Halal snack making skills, a traditional skills project in the fourth batch of representative projects of municipal intangible cultural heritage. Qijiawan Caoqiao beef pot stickers, with crispy skin, tender meat and fragrant juice, are a unique snack in Nanjing. The authentic Qijiawan Caoqiao beef pot stickers are very particular about the making process. From the ingredients of the filling to the heat of frying, they all have a long history. Old Nanjing people who know how to eat can tell whether it is the old stew of Qijiawan and whether it is the beef of Qijiawan as soon as they taste it. The authentic Qijiawan Caoqiao beef pot stickers old stew is very important. The secret recipe is personally prepared by the owner, and the design of the stove shape is unique. Of course, the most important thing is the process of boiling beef. The beef and beef bones are placed alternately, which is conducive to the essence of the beef bones slowly infiltrating into the beef. These original old stews require 17 or 18 hours of careful boiling. The selection of ingredients for pot sticker fillings is also very important. The cattle are slaughtered on the same day, there must be no impurities in the meat, and cheap water-injected meat cannot be used. They are all buffalo meat. Only in this way can the taste be guaranteed to be delicious. The stuffing is chopped manually, which depends entirely on the knife skills. When the meat is chopped into 70% to 80% pieces, add onions, ginger, salt, beef bone soup and other ingredients, and chop gently until the stuffing is delicate, sticky and strong. When stirring the stuffing, it must be stirred in one direction. Generally, a pot of stuffing should be stirred for 40 minutes to 1 hour. The skin of the beef pot stickers must be thin enough so that the pot stickers can be fried crispy and more fragrant. There are two important links in the production process. The first is the oil. You must use authentic rapeseed oil. Rapeseed oil is the best oil for making pot stickers, and many places will not use it. As a century-old shop, we have kept it because only this kind of oil can make pot stickers that are guaranteed to be golden, fragrant, crispy, and not soft. The second is the heat. Generally, if you want to master the heat well, a chef basically needs three years to master it. Today, Caoqiao beef pot stickers are no longer just a food, but also a memory and nostalgia of old Nanjing people, especially those living in the old south of the city. Old Nanjing people who now live in Singapore, Malaysia and Australia often ask their friends to go to Qijiawan to taste Caoqiao beef pot stickers. The Jiang family, whose ancestral home is in Henan, is engaged in cattle herding. In the late Qing Dynasty, our ancestor Jiang Youcai moved to Nanjing with his family to support his family and began to operate a regular cattle and sheep slaughtering and processing business. In 1922, it was officially named "Jiang Youji", mainly selling fresh beef and mutton, beef and mutton soup, beef and mutton flatbread, and pot stickers. Because of the fresh ingredients, unique craftsmanship, pure taste and low price, it is loved by consumers, especially Hui consumers. In 1937, my father Jiang Qingqi inherited the store name and continued to operate "Jiang Youji". In order to expand the scale of operation, in the same year, he and his cousins Ma Mingbao and Li Shunxing jointly opened "Qi Ji Jiang Youji" in Daxianglu, and my father Jiang Qingqi served as the manager in charge of the business. "Qi Ji Jiang Youji" inherited and carried forward the consistent quality of "Jiang Youji" and was praised and affirmed by the general public. From 1937 to 1949, after eight years of the Anti-Japanese War and three years of the Kuomintang-Communist Civil War, Jiang Youji survived tenaciously in the flames of war and gunpowder by always adhering to the concept of genuine goods and honest operation. After the founding of New China, in order to expand its influence, my father Jiang Qingqi and his relatives jointly built a 31.5-square-meter two-story building at No. 12, West Gate, Gongyuan West Street, Confucius Temple in 1951. The upstairs was used as a residence and the downstairs was used for business. The business was booming and diners came in an endless stream and praised it. The current "Jiang Youji" is run by Jiang Yuyou, a descendant of the Jiang family, and has opened two stores in Laomendong and Qinhong Road. With the care and support of the city and district leaders and relevant departments, this time-honored brand has regained its vitality. We will inherit and carry forward the store opening purpose of genuine goods and honest operation, maintain the original time-honored style, strive to satisfy every customer, and do our part to promote traditional food culture. Information source: Jiangsu Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.) Information source: Jiangsu Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.)