Abstract
[Purpose]
Various styles of mapo tofu are eaten in Japan today, from mild to extremely hot and spicy. The purpose of this study is to clarify when mapo tofu came to Japan from China and how it made its way onto the Japanese daily table, to classify the types of mapo tofu based on seasonings and spices used, and to follow the process of the introduction and uptake of this dish from abroad.
[Methods]
First, we collected information on mapo tofu and Sichuan cuisine, as well as mapo tofu recipes from cookbooks, home economics textbooks, and cooking training materials. Next, focusing on the seasonings and spices of 125 mapo tofu recipes, we excluded the recipes containing ingredients that appear five times or less and conducted hierarchical cluster analysis (Ward's method) on the remaining 101 recipes. The resulting clusters of recipes were then characterized by their combination of seasonings and spices. In addition, 25 mapo tofu ready-made sauces retort pouch products available on the market as of June 2020 were collected and classified through cluster analysis based on the types of seasonings and spices listed in the ingredients.
[Results]
1) The literature search revealed that the first appearance of a Japanese mapo tofu recipe was in “Chinese Cuisine” (cook book by Wang Ma Hee-jun, June 1958), and that the opening of Sichuan Hanten restaurant (November 1958) by chef Chen Kenmin, who is credited with introducing mapo tofu to Japan, both occurred in 1958. After that, the inclusion in various cookbooks alongside broadcast on the NHK TV program “Kyou no Ryori” (Wang Ma Hee-jun 1959, Chen Kenmin 1966) and the release of ready-made sauce“Mapo Tofu no Moto" (Marumiya, 1971) are thought to have contributed to penetration of mapo tofu into ordinary households.
2) Cluster analysis of 101 mapo tofu recipes resulted in the classification of 3 types: Japanese style (13 products), Chinese style (43 products), and Japanese-Chinese fusion style (45 products).
3) The seasonings and spices used in mapo tofu ready-made sauces were classified into two categories: Japanese style and Chinese style.
