Library staff members breathe new life to ancient recipes

As China is universally well-known for its cuisine, ancient Chinese people recorded many recipes to pass down the secrets of their delicacies.

Recently, Han Chao and Shi Xingyu, two staff members from Nanjing Library, interpreted many recipes from the ancient cook bookSui Yuan Shi Danand went viral on the internet.

Completed in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) by Yuan Mei, the book records recipes of more than 300 dishes.

Since many ingredients in the book, such as wild animals, are now forbidden to be consumed, Han and Shi only chose accessible ones to interpret.

Fruit and Meat

According to them, dishes made of fruit and meat are very common in the book.

“Many people take the combination of fruit and meat as a horrible dish, while in fact, it tastes good,” Shi said.

“Slice the chicken chest, add sesame oil, salt, ginger and stir with sliced pear and mushroom cubes. This is a recipe from the book. Very easy to learn.”

Tofu is another popular ingredient in the cook book. And many dishes made by tofu were named by people or their titles, such as Mayor Wang Tofu.