My original plan for the 19th-century cookbook Brief Treatise on Vegetarianism was to go through the whole thing, translating and explaining one recipe at a time. This is what Sean Chen did (with a different book) in his wonderful Way of the Eating blog.
Oh, and I would also be cooking the dishes.
The problem is that even though the Brief Treatise on Vegtarianism is relatively short, that’s still a lot of recipes. Doing one recipe a day would keep me busy for half a year, and that’s just one book — I still have 40 more to go.
I realized this when I sat down to translate the Table of Contents.
素食说略
Brief Treatise on Vegetarianism
Xue Baocheng
| 卷一 | Book 1 |
|---|---|
| 制腊水 | Winter water |
| 造酱油 | Soy sauce |
| 造米醋 | Rice vinegar |
| 熬醋 | Simmered vinegar |
| 造酱 | Bean paste |
| 腌菜 | Salted vegetables |
| 腌五香咸菜 | Salted five-flavor vegetables |
| 煮腊豆 | Boiled winter beans |
| 腌莴笋 | Salted lettuce stem |
| 腌瓜 | Salted squash |
| 腌胡菜菔 | Salted carrot |
| 腌豆豉 | Salted beans |
| 制胡豆瓣 | Fava bean paste |
| 浸菜 | Pickled vegetables |
| 腌雪里蕻 | Salted winter vegetable |
| 醋浸菜 | Vinegar pickled vegetables |
| 豆腐乳 | Fermented tofu |
| 腐竹 | Rolled bean curd |
| 辣椒酱 | Chili paste |
| 水豆豉 | Wet salted beans |
| 菜脯 | Dried vegetable |
| 藏诸果 | Dried fruit |
| 炒米花 | Fried puffed rice |
| 酱油浸鹿角菜 | Soy sauce pickled lujiaocai (‘deer antler’ vegetable) |
| 甜酱炒鹿角菜 | Lujiaocai fried in sweet sauce |
| 甜酱炒核桃仁 | Walnuts fried in sweet sauce |
| 果仁酱 | Almond paste |
| 素火腿 | Vegetarian ham |
| 卷二 | Book 2 |
|---|---|
| 摩姑蕈 | Mushrooms |
| 羊肚菌 | Sheep stomach mushrooms |
| 东菌 | Oyster mushrooms |
| 香姑 | Shiitake mushrooms |
| 兰花摩姑 | Grass mushrooms |
| 鸡腿摩姑 | Chicken leg mushrooms |
| 虎蹄菌 | Tiger paw mushrooms |
| 白木耳 | White cloud fungus |
| 桂花木耳 | Cinnamon flower white cloud fungus |
| 榆木耳 | Yu’er fungus |
| 树花菜 | Tree flower vegetable |
| 葛仙芝 | Ground tree fungus |
| 竹松 | Zhusong mushroom (matsutake?) |
| 商山芝 | Ferns |
| 笋衣 | Bamboo leaf shoots |
| 石花糕 | Lujiaocai |
| 凉拌石花糕 | Cold mixed lujiaocai |
| 闷发菜 | Lightly braised black moss seaweed |
| 菘 | Cabbage |
| 山東白菜 | Shandong cabbage |
| 油白菜 | Cabbage in oil |
| 燒萊菔 | Braised radish |
| 燒鈕子萊菔 | Braised button radish |
| 菜花 | Cauliflower |
| 萊菔圓 | Radish balls |
| 苔子菜 | Brassica shoots |
| 芹黃 | Overgrown celery |
| 莧菜 | Amaranth |
| 芥圪塔 | Brassica stems |
| 芥藍 | Kailan |
| 荠菜 | Shepherd’s purse |
| 雪里蕻炒百合 | Lily root winter vegetable |
| 菠菜 | Spinach |
| 洋菠菜 | (Unclear) “Western spinach” |
| 同蒿 | Tonghao |
| 榆荚 | Yushu leaves |
| 銀条菜 | Silver thread root |
| 樁、白樁 | Zhuang, White zhuang |
| 石芥 | Shijie |
| 龙头菜 | Fern tips |
| 蒌蒿 | Artemesia |
| 洋生姜 | Chrysanthemum root |
| 倭瓜圓 | Pumpkin balls |
| 丝瓜 | Loofah melon |
| 胡瓜 | Cucumber |
| 南瓜 | Pumpkin |
| 攪瓜 | Vegetable squash |
| 壺盧 | Gourd |
| 蒸山药 | Steamed yam |
| 炸山药，咸蒸山药 | Fried yam, salted steamed yam |
| 拔丝山药 | Yam fried in sugar |
| 山药臡 | Yam paste |
| 山芋 | Yam |
| 山芋圓 | Yam balls |
| 紅薯 | Sweet potato |
| 茄子 | Eggplant |
| 慈姑 | Zigu vegetable |
| 镏荸荠 | Water chestnuts |
| 炒荸荠 | Fried water chestnuts |
| 荸荠圓 | Water chestnut balls |
| 茭白 | Water bamboo |
| 芋头 | Taro |
| 烧冬笋 | Braised winter bamboo |
| 小豆腐 | Small tofu |
| 嫩黃豆 | Tender soybeans |
| 掐菜 | Bean sprouts |
| 炒鮮蚤豆 | Fried salted fava beans |
| 炒干蚤豆 | Fried dried fava beans |
| 蚤豆臡 | Fava bean paste |
| 白扁豆臡 | Hyacinth bean paste |
| 洋薏米 | (Western) Job’s tears |
