According to the rules, the daily food standard of the emperor of the Qing Dynasty is: 22 kg of meat, 5 kg of soup, lard 1 kg, 2 sheep, 5 chickens, 3 ducks, 0/9 kg of Chinese cabbage/kloc-0, spinach, coriander, celery, leek, 60 radishes, radish, carrot and melon. 8 plates of cakes in the morning and evening, 30 for each plate. In addition, there are 50 cows prepared by the Imperial Tea Room for the emperor, and each cow gives 2 kg of milk every day, *** 100 kg; Use 12 cans of Yuquan water, 1 kg emulsifiable concentrate and 75 packs of tea every day.
Balanced diet with thick and thin collocation
As the highest-level diet at the end of feudal society in China, imperial cuisine in Qing Dynasty has a wide variety of delicacies, but miscellaneous grains, vegetables and wild fruits also occupy an important position in imperial cuisine. Every spring, when elms sprout, the Qing Palace cooks Yuqian cake, Yuqian cake and Yuqian cake, and the Buddhist temples and Yuanmingyuan in the Palace provide Yuqian cake and Yuqian cake. Emperor Qianlong not only loved to eat it himself, but also shared these coarse grain cakes with concubines and princes and ministers for tasting.
The combination of thickness and complementary vegetables further embodies the characteristics of imperial cuisine in Qing Dynasty, such as mixed noodles pancake on February 2nd, jiaozi with tender wheat in early summer, Zongzi in Duanyang, moon cake on Mid-Autumn Festival, flower cake on Double Ninth Festival, Laba porridge on the eighth day of twelfth lunar month, especially seasonal vegetables, cucumber dipped in noodle sauce, fried fresh peas, eggplant with garlic and spread on the couch.
Spring is not old, mustard buds, sour cucumbers, sour leeks, etc. , are difficult to fastidious dishes, but it is the favorite of Emperor Qianlong.
Whether it is a daily meal or a palace banquet, many staple foods, non-staple foods and side dishes in imperial meals are made of rough raw materials. There are nearly 100 kinds of staple foods in the imperial diet, such as cakes, snacks and porridge soup. The foods made of miscellaneous grains are: millet flour cake, yellow wheat cake, old rice flour cake, dried rice cake, glutinous rice noodle nest, sweet potato, bean flour roll, kidney bean cake, sorghum rice porridge, millet porridge, barley porridge and sweet foam. Non-staple foods such as bean curd, dried bean curd, bean skin, wild mushrooms, black fungus, day lily, walnuts, hazelnuts, pine nuts, honey, mountain vegetables and leeks are essential ingredients for imperial cuisine. Pigs, sheep, deer, chickens, ducks, geese, fish, eggs, fresh fruits and vegetables. Coarse cereals, hard shell, non-staple food. Most of these materials are common foods, such as whole grains, vegetarian dishes, melon and fruit snacks, soup, porridge, wine, tea, etc., all of which are products of peace, and some of them are delicious. Proper cooking not only has good color, fragrance and taste, but also stimulates appetite, which is easy to digest and absorb and makes the best use of everything. The reasonable collocation of emperor Qianlong's diet basically achieved the combination of coarse and fine, which should be dry and fresh, fine and subtle.
Harmony of Five Flavors and Changes of Four Seasons
Nature provides inexhaustible dietary resources for human beings and provides them with the nutrition they need. The attributes of food-five flavors are closely related to human liver, heart, lung, kidney and spleen. "Five flavors belong to the five internal organs", which are pungent when diverging, sour when converging, sweet when relaxing, bitter when firm, and salty when soft and firm. Combining the smell of cereal-pulp vegetables and replenishing essence and qi can achieve the purpose of dietotherapy and strengthen the body, which constitutes a dietotherapy rule suitable for spring, summer, autumn and winter. Emperor Qianlong's imperial diet clearly embodies this health-preserving structure. In particular, the main meals in the royal diet in the fifty-fourth year of Qianlong (1789) were selected, which showed the general situation of the four seasons health preservation of the Qing emperor.
