Chinese Cookbook

Project Plan and Milestones

Weekly Project Plan

Date	Data Collection	Data Processing	Data Analysis	Web Construction
Week 3	Search historical Chinese cookbooks and compare them
Week 4	Choose one historical Chinese cookbook Select the chapter to work on
Week 5	Get data from the website	First clean and sort the data Construct the dataset of recipes Find Ancient Chinese to Modern Chinese translation model
Week 6		Construct the dataset of ingredients Translating from Ancient Chinese to Modern Chinese
Week 7		Categorize data
Week 8			Analyse cooking method, effect, category, and ingredient frequency Visualization	Start web construction
Week 9			Analyse ingredient and ingredient category pairing Visualization	Continue web construction
Week 10			Analyse effect and ingredient pairing Visualization	Continue web construction Construct recipe filtering and recommendation system
Week 11		Modren Chinese to English translation		Continue web construction Construct recipe filtering and recommendation system Add data analysis and visualization to the website
Week 12		Modren Chinese to English translation		Continue web construction Add data analysis and visualization to the website
Week 13				Finalize and improve the website
Week 14				Prepare the Wikipedia page & final presentation

Milestone 1

• Prepare a project proposal and the goal and objective of the project
• Get Chinese cooking book data from the website

Milestone 2

• Clean the data and construct the datasets for the Chinese cooking book
• Translate from Ancient Chinese and Modern Chinese
• Categorize the data depending on ingredient, effect, category, and cooking method

Milestone 3

• Data Analysis
• Web construction and recipe filtering and recommendation system
• Prepare final presentation and Wikipedia page

Methods

Data Collection

Figure 1.Chinese Text project website pages for book "Yinshanzhengyao"

"Yinshanzhengyao" was published in 1330 during the Yuan dynasty, and all existing editions are derived from the Ming dynasty edition of 1456. Despite the presence of a scanned version of the book on the internet, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) poses a challenge due to the ancient Chinese text and the inclusion of illustrations. Fortunately, the Chinese Text Project (中國哲學書電子書計劃) has undertaken the noble initiative of providing open access to ancient Chinese books for both Chinese and non-Chinese scholars, resulting in the creation of a comprehensive database. Currently, it encompasses over thirty thousand books, making it the largest among historical Chinese literature databases.

"Yinshanzhengyao" is among the books included in this extensive database. Leveraging the well-defined structure of the database, we scrape data from the website. Given the project's specific focus on the recipes within the book, our data extraction is limited to the recipe content, which includes the following chapter:

• Strange Delicacies of Combined Flavours 1, 2, 3
• Various Hot Beverages and Concentrates
• Foods that Cure Various Illnesses

In total, there are 210 recipes, each accompanied by information on its effects, ingredients with quantities, and step-by-step instructions. As a medical text, the "effect" refers to the benefits of the food and precautions to be taken, providing valuable insights into the medicinal properties of the recipes.

Data Processing

Construct dataset

Upon acquiring data from the website, the imperative task is to clean and structure the data into the following format: Food_Name, Effect, Ingredients, Steps. However, due to the website not well separating these four pieces of information, we developed functions to customarily construct this dataframe. Below are examples of recipe dataframes.