| 豇豆 | Long beans |
| 刀豆、洋刀豆、扁豆 | String beans |
| 嫩碗豆 | Tender green peas |
| 百合 | Lily root |
| 藕 | Lotus root |
| 藕圓 | Lotus root balls |
| 煮蓮子 | Boiled lotus root |
| 蜜炙蓮子 | Honey-cooked lotus |
| 蜜炙栗 | Honey cooked chestnuts |
| 銀杏 | Ginko nuts |
| 金玉羹 | Gold and jade thick soup |
| 咸落花生 | Salt-cooked peanuts |
| 枣臡 | Date paste |
| 罗汉菜 | Arhat vegetables1 |
| 菜臡 | Vegetable paste |
| 果羹 | Fruit paste |
| 罐头 | Canned foods |
| 卷三 | Book3 |
|---|---|
| 豆腐 | Tofu |
| 豆腐臡 | Tofu paste |
| 炒豆腐丁 | Fried tofu cubes |
| 酸辣豆腐丁 | Hot and sour tofu cubes |
| 玉琢羹 | Jade (tofu) thick soup |
| 豆腐圪扎 | Tofu geza |
| 罗汉豆腐 | Arhat tofu |
| 蘑菇煨腐皮 | Tofu cooked with mushrooms |
| 雪花豆腐 | Snowflake tofu |
| 豆腐丝 | Tofu strips |
| 泡儿豆腐 | Tofu puffs |
| 面筋 | Gluten |
| 五味面筋 | Five-flavor gluten |
| 糖酱面筋 | Sweet sauce gluten |
| 罗汉面筋 | Arhat gluten |
| 麻豆腐 | Ma dofu (that isn’t tofu) |
| 麻粉 | Sesame powder (that isn’t sesame) |
| 麻茶酱 | Tea sesame paste |
| 卷四 | Book4 |
|---|---|
| 粥 | Porridge |
| 饭 | Rice |
| 饼 | Breads |
| 面条 | Noodles |
| 玉米粥 | Corn porridge |
| 杏仁酪 | Almond cheese (not cheese) |
| 油酥干饼 | Crispy dry oil cakes |
| 淋饼 | Drizzle cakes |
| 托面 | Tuo noodles |
| 炸油果 | Fried dough |
| 炸油糕 | Fried cakes |
| 酥面 | Crispy noodles |
| 炸油茶 | Fried oil tea (sesame flour paste) |
| 菊叶粉片 | Deep fried chrysanthemum leaves |
| 米粉 | Rice flour |
| 削面 | Knife-cut noodles |
| 炒面条 | Fried noodles |
| 面菱 | Caltrop (shaped) noodles |
| 汤圆 | Tang yuan (glutenous rice balls, also the name of my neighbor’s dog) |
| 冬笋汤 | Winter bamboo soup |
| 蘑姑汤 | Mushroom soup |
| 天目笋汤 | Tianmu bamboo soup |
| 蚕豆汤，蚕豆芽汤 | Fava bean soup, fava bean sprout soup |
| 菜菔汤 | Radish soup |
| 黄豆芽汤，黄豆汤 | Soybean shoot soup, soybean soup |
| 豌豆苗汤 | Pea sprout soup |
| 黄豆芽春菜汤 | Soybean sprout and |
| 紫菜汤 | Seaweed soup |
| 酱油精，味精 | Soy sauce essence, flavor essence |
See? I told you it was a lot. Even that pretty rough translation took me two days.
One reason it took so long is that this book uses a lot of obscure plants and mushrooms, many of which don’t have English names. I have seen some of these ingredients in markets, but others were completely new to me. For a lot of these, the book uses old, local, or poetic names. And some of dishes are completely different from what the name would lead you to expect.
So basically to understand the contents, I had to read the whole book — in classical Chinese.
But there’s a lot to learn here. Besides all those unique ingredients, there are also some interesting techniques. According to the Kangxi dictionary, the character ni (臡) that I translate as paste is really a fermented paste. That does change everything, now doesn’t it? In fact, a lot of these recipes call for fermentation, one of the oldest ways of coaxing complex flavors out of foods, but also one of the first to get thrown aside in modern food production.
I most definitely want to test drive some of these recipes, but which ones?
I’m open to suggestions. In fact, I’m asking for them, hopefully a few from each book. Feel free to leave a comment letting me know which dishes sound interesting. I will source the ingredients and make a few from each book (卷), trying to stay as close to the original text–and taste–as possible .
- An arhat is one of the original disciples of the Buddha. This is a common way of naming vegetarian dishes. ↩︎
Thomas David DuBois 