I said edamame beans are young soybeans. Why don't you believe that?

During my years in the UK, I was surrounded by a lot of hippie literary youth (that is, hipster)-apart from riding vintage bicycles, growing beards, drinking craft IPA and listening to indie rock, many of them claimed to be vegetarians or, in the British self-excuse definition, fish-eating pescetarian and occasional meat-eating flexitarian.

Whether it's animal protection, environmental protection, health, fashion or whatever, they look excited when they talk about a variety of vegetarian products that have been refurbished. Did you eat Whole Foods's vegetarian sausage? "I bought Japanese tofu yesterday, and it tastes good." "it is now popular to eat Tempeh (Tianbei, one-hour fermented products), which I cannot accept." Now I drink alpro's soy milk.

Chinese people like Youtiao with soy milk for breakfast, but not only in China, but most people in the world like soy milk. Picture: pexels

I am not a vegetarian, or I am not very receptive to these things that are essentially soy products. After being labeled "organic" and "vegetarian", the number on the price tag goes up. I recalled the damp and crowded vegetable market in my hometown, the old tofu, the shredded bean curd, and the bean bubbles squeezed together at the unfriendly bean products stalls. I swallowed the dried bean curd (a little heresy, family recipe) and the bean skin in the hot pot.

However, this rich and changeable face accounts for only a fraction of the world's annual soybean production of 345 million tons. This ancient crop, which originated in China, has far more stories than tofu and soy milk.

Soybeans as civilian food

Glycine max is a leguminous plant, belonging to the genus Glycine, whose name comes from the Greek word for "glykys". It is not tall and is an annual herb with small compound leaves, white-purple butterfly flowers and pods. If you see a similar species in the wild, it must be the distant and near relatives of soybeans scattered in the wild.

Soybean plants. Picture: USDA / wikimedia

The butterfly flower of soybean, you can see that there are many hairs on the stem of soybean. Picture: wordpress.com

Soybean pods must be no stranger to you. On a quadrennial summer football night, beer peanuts and edamame beans are the immature pods of soybeans with dense and soft hair. Boiled edamame beans really have a slightly sweet taste.

However, in addition to edamame beans, really mature soybeans are very "difficult" to eat. Soybean seeds may have different colors of seed coat, so there are common names such as "soybean", "black bean", "green bean" and so on. This kind of skin is hard, takes a long time to cook, tastes rough and tastes bad. In the past, when spices and cooking techniques were lacking, beans used for satiety were not table food-and too many indigestible polysaccharides and proteins caused the intestinal flora to produce excess gas.

But for the "tough" soybeans, the advantage is that the shell is hard and waterproof, which can protect the embryos; the protein content is so high that it can survive even if it is dehydrated and can survive after absorbing water, which also gives it a place in the crops.

When the edamame bean is ripe, the shell hardens and becomes the familiar soybean. Picture: azernews.az

Coming from history

Soybeans have been cultivated for 5000 years, and there are residues of soybeans in Neolithic sites. In the Book of songs, it was written: "the original food [shallows] is picked by the common people." the "bean" here is soybeans.

In the Book of songs, Xiaoya describes another scene related to soybeans-- "picking cymbals, baskets [jacks] (round bamboo baskets). When a gentleman comes to court, he Xiyu "--when the son of Zhou came to court, there was a happy and peaceful scene among the people. People were busy in the fields, baskets of beans. However, don't get me wrong, these soybeans were not given to the son of Heaven, and there was no way to eat beans like tofu at that time.

Before various ways of handling soybeans were invented, solid soybeans were not easy to cook. Picture: waymagazine.org

Soybeans are a very cheap and common source of protein. In the era of lack of meat protein, farmers ingested protein, mainly relying on wheat bran and various legumes.

Soybean is rich in protein, derived from a magical bacteria-rhizobium. This kind of bacteria stimulates the root to grow and swell into nodules. These bacteria convert nitrogen in the air into nutrients to transport to soybeans, and then absorb some necessary minerals from the roots of soybeans, which is a mutually beneficial symbiote with soybeans.

A root that binds to rhizobium and grows nodules. Picture: Stdout / wikimedia

The first change in the fate of soybeans came from solidification and fermentation.

Tofu that attracts a lot of attention

Most of the pattern eating beans mentioned above originated in China. The history of tofu can no longer be tested, maybe it was accidentally acetic acid or gypsum dropped into soy milk to denature and solidify the protein, or maybe some cook deliberately tried to change the physical properties of soymilk. It is also said that Liu an, the "king of Huainan", accidentally pointed out tofu while alchemy, and some even believed that tofu makers were inspired by nomadic cheese making.

Unformed tofu that is solidifying. Picture: daum.net

The earliest serious description of the character of tofu appeared in the late Tang and five dynasties. When the word "tofu" spread, it would be in the Song Dynasty.

Brine (magnesium chloride) and gypsum (calcium sulfate) make soybeans into a form that can be arbitrarily cut and processed, making it more likely to deal with soybeans. The initial form is beancurd jelly (brine) or tofu pudding (gypsum), then the solid material is removed and molded into tofu.

Different forms of tofu can be obtained by pressing the unformed tofu into the mold. Picture: daum.net

With different materials, different intensity and time of pressing, tofu can evolve into various forms: old tofu for cooking, tender tofu for soup, and cold lactone tofu (solidified with lactone acid, similar to cheese).