Food_Name_en	Effect_en	Ingredients_en	Steps_en	Food_Name	Effect	Ingredients	Steps
Ghee Liquor	It cures asthenia and removes wind-wetness.	Ghee (one bowl).	Mix ingredient with a cup of liquor and drink warm. It is proven effective.	醍醐酒	治虚弱，去风湿。	醍醐 一 盏	上件，以酒一杯和匀，温饮之，效验。
Chinese Mallow Gruel	It cures urine which is retained and does not pass.	Mallow leaves. (It does not matter if they are many or few. Wash, select and clean.)	Boil ingredient into a gruel. Add the five spices. Eat on an empty stomach.	葵菜羹	治小便癃闭不通。	葵菜叶 不以多少，洗择净	右煮作羹，入五味，空腹食之。
Donkey’s Meat Soup	It cures wind mania and depression and pacifies heart qi.	Meat of a black donkey. (The quantity does not matter. Cut up.)	Cook ingredient until overcooked in fermented black beans. When done add the five spices. Eat on an empty stomach.	驴肉汤	治风狂，忧愁不乐，安心气。	乌驴肉 不以多少，切	上件，于豆豉中，烂煮熟，入五味，空心食之。
Sprouting Chinese Foxglove Chicken	It treats pain of the back and loins, deficiency and injury of bone and marrow, inability to stand upright for long periods, heaviness of body and qi shortage, night sweating and lack of appetite, and occasional vomiting and dysentery.	Sprouting Chinese foxglove (half a jin), sweetmeats (five liang), and black chicken (one).	[Of the] ingredients first take the chicken, pluck, remove the giblets and clean. Cut up finely. Combine the Chinese foxglove and the sugar together evenly. Put the mixture inside the intestinal cavity of the chicken. Put it into a copper pot. Then put the copper pot into a cauldron and steam. When the dish has been cooked completely, remove the chicken and eat. Do not use salt or vinegar. Eat the meat. When it is gone also drink the broth.	生地黄鸡	治腰背疼痛，骨髓虚损，不能久立，身重气乏，盗汗，少食，时复吐利。	生地黄 半斤 饴糖 五两 乌鸡 一 枚	右三味，先将鸡去毛、肠肚净，细切，地黄与糖相和匀，内鸡腹中，以铜器中放之，复置甑中蒸炊，饭熟成，取食之。不用盐醋，唯食肉尽却饮汁。
Pig Kidney Congee	It cures kidney xulao damage, debility and ache of waist and knee.	Pig kidney (one, remove fatty tissue and slice), non-glutinous rice (three ho), tsaoko cardamom (three), prepared mandarin orange peel (one qian; remove white), grain-of-paradise (two qian).	[Of] ingredients, first take the pig kidney, the prepared mandarin orange peel etc. and boil to make a juice. Strain and remove the dregs. Add a small amount of liquor. Then add the rice to make a congee. Eat on an empty stomach.	猪肾粥	治肾虚劳损，腰膝无力，疼痛。	猪肾 一对，去脂膜，切 粳米 三合 草果 二钱 陈皮 一钱，去白 缩砂 二钱	上件，先将猪肾、陈皮等煮成汁，滤去滓，入酒少许，次下米成粥，空心食之。

Categorize

To facilitate further data analysis and implement the search function for the website, the initial step involves categorizing our data. This categorization encompasses 15 recipe categories, 10 cooking methods, 13 ingredient categories, and 9 effect categories. The detailed categories are as follows:

• Recipe categories: 'Paste', 'Pan-fry', 'Dish', 'Thick soup', 'Conge', 'Meat', 'Soup', 'Noodles', 'Rice noodles', 'Pancake', 'Thick liquid', 'Oil', 'Tea', 'Wonton', 'Steamed bun'

Category_en	Food_Name_en	Category	Food_Name
Pancake	Cow’s Milk Buns	饼	牛奶子烧饼
Dish	Boiled Sheep’s Breast	菜品	熬羊胸子
Steamed bun	Eggplant Manta	馒头	茄子馒头
Soup	Carp Soup	汤	鲤鱼汤
Tea	Jade Mortar Tea	茶	玉磨茶

• Cooking methods: 'Boil', 'Simmer', 'Steam', 'Pan-fry', 'Bake', 'Braise', 'Broil', 'Stir-fry', 'Roast', 'Deep-fry'

