Elbow is the leg meat of pig, which is divided into front elbow, also called front hoof. Its skin is thick, sinewy, sticky and thin, and it is often cooked with skin, fat but not greasy. Suitable for roasting, roasting, sauce, stew, marinating, soup making, etc. Such as braised elbow, braised elbow with cabbage heart, braised elbow; The back elbow, also known as the back hoof, has more connective tissue than the front elbow, and its skin is old and tough, and its quality is not as good as that of the front elbow. The cooking method and using method are basically the same as those of the front elbow.

According to legend, the "Tianfu" in old Beijing was built in Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty for three years, and it has been more than 260 years. According to the old people, it also has a legendary experience: in the third year of Qianlong, Fengxiang Liu, a native of Yexian County, Shandong Province, led his grandson to Beijing to make a living, and partnered with a Shanxi merchant to open a sauce meat shop in the east corner of Xidan archway, dealing in sauce elbow, sauce meat and sauce belly. But the store is small and nameless, so it has been very depressed. One day, Fengxiang Liu went to the market to buy goods, and saw an old plaque on the flea market, which read "Tianfu" in three regular script characters, vigorous and powerful with a pen. Fengxiang Liu thought this plaque meant God's blessing, so he bought it and hung it on his lintel. After the store was named after this, the business was booming. God bless arrival as scheduled. In the past, sauced meat shops cooked at night and sold them during the day. Once, Liu, a descendant of Liu, slept in the kitchen at night and his elbow burned. He was so worried that he had to repeatedly process and sort out the pot of boiled elbow and reluctantly sell it. It happened that an old gentleman in the punishment department bought it, tasted it on the spot and said, "Today's elbow sauce is good, crisp and tender, not greasy, not stuffing, delicious." A little later, another eunuch in the palace came to buy elbows. After the eunuch left, Liu came to Ming for fear of catastrophe, but he was once again blessed by God. Since then, Liu Deming has carefully studied and summarized a unique production method, which has become more and more strict in material selection and processing, and the quality of sauce elbow is getting better and better. Therefore, all the dignitaries in the Qing Dynasty liked to eat Tianfu's sauce elbow, and Tianfu became famous. It is said that Empress Dowager Cixi appreciated it after tasting it, and gave Tianfu a waist tag, which stipulated that it should be sent to the palace quantitatively every day. Since then, the sauce elbow made by Tianfu has become a tribute of the Qing Dynasty. It is becoming more and more popular among people. According to Wang Shouxiang, the owner of Tianfu, his late owner Sheng Suhai sent the sauce elbow to the palace before he was born.

After the Revolution of 1911, the last emperor Puyi yearned for western life, dressed in suits and ties, ate foreign food, and ignored the traditional cuisine of the Qing Dynasty. However, "Tianfu" sauce elbow is an exception. Although Puyi eats western food every day, the "Tianfu" sauce elbow is a necessary dish on the western food table. Master Sheng also recalled that after the last emperor Puyi was pardoned, he rode his bike to the salesroom of Tianfu the next day to buy sauce elbows. Puyi's love for sauced elbows is well described in his autobiography "My First Half Life". There are countless celebrities who love to eat Tianfu sauce elbow. There used to be many big names in the entertainment circle. Mei Lanfang and Ye Shenglan, masters of Peking Opera, both like to eat the sauce meat of Tianfu, while Yuan Shihai likes to eat the chicken of Tianfu. They are both artists and gourmets, looking for meat products from Tianfu. The old master said that he once sent sauce meat to Mr. Wang's father and the famous doctor Lu of Xidan.