The traditional pastry production technique in Jishan is originated from the Northern and Southern Dynasties when scorpion was rampant and people suffered from it. To curse scorpion poison, on the second day of the second month of the lunar calendar every year, each family pulled the dough into a long strip, twisted into the shape of scorpion tail, fried and eaten, called "bite scorpion tail". The fried scorpion's tail, which had only one strand at the beginning, later evolved into two strands of dough twist and became three strands in the Ming Dynasty, and became popular among the people.
The making technique of Jishan traditional pastry ( Jishan Mahua or Jishan Fried Dough Twist) is a typical representative of Shanxi wheaten cooked food art. "Zhaoshi Four Flavor Workshop" has always abided by the most traditional recipe and traditional 18 production procedures. It is made of eighteen processes including culture yeast block, mixing dough with water, combining flour in proportion, dividing dough, kneading dough repeatedly, evenly pulling dough into sections, applying oil on sections, horizontal cylinder storage, beating dough section separately, rubbing energetically, twisting forming, pan fry, turning and moving plastic, out of the pot oil pour, boiling sugar juice, adding accessories, secondary cooling, storage.
