🌿 Folk Prescriptions

"Men are tired, men are stressed." In fact, men truly are exhausted. The struggle in careers, competition in business, life burdens, and different physiological states all bring significant mental stress and physical exhaustion, making men need "tonification" even more. However, food tonification is better than medicinal tonification, and soup is the most suitable nourishment for men. Men should choose different soups according to their own physical condition. It should be noted that to improve constitution and health, soup tonification requires long-term consistency—minimum continuous intake until symptoms improve before switching to other targeted soups.
Double Whip Yang-Boosting Soup
Ingredients: 10g wolfberry, 10g dodder seed, 6g cistanche, 100g ox testicle, 10g dog testicle, 100g lamb, 50g hen meat, appropriate amounts of Sichuan pepper, old ginger, cooking wine, monosodium glutamate, lard, and salt.
Preparation:
(1) Soak ox testicle in water to swell, remove outer skin, split along urethra, wash thoroughly, then soak in cold water for 30 minutes. Fry dog testicle in sand until crisp, soak in warm water for about 30 minutes, scrub clean. Wash lamb, blanch in boiling water to remove blood, then rinse under cold water and set aside.
(2) Place ox testicle, dog testicle, and lamb in an aluminum pot, add water, bring to boil, skim off foam, add Sichuan pepper, old ginger, cooking wine, and hen meat. Boil again, reduce heat and stew slowly until about 60% cooked. Filter out Sichuan pepper and old ginger using clean gauze. Place dodder seed, cistanche, and wolfberry in a cloth bag, tie tightly, and add to the soup. Continue stewing over low heat until ox and dog testicles are tender. Remove the herb bag, take out ox testicle, dog testicle, lamb, and hen meat, slice ox testicle into 3.3 cm strips, dog testicle into 1 cm segments, cut lamb into slices, hen into chunks, place together in a bowl, add monosodium glutamate, salt, and lard for seasoning.
Usage: Eat meat and drink soup—can be served as a meal or consumed alone.
Benefits: Warms the kidneys, boosts yang, nourishes essence and marrow. Suitable for debility, kidney qi deficiency, impotence, premature ejaculation, and spermatorrhea. (Folk formula)
Yang-Boosting Dog Meat Soup
Ingredients: 250g dog meat, 15g processed aconite root, 10g dodder seed, appropriate amounts of salt, monosodium glutamate, ginger, green onion, and cooking wine.
Preparation:
(1) Clean dog meat, blanch whole in boiling water, rinse off blood foam in cold water, cut into 3.3 cm cubes; prepare ginger and green onion.
(2) Stir-fry dog meat with ginger slices in a pan, add cooking wine, transfer everything to a clay pot. Place dodder seed and processed aconite root in a cloth bag, tie tightly, add salt and green onion, pour in sufficient clear broth, bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer over low heat until meat is tender.
Usage: Remove herb bag before eating, add monosodium glutamate, eat meat and drink soup. Twice daily, served with meals.
Benefits: Warms the kidneys, strengthens yang, nourishes essence. Suitable for yang deficiency, fatigue, weak knees and lower back. (Folk formula)
Recovery Soup
Ingredients: 50g Chinese yam, 20g cistanche, 10g dodder seed, 2 walnuts, 500g lean lamb, 1 sheep spine, 100g glutinous rice, 3 green onions, appropriate amounts of ginger, Sichuan pepper, cooking wine, ground white pepper, star anise, and salt.
Preparation:
(1) Chop sheep spine into several sections, wash clean. Wash lamb, blanch to remove blood, then wash again, cut into 5 cm thick pieces. Place Chinese yam, cistanche, dodder seed, and walnuts in a cloth bag, tie tightly. Crush ginger. Cut green onions into segments.
(2) Place herbs and ingredients into a clay pot, add sufficient water, bring to boil over high heat, skim off foam. Add Sichuan pepper and star anise, cooking wine, then reduce heat and continue stewing until meat is soft and falling apart. Transfer to bowl, add ground white pepper and salt for seasoning—ready to eat.
Usage: Serve as a meal.
Benefits: Warmly tonifies kidney yang. Suitable for kidney yang deficiency and kidney essence depletion causing tinnitus, dizziness, weak lower back and knees, impotence, and premature ejaculation. (Folk formula)
Deer Head Soup
Ingredients: 1 deer head, 2 deer hooves, 5g piper longum, 3g ginger, appropriate amounts of salt, star anise, fennel seeds, monosodium glutamate, ground white pepper.
Preparation:
(1) Remove hair roots from deer head and hooves, wash clean. Wash piper longum and ginger, crush with knife.
(2) Place deer head and hooves in a clay pot, add sufficient water, add piper longum, ginger, star anise, fennel seeds, bring to boil over high heat, then simmer over low heat until fully cooked.
(3) Remove deer head and hooves, carve meat into coarse strips, return to soup, bring to boil again, add salt, monosodium glutamate, and white pepper.
Usage: Can be eaten with meals or alone.
Benefits: Strengthens yang, nourishes essence. Suitable for yin deficiency, weakness, kidney essence deficiency causing sore lower back and knees, cold intolerance, impotence, and premature ejaculation. (From "Yinshan Zhengyao")
Ginseng Deer Meat Soup
Ingredients: 5g each of ginseng, astragalus, lotus seed, wolfberry; 3g each of white atractylodes, poria, rehmannia, cistanche, cinnamon, white peony, epimedium, morinda, alisma, jujube seed, Chinese yam, polygala, angelica, dodder seed, eucommia, horny goat weed, ginger; 250g deer meat; appropriate amounts of green onion, ground white pepper, and salt.
Preparation:
(1) Remove tendons and membranes from deer meat, wash, briefly blanch in boiling water, then chop into small pieces. Break bones. Pack all above herbs into a bag, tie securely.
(2) Place deer meat and bones in a pot, add herb bag, sufficient water, green onion, ginger, ground white pepper, salt, bring to boil over high heat, skim off foam, reduce heat and stew gently for 2–3 hours until meat is tender.
Usage: Serve with meals, twice daily.
Benefits: Fills essence, tonifies kidneys, greatly strengthens vital energy. Suitable for frail constitution, pale complexion, cold limbs, sore lower back and knees, impotence, premature ejaculation. (Folk formula)
Caution: Not recommended for robust individuals or those with yin deficiency and fire excess, especially during hot summer months.