Tofu is advanced and full of tricks.

Fermentation is another way out for soybeans-into soy sauce, soy sauce, natto, and even moldy tofu, stinky tofu and fermented bean curd. Using enzymes from Aspergillus or various bacteria to digest part of the starch and protein of soybeans, making it easier to digest and absorb, the flavor of soybeans has also changed.

The Japanese favorite natto mixed with rice may be difficult for some Chinese to accept. Picture: Shades0404 / wikmedia

In the eyes of most foreigners, fermented bean curd is also regarded as China's dark cuisine. Picture: Hmm / wikimedia

These flavors are largely regional-the Japanese hold natto with relish, we stick to our own moldy tofu and regard each other as heresy. But there is also a time when agreement is reached-Mapo tofu has become the most representative Sichuan cuisine in Japan, while soy milk is loved by people all over the world.

Mapo tofu has different practices in different places, but our love for tofu is similar. Picture: Archon6812 / wikipedia

Coincidentally, other legume eating relatives have the same fate all over the world. Chickpea in the Middle East is dull and tasteless, while fava along the Mediterranean coast and lentils from India are hardly delicious when cooked.

Two kinds of chickpeas and hummus. Picture: Sanjay Acharya / wikimedia;Paul Goyette / flickr

However, the transformation of chickpeas into hummus is magical, and dal made from slightly fermented lentils has also become a favorite side dish. Indonesians have developed the posture of eating tempeh, in which soybeans are squeezed together and planted with Rhizopus, wrapped in banana leaves and fermented into a lump, then cut and fried.

Dal is served with rice and Indian pancakes, which is very popular in India. Picture: Monali.mishra / wikipedia

Rhizopus fungi were inoculated on boiled peeled soybeans, and the inoculated soybeans were wrapped with banana leaves. After one or two days of fermentation, Tianbei could be obtained. Picture: Sakurai Midori / wikipedia

If soybean products are the first transformation of soybeans, then what really changed our lives took place after the modern industrial revolution.

The fate of today

The global annual output of soybeans is 345 million tons. What kind of concept is this? It's about half the size of rice. However, we have three meals a day, but we don't see so much tofu. Because most soybeans are not eaten directly by people, but are consumed as oil and feed.

Soybean oil is widely used in daily life. Picture: livestrong.com

The Portuguese brought soybeans to Europe for the first time, but without the skill of making soy products, soybeans could not become a popular food-except that Linnay was interested in soybeans themselves. In the 18th and 19th centuries, soybean seeds were brought to the United States from China and Japan and took root in Georgia, but without success.

It was not until the American Civil War, when soldiers who lacked food and protein began to eat soybeans, that the United States discovered the advantages of soybeans as a crop. So the USDA began to promote the cultivation of soybeans at home-this time, instead of trying to make food for people, it was for livestock.

The production of meat and dairy products requires a large number of plants as feed. Picture: beefmagazine.com

With large machinery, soybeans are harvested and dried when they are half-ripe, when the protein content is the highest and can reach 11% of the total gross weight. Then the whole soybean plant is crushed, bundled and made into feed. With the popularity of machines, the production efficiency is getting higher and higher, the cost is getting lower and lower, and the demand for meat consumption has further promoted the cultivation of soybeans (meat and livestock farming requires a large number of feed crops).

The main uses of crops in American states. Red means that the crops planted are mainly used in animal husbandry, such as soybeans and corn, while green means that the crops planted are mainly used for human consumption, such as fruits and vegetables. Picture: usda.gov

After entering the 20th century, people's demand for oil has further increased. Americans have once again set their sights on soybeans, a crop that is not high in oil, thanks to technological advances and low costs-the use of extraction optimizes the extraction of soybean oil, while the rest of the soybean dregs can be fed and transported to farms.

Soybeans in 1920, known as the "Cinderella crop" of the United States, came out of an inconspicuous place, but gave people a surprise. Soybean oil is everywhere-soaps, pigments, celluloid (though it's all petroleum products now) and margarine called margarine. A beef burger that seems to have nothing to do with soybeans may cost two or three times as much without soybeans.

Margarine is mainly obtained by hydrogenation of vegetable oils. Picture: bestfoodfacts.org

Soybeans, a crop that emerged from China, have become the darling of the United States and the protagonist in the debate over international trade and GM food policy. You may not believe it, but China, which first started to eat soybeans, now ranks first in the world in terms of soybean import demand.

Soybean cultivation requires a lot of land (although the traditional soybean x corn interplanting is also a kind of land-saving wisdom), but the manpower requirement is relatively low, while China happens to have little land and a large population, and can not compete with the big farms in the Midwest of the United States.

In the United States, agricultural planes are spraying pesticides on large tracts of soybeans. Picture: Ken Hammond / wikipedia

However, we still need soybeans. We need soybeans too much. Since 1950, the planting area of soybeans around the world has increased 15 times, which reflects the changes in our living habits. In the past, we ate 80% staple food, 10% meat, 10% vegetables, but now, it is 40% staple food, 30% meat, and 30% vegetables.

From soy crops to soy products is traditional experience, skill and wisdom; from soy products to soybean oil and soybean meal is modern industry and global trade.

Where will soybeans take us next? What is the future of our food? There is no final conclusion yet. But what is certain is that we are still measuring the development and changes of civilization with our own stomach.

This is the 180th article in the fourth year of the species calendar, from @ plum, author of the species calendar.

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