蒸 (zhēng): to steam (food)

Meanings

1 to steam (food)
2 to evaporate

Characters

蒸

zhēng

to steam

Examples

妈妈蒸了一锅包子。

Māma zhēng le yī guō bāozi.

Mom steamed a pot of steamed buns.

蒸鱼是一道很健康的菜。

Zhēng yú shì yīdào hěn jiànkāng de cài.

Steamed fish is a very healthy dish.

Tips

culture

Steaming (蒸) is one of the most important Chinese cooking methods. Many classic dishes use it: 蒸饺 (steamed dumplings), 蒸蛋 (steamed egg), 清蒸鱼 (steamed fish).

memory

The character has 艹 (grass/plant) on top — think of steam rising from plants/herbs. The bottom part 烝 originally meant rising steam.

Components

radical

艹 cǎo

grass; plant (top radical)

Top grass radical — three strokes for the standard compressed form of 艸. Indexes 蒸 in the plant family. Originally 蒸 named the slender stalks of hemp used as torch fuel; from "burning bundles of hemp" came the broader meaning of rising steam and vapour.

phonetic

烝 zhēng

to rise as steam

Bottom 烝 supplies both sound and meaning — zhēng directly, with fire 灬 at the base and 丞 above giving the picture of rising vapour over heat. Together with the grass on top, the whole character shows hemp stalks heated until steam rises: the archetypal kitchen scene of steaming food.