Fresh melon (two-inch squares), fresh eggplant (quarters) tangerine peel (washed clean), lotus root (rinsed, cut in half), fresh ginger (thick slices), Sichuan peppercorn (by sight), fennel (small amount), licorice root (crushed), perilla leaves, garlic cloves (with peel)

Mix the above ingredients together evenly. Add a layer of yellow beans (to a fermenting jar), then a layer of the mix, then spread a layer of salt. Repeat these layers until (the jar) is completely full. Close up the entrance and seal with mud.

Cure under the hot sun for half a month. Empty and mix the contents, return to the pot, and seal it up to cure in the sun for 77 days. Do not add any water, since the salt will release water from the eggplant and melon. Use as much as you need as dictated by the amount of salt.

武林旧事

This Song-dynasty recipe is unique. Most fermented pastes start with molded beans called meidou 霉豆. But this mixture uses lactic acid fermentation only, so it’s more like kimchi than soy sauce.

This is unusual enough that I thought maybe I just misunderstood the recipe, that the ‘layer of yellow beans’ should actually be meidou. I doubt this is the case, since other recipes for bean pastes all describe this first step in detail. Just to cover all bases, I’ll be molding my own beans in a later recipe.

But back to this one, I used a glass fermenting vat, so I could sit back and watch the show. I layered everything as instructed, and after a few hours, the vegetables had indeed released their water and the mixture was completely submerged. That was pretty neat.

As of day 40, the big pieces of pumpkin and lotus are still intact, but the beans have broken down slightly. The eggplant has bled a bit of color but the pumpkin is more vivid orange than it started out.

More updates as they come in!