Category: Muþa gehwylc mete þearf, mæl sceolon tidum gongan (Every mouth needs food; meals should come at the right time) Cook something
Entrant: Rose Taillor
Title: Northern Chinese Song Dynasty meal
I cooked this meal at Labour Weekend October 2025. It was great fun to research, but even more fun to cook, as we had the most marvellous kitchen party together experimenting with flavour combinations. Baroness Angele, Lady Mary Catesby, Master Llewelyn, THL Nathaneal, THL Melissa, Lord Rhys, Lady Victoria, Tristan, and Baroness Maerwynn were all wonderful people to spend a day in the kitchen with, and were masterfully assisted by many others who joined us.
The meal included a braised beef noodle soup (or braised tofu/egg noodle soup) with a ‘Three sliver salad,’ extra Sichuan pepper oil, and a variety of toppings to freshen up the rich soup. The noodles were either wheat or rice noodles, and given the number of attendees, we bought these. I massively overcatered for noodles, which is likely due to the fact most SCAdians have small wooden bowls, not suitable for a full serving of noodles!
In modern Chinese cooking, the base of this soup would be doubanjiang, a fermented broad bean and chilli sauce. However, chillis were introduced only very late in period, so would be anachronistic. Fermented bean pastes are common throughout China, but all have different flavours, and many use wheat flour to aid in fermentation. Whilst historically, fermented broad bean paste would have been used without chilli, I could not find a modern option for this. I did try making my own fermented broad beans with a red rice wine koji starter, but my attempts failed miserably and turned into a mouldy mess.
I therefore experimented extensively to find a suitable gluten and chilli-free fermented flavour base. I experimented with Korean Doenjang and Japanese Miso, but neither had the funky depth of flavour I needed. I finally settled on Cantonese fermented brown bean sauce (soybean base), combined with douchi (fermented salted black beans), and some ‘Chinese cheese’ or fermented tofu. All of these ingredients were known to Song dynasty cooks, so I was confident in my substitutions.
I present the recipe for the braised beef, and the three sliver salad.
I sadly took no pictures of the meal itself, as I was too busy cooking!
Braised Beef
Ingredients
Any braising beef cut 1kg
Water or Beef stock, enough to cover
1 Onion
4 slices of Ginger
2 cloves of Garlic
4 dried shitake mushrooms, soaked in cool water until rehydrated
2 tsps soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
15g rock sugar
1 tbpsn Shaoxing wine (or rice wine if GF)
4 tbpsns Ground bean sauce1 cube of fermented tofu, mashed
1 tsp Douchi, soaked in a small amount of warm water and mashed
Place into a spice bag;
1 piece Sand ginger
1 small piece of chenpi (dried orange peel)
1 bay leaf
1 tsp fennel
6 cloves
1 black cardamom
4 white cardamom
2 star anise
½ cassia bark stick
1tsp Sichuan peppercorns
Method
1) Optional, but recommended – Blanch the beef in boiling water with some ginger slices, a splash of Shaoxing wine, and a spring onion for 5 minutes. Remove and clean the pot. (we did not do this step given we were fire cooking and that process would have added too much labour and time for only a small benefit).
2) Brown the beef on all sides in oil. Reserve.
3) Add the ginger, garlic, and onion. Fry for a short while until fragrant.
4) Add the bean sauce, douchi, fermented tofu, soy sauces, sugar, and wine. Bloom the flavours but don’t let it burn.
5) Add back in the beef, add mushrooms, mix well, and cover with water or beef stock. Add the spices in the spice bag.
6) Braise at a low heat until done. Top up the water if required
7) Ideally, skim the oil off before serving.
Three sliver salad
Any mixture you prefer of;
Daikon
Carrot
Cucumber
Tofu skins
Rehydrated kelp
Dressing
15mL Chinese black vinegar (OR, 10ml Balsamic + 5ml Rice vinegar if GF)
5mL light soy sauce
5g sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
Optional – chilli oil, or sichuan pepper corn oil
Method
1) Mix the dressing ingredients together. Stand
2) To follow Chinese dietary advice, first blanch the ingredients separately. However, you can skip this step and use raw ingredients.
3) Mix everything together
4) Top with a drizzle of sesame oil and sesame seeds.