Mo
Remove the pork belly from the pot and start shredding. To add some flavor and moisture, add some sauce from the pot. Take a bun and slice it open. Now put some meat on one bun and some pot sauce as well. Do not pour so much that the bun becomes soggy. Put the other bun on top of the first one and voilà, you’ve got your ancient hamburger.
This ancient hamburger does not taste like the hamburger we all know. It is sweet and the spices make it very aromatic. But it is a very fulfilling hamburger that will give you everything you need to keep working throughout a long day.