Breakfast on February 23 rd: fried chicken, fried meat, stewed sauerkraut hot pot, duck hot pot with deer tendon folded (dismantled), sheep Silzhan,
Apple soft stew, steamed fat chicken roasted meat, vinegar bean sprouts, fried shredded leek, chess-eye steamed bread, hot tofu steamed buns, Zaner cakes, dry rice, tofu soup, silver dish side dishes, and silver sunflower box side dishes. ...
Breakfast on May 8th: Duck hanging, meat hanging, game Italian hot pot, yam duck soup hot pot, mixed with tiger dish, mixed with bean jelly, stewed duck with cauliflower head wine, fried spinach with shrimps, sugar mixed with lotus root, glutinous rice lotus root, stewed tofu with herbs and mushrooms, stewed silver silk and second-hand steamed buns with beans.
Pumpkin and mutton in soup, braised chicken and red beans, duck soup, chicken soup wonton, mung bean rice with water. ...
Breakfast on Sept. 2 1 Sunday: duck hot pot stewed with bird's nest wine, duck hot pot with green pepper in bird's nest pot, salted shredded duck in bird's nest pot, shredded pork with water bamboo, fried shrimps with leeks, diced duck stuffed with jiaozi snails, cherry stewed with evergreen wine, rice with four waters, radish soup, and jiaozi stuffed with instant noodles and chicken. ...
1February 13 dinner: bird's nest chicken with pine nuts, boiled cabbage with fat chicken, shredded mutton, fried meat with mushrooms, pork paste, steamed duck's tail, bamboo-tube steamed buns, red cake with spoon, steamed stuffed snails, steamed dumplings with chicken, bacon, dried rice, wild chicken soup with yam and shredded soup with bird's nest spine.
These royal meals all reflect the characteristics of adapting to the changes of the four seasons of the human body. The distribution of health foods is reasonable, and the five flavors of sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and salty are harmonious, which is also restricted by the four seasons in nature. At the end of winter and the beginning of spring, there are two hot pots in the dish of imperial cuisine. Yang hair leaks easily in spring. There are sour dishes such as sauerkraut, apples and vinegar-boiled mung bean dishes in the imperial cuisine, and there are few spicy and greasy foods. Summer comes at the beginning of the fifth lunar month, and it is easy to be impetuous. It is advisable to eat some cool and bitter foods, such as cool vegetables, lotus root mixed with sugar, glutinous rice lotus root, mung bean porridge, etc., to dispel fire and clear heat. It is getting colder and colder in autumn, and it is difficult for the human body to get rid of the damp heat. Spicy foods such as leeks, radishes and wine stews are properly added to the diet of the Forbidden City, so that the water in the human body can be fully exerted and the lungs can be cleared for recuperation. The winter climate is dry and cold, which is the most suitable season for tonic all year round. The imperial cuisine of Qing Palace supplemented the emperor with salted mutton, pork, deer tail isothermal dishes, as well as nourishing bird's nest, duck and other foods.
Chicken, duck, fish, pig, sheep, deer and goose are the main courses, but they must be carefully cooked and eaten. For example, in the forty-three years of Qianlong (1778), he visited Shengjing from July to September. As soon as the party arrived at Shanhaiguan, General Shengjing presented the freshly acquired deer to the emperor to taste the fresh game. He asked, "Is the deer fat today?" The chef replied, "Thin." Then he ordered, "Sara (the name of the kitchen service) will cook Hami venison for dinner."
. The rest is service and enjoyment. "Emperor Qianlong knows that eating venison nourishes the body, but summer tonic needs to be very cautious. Eating different royal meals in different seasons not only regulates the influence of seasons and climate on yin, yang, qi, blood and viscera functions, but also makes grains, fruits, meat and vegetables delicious. There are venison, deer tail, mutton and fat chicken in the diet, which is in line with the scientific diet concept all year round.
