Shuiyang Duck-Foot Parcels 水阳鸭脚包

How it is made

The work runs through cleaning, seasoning and salting, sun-drying and tying. Xin'an Evening News (新安晚报) describes the craft as "入门易、做精难" (easy to start, hard to do well). The maker it profiles, Qian Deming (钱德明), a fourth-generation practitioner, uses local speckled ducks (麻鸭). Shuiyang's distinct seasons, short winters, long summers and plentiful sunshine give natural conditions for drying the raw materials. Qian began making the parcels in the second half of 1983, after his mother told him the family's history with them; after several failed batches he asked her for help and learned that the family had an inherited salting recipe.

Around 2000 Qian opened a food factory to make the parcels at scale. As output grew he moved from seasonal to year-round production and added cold storage. Xuancheng's market regulator notes that most producers are small units whose methods, recipes and raw-material standards differ, so parcels vary from maker to maker.

Flavour and texture

The finished parcel has an orange-red surface, a strong savoury aroma and a chewy bite. Traditional parcels are mainly salty; Qian's own version is milder, amber-coloured and translucent, and he has also made low-salt, low-sugar parcels. He compares the shape to a gold ingot (元宝).

Where it comes from

Shuiyang is the central town of northern Xuanzhou District, where Anhui and Jiangsu meet at the edges of Xuancheng, Nanjing, Wuhu and Ma'anshan. Locally the parcel carries a meaning tied to the town's boatmen: the foot stands for a man going out to "grab money", the two hearts for husband and wife, and the intestine for longing while away, a reminder of men who worked the boats and did not forget the wives keeping house.

The Shuiyang duck-foot parcel was among the traditional foods in Anhui's sixth batch of provincial intangible cultural heritage items, announced in 2022, and Xuancheng's market regulator lists "水阳鸭脚包制作技艺" (Shuiyang duck-foot parcel making) as a provincial-level item.

How it is eaten

The parcel is one of the "Shuiyang Three Treasures" (水阳三宝), together with duck wings and Shuiyang dried tofu (水阳干子). On menus the Three Treasures is a stew pot (炖锅) that cooks all three together, and the regulator calls it one of the most representative dishes of Xuanzhou District. The town government says the Three Treasures and its crab fry sell across the country.

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