Seasoning (cuisine) - Anbai

Japanese: 塩梅（料理） - あんばい

… [Tsuneo Nakamura]
[Cultural History]

[China]
In China, plums were admired as early spring flowers and became the subject of poetry in later times. In ancient times, people were interested in their fruit, and wild fruits were collected along with plums, apricots, and peaches. As sung in the Guofuku poem "Looking for Plums" in the Book of Songs, there was a custom in which men and women would throw plum fruits to seek spouses and give them as gifts as a sign of their love during spring singing festivals. The fruit was preserved as a food, and its sourness was used as a seasoning, so there is also the word "anbai" (salted plum). Half-ripened fruits are placed in baskets and smoked in chimneys to become "wu mei" (salted plums) for medicinal use.

From [Plum Vinegar]

...The main source of sourness is citric acid. In the Wamyōshō, enbai is written as umezu, and this umezu was later pronounced anbai and came to mean flavorful. That is how important a seasoning umezu was.

From [Salt]

...The passage in which the beautiful salt crystals that form on twigs thrown into the salt mines of Salzburg (German for "salt town") are linked to the psychology of love (cristallisation) evokes an unparalleled image in us. [Tadao Arita]
[China]
The word anbai (salt and seasoning), which means taste, appears in the Book of Documents, and the famous phrase "wine is the chief medicine" is used in the Book of Han as a parallel phrase, "salt is the commander of food." In China, salt has naturally been as old as the nation and has been considered extremely important. The great salt pond in Shanxi Province was located in the area where the Yellow River civilization originated, and controlling it was one of the conditions for being in power. It was natural that Yu Gong made Jizhou (Shanxi) his imperial capital, and that Zhou and Qin were based in Shaanxi, which was nearby.

From [Chinese cuisine]

...Among seasonings such as soy sauce, chili pepper, and vinegar, salt was the most important. For example, the word "anbai" (salt and plum), which we use in our daily lives even today, originally meant the seasoning of "salty salt and sour plum" or the preparation of seasoning, and was extended to mean the prime minister who governs the country (Book of Documents). Spices that can be found include cinnamon, Japanese pepper, ginger, and water chestnut....

*Here are some explanations of terms that refer to "shio-bai (cuisine)."

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

Japanese:

…【中村恒雄】
【文化史】

［中国］
　中国において，ウメが早春の花として観賞され，詩歌の題材とされるようになったのは後世のことで，古くはその果実に関心があり，スモモ，アンズ，モモなどとともに野生の実が採取され，また《詩経》国風の〈摽有梅〉の詩に歌われたように，春の歌垣（うたがき）に際し，男女がウメの実を投げて配偶者を求め，また愛情のあかしとして贈答する風習があった。果実は保存食となり，またその酸味が調味料として用いられたので〈塩梅（あんばい）〉の語もある。熟れかけの実を籠に盛り，煙突の煙でいぶして薫製にしたものを〈烏梅〉として薬用にする。…

【梅酢】より

…酸味の主体はクエン酸である。《和名抄》には塩梅（えんばい）を〈梅酢也〉としており，この塩梅がやがて〈あんばい〉と読まれて味かげんを意味するようになった。梅酢はそれほど重要な調味料であったといえよう。…

【塩】より

…ザルツブルク(ドイツ語で〈塩の町〉)の塩坑に投じられた小枝がつける美しい塩の結晶を，恋愛心理(結晶作用cristallisation)と結びつけた個所は，比類のないイメージをわれわれに喚起してやまない。【有田忠郎】
［中国］
　味かげんを意味する塩梅（あんばい）の語が《書経》にみえ，〈酒は百薬の長〉という有名なことばの対句に〈塩は食肴（しよくこう）の将〉と《漢書》で使われるように，中国でも塩は当然民族の歴史とともに古く，またきわめて重要視されてきた。黄河文明が発生した地域には山西省の大塩池があり，これを握ることが権力者の一条件で，〈禹貢（うこう）〉が冀（き）州(山西)を帝都とし，周や秦がそこに近い陝西を根拠とするのも当然であった。…

【中国料理】より

…醬（ひしお），豉（くき），酢などの調味料のなかでも，もっとも大事な調味料は塩であった。たとえばわれわれが今日でも日常に使う〈塩梅（あんばい）〉の語は，古く〈鹹塩と酸梅〉の調味，あるいは調味をととのえる意，そして国政を治める宰相の意に引伸した(《書経》)ことからも，そのことはうかがえる。香辛料に木桂，山椒，薑，蓼などが見られる。…

※「塩梅（料理）」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について | 情報

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