Food Technology in China

Agriculture started in China with the domestication of rice in the middle reaches of the Yangtze Valley at about 8000 BCE. Rice was followed by millet (at about 5000 BCE), wheat and barley (1500 BCE) and soybean (1000 BCE). In the classical period (1000–200 BCE), the principal grains of the realm were millet (both panicum and setaria), rice, wheat, barley, and soybean. Much ingenuity was expended by the Chinese to develop methods for processing these crops into attractive and nutritious articles of food and drink.

The kernels of both rice and millet are relatively soft. They were steamed to produce tender, palatable granules called fan. Pottery steamers of great antiquity (4000–5000 BCE) have been found in the neolithic sites in Banpo near Xian in the north, and at Hemudu near Hangzhou in the Yangzi delta. It was probably the use of steaming that fortuitously led to the discovery of a distinctive technology for the conversion of cereal grains into alcoholic drinks.

The Discovery of Qu...