After the archaic roast, cooked over the fire in primitive fashion, came boiled dishes, following the invention of pottery in the Neolithic age. Millet, rice and other grains were boiled in pots to make congee, and then, when a perforated dish was laid over the cauldron, also steamed to make fan. Most other ingredients were cut up and cooked in water and whatever they were – meat, fish or vegetables – the resulting soup stews came to be known as a geng.
