Hukou Wine-Lees Cured Fish 湖口糟鱼

How it is made

The Jiujiang city government says the main fish are black carp, grass carp and common carp from Poyang Lake, cured with prepared glutinous-rice wine, glutinous-rice wine lees, white sugar and stone-ground sesame oil. The work runs through more than ten traditional hand steps, among them scaling and gutting, washing and salting, drying in the sun and over heat, and cutting the fish into pieces before curing them in the lees.

The Hukou county annals divide the product into two kinds. Cooked cured fish can be eaten as soon as the packet is opened; raw cured fish still has to be steamed or cooked first.

Flavour and texture

The city government's description runs through the senses: the fish is deep yellow with a reddish-brown tinge, smells fragrant and heady with wine, and tastes light with a slightly crisp edge, sweet with a savoury depth. It is not greasy eaten hot and not fishy eaten cold. The county annals describe the cured fish as yellow-brown and aromatic, and made in salty, hot, sweet and sour versions.

Where it comes from

The city government notes that Hukou produces Poyang Lake freshwater fish of more than 180 kinds. According to the county cultural relics office's archaeological records, cited in the county annals, the Shang and Zhou dynasty site at Fanzhou Rock (泛舟岩) on Xiazhong Hill (下钟山) has yielded pottery net sinkers, wine vessels and pottery jars used for curing fish in lees.

The earlier county annals record that from the Wanli reign of the Ming dynasty, Hukou Wine-Lees Cured Fish was chosen as tribute for the imperial court. In June 2008 it was added to the second batch of Jiujiang's municipal intangible cultural heritage list.