In the Qing Dynasty, there was a fixed traditional pattern of imperial meals for emperors. There are 48 kinds of meals on the emperor's table, namely hot pot, assorted dishes (assorted dishes), stir-fry, side dishes, cakes, soup (porridge) and so on. There are not only Manchu traditional dishes that show that starting a business is not easy to forget ancestors, but also their favorite seasonal food. In the menu, it is often the case that the emperor adds food temporarily during the meal, from which we can also see the emperor's attitude towards health. For example, in the forty-fourth year of Qianlong (1779), the emperor had a dinner in the summer resort: "Roast duck with bird's nest and lotus seeds (made in Sara).
Stewed cabbage with duck and smoked radish (made in Chen Bao), fried mutton sheep with lentils, and then fried chicken with fresh mushrooms. Upload one product of miscellaneous tofu, one product of miscellaneous tomato sauce, one product of steamed fat chicken and roasted meat, one product of steamed elephant's eye, one product of jujube cake and old rice flour cake, one product of Zaner cake and one product of snail steamed buns, all of which are pure Christen.
Yipin, one silver sunflower box dish, four silver dishes, one rainbow bean soup, one shredded duck in a bird's nest pot, one shredded mutton (from breakfast), one sheep fork, three plates and one table. At present. "
Emperor Qianlong went to Chengde for the summer vacation, which coincided with the harvest season of vegetables. He cooked royal meals with fresh vegetables such as newly picked Chinese cabbage, lentils, radishes, eggplant and fresh mushrooms, which not only followed the way of keeping in good health in summer, but also did not hinder the banquet. Cabbage can nourish the spleen and stomach, promote intestinal peristalsis, diuresis, detoxification and hangover relief; Lentils can relieve qi, clear summer heat and strengthen stomach; Radish can tonify deficiency and moisten lung, reduce qi and quench thirst, sober up and detoxify, and eliminate stagnation; Eggplant can clear away heat and promote blood circulation, dispel wind and dredge collaterals, reduce swelling and relieve pain; Fresh mushroom meat is thick, delicate and soft, beneficial to the stomach, strong and nourishing. In particular, the two dishes he ordered temporarily, "mixed with tofu and tomato sauce", were refreshing and delicious, and relieved the heat and boredom. In addition, in summer, the emperor often eats lettuce, cucumber, pumpkin, Schizonepeta, lotus root and other vegetables that cool blood and detoxify, tonify the middle energizer and replenish qi.
Eating seasonal fruits and vegetables after imperial meals is also a major feature of the Qing court. Such as eating mulberry, white apricot and loquat fruit in early summer; Eat watermelon, cherry, litchi and peach in midsummer; Eat grapes and kaempferia in early autumn; Eat oranges, apples and the like in winter.
In the hot summer, the emperors and queens of the Qing Dynasty have used refrigerators to cool off the heat and can eat "ice bowls". The words of the Qing palace are "not steamed in early summer, but the emperor turned cold at the beginning of Jiuhua." There is a song in Nanxun Hall, and the Qinghe River has entered the ice in April. "
("Qianlong Imperial Poetry"? "The Ice Room") "The cicada is singing loudly, the sun is not slanting, and the pool is calm and white. A pile of frozen fruit is difficult to get rid of the summer heat, and it is hard to get into the golden plate cantaloupe "("Gan Long's imperial poem? " Poems such as "Bingguo" are true portrayal. There is also a saying in the poem "Bingguo" that "miscellaneous fruits should be put on a plate in summer and soaked in ice (Bingguo)". "According to the maid-in-waiting who served Cixi in Palace of Gathered Elegance in the late Qing Dynasty, the ice bowl in the palace was made of fresh fruits such as white gourd, lotus root, lily, lotus seed, almond bean curd, longan, raisins, fresh walnuts and yam, and the white gourd was seeded with lotus root and chilled. Soak fresh walnuts and raisins (seedless) in honey, then smash green (fresh) walnuts, peel off the tender skin with astringency inside, pour grape juice, and then refrigerate. Eating fruit lotus root can benefit qi, and eating green walnut can tonify kidney. It is not only a good cold drink, but also has a nourishing effect.
