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Qimin Yaoshu, compiled by the Northern Wei official Jia Sixie in the sixth century, is the earliest substantially complete agricultural and culinary treatise to survive from China. Originally circulated in manuscript and later issued in printed editions, it gathers practical instruction on farming, animal husbandry, brewing, fermentation, pickling, and cookery, preserving recipes and techniques that document early medieval Chinese foodways and influencing subsequent agronomic literature across East Asia.
Cooking from this book
Fermented yellow soybean paste (huangjiang)
Signature dishAmong the many preparations documented in this sixth century Chinese agricultural and culinary compendium, the fermented soybean paste stands out as emblematic. Jia Sixie set down detailed observations on cultivating the mould, salting the beans and managing the long maturation in jars, capturing a practice already ancient in his day. The work is celebrated for preserving such ferments in writing, anchoring the lineage of jiang pastes that still underpin East Asian cookery today.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.
