Tomorrow is Qingming Festival. The most traditional food for Qingming Festival is the Youth League. Do you like it? Almost every household in the South has to eat this food. As one of the traditional food of Qingming Festival, the Youth League is very popular. However, many people will be very curious about why the Youth League is blue? Is it because of the addition of dye? What is the reason for the green color of the Youth League?
What is the Youth League
Qingtuan is a traditional snack in Jiangnan area. It is green. It is mixed with wormwood juice into glutinous rice flour and then wrapped with bean paste stuffing or lotus seed paste. It is neither sweet nor greasy, and has a light but long grass aroma. Some of them use wheat straw, some use wormwood juice, and some use other green leaf vegetable juice and glutinous rice flour to make the Green League, and then use bean paste as the stuffing. The function of the Youth League as a sacrifice is increasingly weakened, and more people use it as a spring outing snack.
Why is the Youth League blue
The traditional green ball is a green cake made of wormwood juice, glutinous rice and flour. Green is the color of wormwood juice. The Green League is very delicious. It is stuffed with sweet bean paste and chewed. The soft glutinous rice is wrapped in the stuffing heart, with a strong fragrance of wormwood. It's full of spring,
Some people doubt whether the cyan color of the Youth League is due to the addition of pigment. Generally speaking, it is not. There is no pigment in the Green League. It is forbidden to add artificial colors and preservatives.
Therefore, this also shows that do not covet, some Green League shelf life is longer, such as that can be placed for 2-3 weeks, it is suspected to add preservatives. The normal processing of the Green League, shelf life is only a few days, should be eaten as soon as possible after purchase.
Why do you eat the Youth League on Qingming Festival
The Youth League is also called qingtuanzi and qingmingguo. Eating Qingming fruit in Qingming Festival comes from eating cold food in cold food festival. In ancient China, during the cold food festival, people did not make a fire to cook, but only ate cold food. Cold food is prepared in advance without heating. The Youth League is a snack in the south of the Yangtze River, named for its color. Later, the cold food festival gradually developed into the Qingming Festival. The green dumplings eaten in the cold food festival were gradually called Qingming fruit.
According to historical records, qingmingguo dates back to the Liang Dynasty of the Southern Dynasty. Qingming folk custom was listed in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list with the approval of the State Council. Beating the Youth League is one of the most distinctive seasonal food production activities during the Qingming Festival.
However, now the function of the Youth League as a tomb sweeping sacrifice may be gradually weakened, and more people use it as a snack. The Youth League, which was originally favored by people, died of nothing. Many places have no custom of eating the Youth League on Qingming Festival.
How long is the quality guarantee period of the Youth League
The quality guarantee period of the Youth League is generally only 3 to 4 days at most, which is very short. Because the moisture content of the Green League is very high, and after a long time of humidification, so the shelf life is relatively short. It's the same with the Youth League. Because the Youth League is seasonal food, it's usually eaten only on Tomb Sweeping Day, so it's rare to put preservatives in the Youth League. If it's made at home, you need to control how much you eat and how much you cook.