Vegetarian food helps to support the elderly.
There are many records about court vegetarian food in the Archives of Imperial Catering in Qing Dynasty. For example, on the first day of the first month, Jiaozi, Tomb-Sweeping Day, the eighth day of April and the eighth day of the twelfth month, Buddha Sakyamuni should be a vegetarian. On the anniversary of the emperor's death, all kitchens in the palace should also "stop eating meat and adding vegetarian food".
For example, in the thirty-sixth year of Qianlong (177 1), August 23rd was the anniversary of the death of Yong Zhengdi, the father of Qianlong. The vegetarian meals prepared for Emperor Qianlong in the Imperial Dining Hall in the morning and evening include: milk rice, vegetarian chowder, stewed cabbage with mushrooms, stewed soft gluten with mushrooms, stewed arhat gluten with mushrooms, fried fruits, flour cakes, bamboo buns, bee cakes and Sun Ni goose powder.
One flavor, five dishes. Send a product of vermicelli, a product of fruit porridge and a product of douban soup. There are three tables for eating: six cakes, four stoves, and one table for ten.
In the fourth year of Jiaqing (1799), the 29th day of the first month was the anniversary of the death of the filial piety queen. On 28th, news came from Yang Jinzhong, the head chef of the Imperial Kitchen: "Tomorrow, the Queen Xiaoyi will die, and on this day she will serve the careerist. Remember this. "
On the morning of the 29th of the first month (at six o'clock in the morning), Yongsi Temple filled a "hot pot with dry and fresh soup" in a black lacquer box for breakfast, and then sent a product of mushroom gluten, a product of sweet and sour pot residue (the second product of passion fruit), a product of fried fruit (the second product of yellow plate), a product of milk rice (No.4 yellow plate) and two small silver plates. Do not use fruit porridge and millet porridge (the soup is covered with a celadon bowl, and a single piece of white cloth is used instead of meals). Two boxes of soft-gluten Chinese cabbage hot pot, shredded water bamboo, Tricholoma Gluten (this two products are clear water and good sea bowls), vegetarian steamed buns and spoon cakes (this two products are yellow plates) are sent to the box cover, and the reward is completed.
The court also has a chef who specializes in vegetarian dishes. During the Qianlong period, there was a cook named "Gao Wu", who was an excellent vegetarian. He cooked spring vegetables with leeks and onions in the spring, which was fresh and delicious. In summer, cucumbers, beans and eggplant are mixed or fried to cool off the heat; In autumn, yam and lotus seeds are used as dishes, which are mellow and refreshing; Cooking vegetables with fungi and beans in winter is elegant and plain. Especially the dishes cooked with seasonal flowers, beans, gluten and mushrooms are soft and smooth. Sesame sesame oil is vegetarian and has a unique flavor, which makes the emperor's appetite open and never tire of eating it. In the late Qing Dynasty, Liu Fuquan, who lived in Cixi Restaurant, was also famous for cooking vegetarian food. The main raw materials of their vegetarian diet are all kinds of mushrooms, ears, seasonal fruits and vegetables, fungi, flowers, bean products and other four-season vegetarian diets, and their reputation is far spread.
The emperors in ancient China had everything, so they enjoyed the most material things and had the conditions to obtain the richest and most advanced health preserving theory at that time. Scientifically exploring the ways of keeping in good health of royal dishes and sorting out the nutrients contained in them will help us understand the essence of China's food culture, and also enable the rich experience and wisdom of keeping in good health to continue in today's Huize.