The Chinese people are sometimes thought to be rice-eaters, but most northerners prefer food made of wheat flour, and mantou is the most popular form of such food. It is made by steaming the dough and is therefore described in English as “steamed bread.”

The first step in the traditional method of making mantou is fermenting the dough. Normally a small piece of leaven is kept from the previous time. This is well mixed in flour and water to make a new piece of dough, which is left for a few hours to swell. The leavening dough, when ready for steaming, contains a high degree of acid, so a suitable amount of soda solution must be mixed and well kneaded in it. The dough is then divided into smaller pieces, either round or square, which are arranged will spaced on a rack, and steamed under cover.

A kind of active yeast has been developed in Beijing and Shanghai in recent years, making the steaming of bread easier. All one has to do is to solve the yeast in cold or lukewarm water and mix it well in dough. The dough is then kneaded, divided and shaped into pieces of a suitable size. Leave them in a temperature of 20℃ to 30℃ for half an hour at most, and they are ready for steaming. This method cuts short the period of leavening and improves the taste of the steamed bread.

An interesting story tells about the origin of mantou. It was first made, so the legend goes, by order of Zhuge Liang, a famous statesman and chief minister of the State of Shu during the Period of Three Kingdoms (220-280 A.D.) On an expedition to conquer the cave-dwelling southern Man barbarians who had often marauded his state, he came to the side of the Lushui River at the head of a big army. Someone told him that the river was poisonous and treacherous and that human lives would be lost in crossing unless the tyrannical River God was appeased. The way to do this, the man said, was to offer him mantou (heads of the captured barbarians) as human sacrifice. Now Zhuge Liang was a kind-hearted man. He accepted the suggestion but ordered to use “heads”(tou) made of dough instead of real human ones, thus saving a number of lives.

Since then the story goes on to say, mantou (barbarians’ head) has become a popular food and spread to the north of China.