Shixian hongmi 食憲鴻秘

Shixian hongmi 食憲鴻秘 "Vast secrets of the rules of diet" is a cookbook allegedly written by Zhu Yizun 朱彝尊 (1629-1709), but the name of this great scholar might have been used just for marketing purposes. Some researchers see it as a blueprint for the book Yangxiaolu 養小錄, while others believe it to be a writing of Wang Shizhen 王士禎 (1634-1711).

The book has a length of 2 juan or fascicles, the first of which begins with a general overview of issues of nourishment and diet (Shixian zonglun 食憲總論). It continues with various types of food, namely beverages and soups (yin 飲), rice (fan 飯), plates of pasta (fen 粉), congees (zhu zhou 煮粥), dumplings (er 餌), filled pastry (xianliao 餡料), soy sauce and other condiments (jiang 醬), and vegetables (shu 蔬). The second fascicle continues with this arrangement of chapters, explaining dishes with flowers and herbs (canfang pu 餐芳譜), fruit preparations (guo 果), fish dishes (yu 魚), crustacea (xie 蟹), poultry (qin 禽), egg dishes (luan 卵) and it closes with meat dishes (rou 肉). The whole text presents more than 400 various preparation methods and dishes.

In the first part of the book, the author focuses on certain rules of avoidance, and warns that if the five flavours were just light, the spirit would be at ease and physical qi 氣 ("breath") clear, leading to an overall healthy constitution. People should not eat too much and too hastily, avoid tea on an empty stomach, wine after food, and rice in the evening. Instead, it was recommended to eat well-cooked rice and soft meat and to have a walk after a meal.

Most dishes show the influence of the cuisine of Zhejiang, but there are also recipes found from other regions of China, for instance, such from the north with dairy products. Particularly outstanding are bamboo shoots (suncai 筍菜), ham (huotui cai 火腿菜) and sea food dishes (shanzhen haiwei cai 山珍海味菜). In addition to the recipe of Jinhua ham (Jinhua huotui 金華火腿), there are also boiled ham (zhu huotui 煮火腿), Dongpo ham (Dongpo ham 東坡腿), cooked ham (shu huotui 熟火腿), ham with pomace (? zao huotui 糟火腿), spicy shredded ham (laban huotui si 辣拌火腿絲) and other varieties. There are more than ten kinds of dishes made with precious raw materials such as anchovies (fuyu 鰒魚), sea cucumbers (haishen 海參), shark's fins (yuchi 魚翅), bird's nests (yanwo 燕窩), bear's paws (xiongzhang 熊掌) and various dishes of venison like deer tendons (lujin 鹿筋), deer tails (luwei 鹿尾) and "deer whips" (lubian 鹿鞭, i.e., kidney). Most of the dishes in this book are simple and practical.

The book was first printed during the Yongzheng reign-period 雍正 (1723-1735) of the Qing era 清 (1644-1911), and there is a reprint from the Qianlong reign-period 乾隆 (1736-1796).