The Oldest Chinese Cookbook, Part One

What did China eat fourteen centuries ago? The oldest surviving Chinese recipes tell us — in astonishing detail. Around the year 540, the official Jia Sixie wrote the Qimin Yaoshu 齊民要術, "Essential Techniques for the Common People" — a complete guide to running a farming household in northern China. Its kitchen chapters are the oldest complete body of recipes to survive from China, with exact quantities and step-by-step methods. This volume presents Chapters Seven and Eight in full: how to make leaven and more than forty wines (including leaven made with a prayer to the gods of the five directions, and a "thrice-brewed" wine so strong that three cups can kill), soybean sauce, fermented black beans and two dozen vinegars, salt and malt, fish fermented with rice — the ancestor of sushi, jerky and dried fowl, and a feast of soups, stews and roasts: amber braised pork, honey-fried fish, Hu soup with pomegranate, and lamb roasted in a sheep's stomach. This edition includes: The complete original Chinese text of all 110 entries, with a faithful new English translation Modern Kitchen notes for every entry — clearly marked Cook it today, Needs a substitute, or Read, don't cook, with honest food-safety advice Color paintings and food photographs of dishes you can cook today An introduction to Jia Sixie, sixth-century northern China, and the science of old Chinese fermentation Recipes preserved from lost books such as the Food Classic and the Order of Dishes For food historians, fermenters and home brewers, lovers of Chinese culture, and anyone curious about where soy sauce, Chinese wine and sushi came from. The Imperial Kitchen Library brings the forgotten cookbooks of imperial China to English readers, one complete text at a time. Continued in Book 4.