Literature. Drinking. 【文飲】

I brought one new wine to King and Queens Arts and Sciences : a "boiled" millet wine.  This is the first wine for the second "exceptional" yeast cake recipe in Qimin Yaoshu - the yeast cakes I'm actually using at the moment .  It's got something weird going on.  Let's dive in. YE2W1 造神麴黍米酒方：To make proso millet wine using exceptional yeast cakes 細剉麴，燥曝之。麴一斗，水九斗，米三石。須多作者，率以此加之。其甕大小任人耳。 Finely file the yeast cakes, and air them in the sun to dry.  For one dou of yeast cakes, use nine dou of water, and three dan [30 dou ] of grain.  If you need to make more, keep the ingredients in this proportion.  Use an appropriately sized weng . 桑欲落時作，可得周年停。初下用米一石，次酘五斗，又四斗，又三斗，以漸待米消既酘，無令勢不相及。 When the mulberry trees lose their leaves [Chinese months 9 or 10, mid October - mid December].  First, add one dan of grain, then add five dou , then four dou , and then three dou , adding each after the grain has dispersed [note that this only adds up to 2.2...

Scroll 8 in Qimin Yaoshu has twenty-three  vinegar recipes in it.  I've now translated them all, and rather than posting them fully, I thought I'd offer a summary, and a few of them in particular. I haven't (successfully, ahem) made any of these yet, and when I do I'll post separately about them, with the full recipe included. Science and Civilisation in China  notes that vinegar was a relatively late addition to Chinese cooking, replacing the use of Prunus mume  (a kind of apricot) as a souring agent in the Spring and Autumn period (771-476 BCE). Ingredients Most of these are millet vinegars, produced like a millet wine.  But they also don't all use yeast cakes.  Most are using what I'm translating as "wheat grains" (麥䴷), which are also called "yellow steam" (黃蒸).  To make this: 作黃蒸法：To Make Yellow Steam 〈六、七月中，取生小麥，細磨之。 In the middle of the sixth or seventh months, take fresh wheat, and finely grind it. 以水溲而蒸之，氣餾好熟，便下之，...

Having just made new yeast cakes , I put them to good use in a batch of millet wine and rice wine following the recipe I call YE1W1 and YE2W2, as they're the first and second wines (W1, W2) listed under the first exceptional yeast cakes (YE1).  They came out really good! The recipe: Millet or Rice Wine à la Yuán Púshè This volume will fit in a 1 gallon wide-mouthed fermenter, barely. Ingredients and Tools ¼ cup powdered exceptional yeast cakes, about one cake.  But do measure. 5.25 cups dry millet or 4.5 cups dry white sticky rice Water 1 gallon, wide-mouthed fermenter - cooked grain can’t go through a narrow mouth Cheesecloth Optionally, liner silk or some other filter fabric finer than your cheesecloth Mortar and pestle Directions Dry the yeast cakes completely and scrub them clean several times. Grate, and then grind the yeast cakes in a mortar.  Soak them in 1.25 cups water for three days until they start to bubble.  Add to...

My first batch of yeast cakes is running out, and I think they had some process issues, so I wanted to make a new batch. I decided to try the second yeast cake recipe: YE2 又造神麴法：Another method for making exceptional yeast cakes 其麥蒸、炒、生三種齊等，與前同；但無復阡陌、酒脯、湯餅、祭麴王及童子手團之事矣。 Take equal quantities of steamed, stir-fried and fresh wheat, and join them as in the previous recipe, but without the north-south cross, the offering of alcohol and dried fruit/meat, the cooked noodles, offering to the “yeast cake king” or having children shape the cakes. 預前事麥三種，合和細磨之。七月上寅日作麴。溲欲剛，擣欲精細，作熟。餅用圓鐵範，令徑五寸，厚一寸五分，於平板上，令壯士熟踏之。以杙刺作孔。 Prepare the three kinds of wheat as before, join them and finely grind them.  On the third day of the seventh month, make the yeast cakes.  Wet them so they are “firm [more water than “just add a little”].”  Pound the mixture until it is evenly mixed and fine.   Make it into cakes using a round iron mold, 5 thumb-joints across, and one and half thumb...