[Sca-cooks] Ni Tsan's "Cloud Forest Hall Rules For Eating And Drinking"...

[Patrick Levesque]

Thanks for forwarding this. I'm seriously contemplating brewing rice wine
and/or soy sauce this summer, and was a bit puzzled by the recipes in
CFHRED. 

Petru



On 18/02/07 20:31, "Saint Phlip" <phlip at 99main.com> wrote:

> 
> I've been discussing this with Gene, and he said (in regards to a
> second presentation of the manuscript):
> 
> It corrected obvious mistakes but Victor Mair didn't
> want to change much.  He felt Teresa's and my interps were as
> good as Francoise's when there was question.  Probably wrong,
> but who am I to judge?  Victor's CHinese is a lot better than
> mine or even Teresa's.  Francoise is THE expert but is not
> infallible.  Long history of short ms....
> Nobody has ever figured out the garbled brewing recipes.
> Don't waste your time on them.  The ordinary recipes are fine,
> and usable, and Teresa and I got 'em about right.
> best
> 
> I suggested we might try them anyway, and he said:
> 
> Those brewing recipes are badly garbled--Francoise and I agree
> on that!  They got scrambled in transmission, evidently when
> the book was just ms.  They might be reconstructable, but I
> wouldn't bother.
> The Chinese make all kinds of tinctures of animals.  They soak
> mutton in hard liquor because the iron is good for anemia from
> malaria etc.  THey sometimes would add mutton or medicinal
> animals to the brewing.  But 99.9999% of the time, when you
> hear of "mutton wine" or "snake wine" it means hard liquor
> (NOT wine) with the animal soaked in it to make a tincture.
> Of course herbs were more often added in the actual brewing
> process, and still more often in the distilling, though again
> "herbal wine" usually means hard liquor with stuff soaked in
> it.  The liquor is raw whiskey or vodka made from millet or
> rice, or sometimes other starch feeds.  They get it by
> distilling Chinese "wine," which is really a still ale or
> beer.  Distilling was known by 900 or 1000 AD in China, and
> probably earlier, since what sure looks like a medicinal still
> has turned up in a 100-200 AD site.  If interested look up H.
> T. Huang's volume on fermentation in the SCIENCE AND
> CIVILIZATION IN CHINA series.  H. T. was an incredible guy.
> Lived to 100.  This book was his life work.  He retired from
> USDA and dedicated the rest of his life to it--it came out
> shortly before he passed on.  Great guy.
> best--Gene
> 
> (I included the rest of the information because it might be of
> interest to somebody). So, it appears that the recip[es themselves are
> badly garbled- thus, they don't make a good drink.