Yangxiaolu 養小錄

Yangxiaolu 養小錄 “Small book on diet“ is a cookbook written during the early Qing period by Gu Zhong 顧仲 (fl. 1818 xxx ?), courtesy name Xianshan 閑山, style Songhe 松壑 or Zhongcun 中村, from Jiaxing 嘉興, Zhejiang. The book of 3 juan length was finished in 1698 or somewhat later. It seems that the original name was Shixian 食憲 „Rules of eating“. The author directly links the way of eating with character and life, and therefore stresses the importance to pay attention to pure (jie 潔) and suitable (yi 宜) food and diet. Food and beverages should be pure and well done, well-harmonized (tiaohe 調和), simple and not extravagant in order to regulate physical well-being (yi he yu shen 以和於身). The main part of the book is arranged according to types of food, namely beverages and soups 飲, condiments 醬, dumplings 餌, vetegables 蔬, fruits 果, mixed dishes (jiayao 嘉肴), fishes 魚, poultry 禽, eggs 卵, and meat 肉. The books explains preparations methods and flavourings of nearly 200 various dishes, mostly from the region of Zhejiang. Among the most famous Zhejiang dishes are bamboo shoots with shells 帶殼筍, smoked bamboo shoots 熏筍, razor clam 蟶鮮, bashful xxx clams 臊子蛤蜊, skin soup 皮羹 or splashy yellow bird潑黃雀. Typical northern recipes are steamed bear's paw 蒸熊掌 or bad yellow rat糟黃鼠. The dishes are simple, concise and easy to learn. The book also contains some dishes made with flowers, such as braised peonies in gravy 肉汁燴牡丹花and deep-fried magnolias in noodle mop 面拖油炸玉蘭花. It also presents some extravagant soups and pastries, such as cypress leaf soup 柏葉湯, osmanthus soup桂花湯, top crispy cakes頂酥餅, thin crispy cakes薄脆餅, jinfu laminar oil turning cakes晉府千層油鏇烙餅 or walnut cakes核桃餅. The book is included in the series Xuehai leibian 學海類編 and Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編.