Method_en	Food_Name_en	Method	Food_Name
Boil	Bream Gruel	煮	鲫鱼羹
Simmer	Qima Congee	熬	乞马粥
Steam	Sheep’s Head Hash	蒸	羊头脍
Pan-fry	Cherry [Prunus pseudocerasus] Concentrate	煎	樱桃煎
Bake	Dried Beef	焙	牛肉脯
Braise	Turmeric[–Colored] Fish	淹	姜黄鱼
Broil	Broiled Sheep’s Heart	炙	炙羊心
Stir-fry	Cotton Rose–[Petal] Chicken	炒	芙蓉鸡
Roast	Roast Wild Goose (Roast Cormorant and Roast Duck are the same)	烧	烧雁
Deep-fry	Scalded Jasa’a (a delicacy)	炸	炸䐑儿

• Ingredient categories: 'Chinese Medicinal Material', 'Plant', 'Spice', 'Fruit', 'Vegetable', 'Seafood', 'Meat', 'Dairy Product', 'Grain', 'Juice', 'Condiment', 'Tea', 'Other'

Ingredient_en	Category	Ingredient
ginseng	chinese_medicinal_material	人参
Purple perilla leaf	plant	紫苏叶
tsaoko cardamom	spice	草果
Cherries	fruit	樱桃
Chinese radish	vegetable	萝卜

• Effect categories:'Gastrointestinal Issues', 'Neurological and Mental Health', 'General Health and Wellness', 'Musculoskeletal Issues', 'Speech-related', 'Heat-clearing', 'Genitourinary Issues', 'Respiratory Issues', 'Others'

Effect_en	Category	Effect
stop thirst cure cough	Gastrointestinal Issues	生津止渴
this cures apoplexy	Neurological and Mental Health	治中风
augments qi	General Health and Wellness	益气和中
the medullae strengthens sinew and bone	Musculoskeletal Issues	壮筋骨
obstruction of the large intestine	Speech-related	语言蹇涩
cures heat of the center	Heat-clearing	治中热

The following presents five examples of recipes along with their all categorized information.

Recipe_name	Category	Cooking Method	Effect Category	Ingredient Category
Sprouting Chinese Foxglove Chicken	Dish	'Steam'	'Musculoskeletal Issues', 'General Health and Wellness'	'meat', 'condiment', 'chinese_medicinal_material'
Carp Soup	Soup	'Braise', 'Boil'	'Gastrointestinal Issues', 'Genitourinary Issues', 'Others'	'seafood' 'spice' 'plant'
Oil Rape Shoots Broth	Thick soup	'Simmer'	'General Health and Wellness'	'spice' 'meat'
Barley Samsa Noodles	Rice noodles	'Stir-fry', 'Simmer'	'General Health and Wellness', 'Gastrointestinal Issues'	'plant' 'meat'
Sheep Bone Congee	Conge	Simmer'	'General Health and Wellness', 'Musculoskeletal Issues'	'condiment' 'spice' 'plant'

Translation: Ancient Chinese to Modern Chinese

Figure 2. Ancient Chinese to Modern Chinese model

Figure 3. ChatGpt

The text is written in ancient Chinese, but contemporary communication predominantly employs modern Chinese. Consequently, for in-depth data analysis, it is essential to translate the recipes from ancient Chinese to modern Chinese. In our evaluation, we compared the proficiency of an ancient Chinese to modern Chinese translation model (Figure 2) against ChatGPT 3.5 (Figure 3). Our findings indicate that the translations generated by ChatGPT are more fluent and closely aligned with contemporary language usage. Based on this observation, we have chosen to adopt ChatGPT as our primary translation tool.

English Translation

In the process of English translation, we discovered a digital document online containing the English version of the book (YinShanZhengYao_english.pdf). As a result, we extracted the English-translated recipes from this document and established an English database for the recipes. Following this, we compiled a comprehensive recipe dataset that incorporates both English and Chinese versions. For the categorization of English data, leveraging the pre-existing categorized data in Chinese, we developed a mapping method to establish a correspondence between Chinese and English categories. All tables above, containing English content, are the outcome of mapping to the Chinese dataframe generated earlier.

Links

- GitHub