Review of Dietary Culture through Choi’s Recipe (「Choi’s Eumsikbeop」) in scrapbook (「Jasonbojeon」) of Shin-chang Maeng’s Cran

Abstract

This study compared recipes of Korean Traditional steamed dishes, Noodles, Rice cake & Confectionary in Choi's Recipe (Choi's Eumsikbeop) with those in other literatures written during the mid-Joseon Dynasty. Through this work, it aimed to explore the value of Choi's Recipe (Choi's Eumsikbeop) in the history of cooking and the meanings of its recipes. Choi's Recipe (Choi's Eumsikbeop) contains recipes for a total of 20 kinds of food. Specifically, there are seven kinds of Fermented dishes (kimchi (6), and salted fermented food (1)), four kinds of Steamed dishes, seven kinds of Confectionary and Sweet (rice cake (4), jeonggwa (1), and dang (2)), and two kinds of Noodles (dumpling (1), and noodle (1)). Among them, the steamed dishes revealed characteristics of 17th-century food as in other cooking books, and some of them utilized unique ingredients handed down only through head families. Moreover, some recipes showed different cooking methods using similar materials. This suggests the originality of the recipes in this cooking book.