Luotian Hanging Iron Pot 罗田吊锅

Where it comes from

Lan Jun (兰君), head of the Luotian catering and cooking association, told Chutian Metropolis Daily (楚天都市报) in 2023 that the hanging pot grew out of the way of life of people deep in the Dabie Mountains (大别山), in towns such as Shengli (胜利镇) and Jiuzihe (九资河镇). Roads were poor and supplies scarce, and through the long winters families kept warm around the fire pit and cooked over it.

Hanging-pot cooking was once a winter meal; the paper says Luotian people now eat it all year round, and that for most of them a get-together simply means friends and family sitting round a hanging pot. In 2010 county departments had the hanging pot listed as Hubei provincial intangible cultural heritage. One of its representative inheritors, Wu Meilian (吴美莲), grew up in Shengli and began cooking hanging pots in the county town in the 1970s.

How it is made

The rig is simple: a wooden slide bar that can be raised and lowered hangs from a roof beam, and the iron pot hangs from it over the fire. Local radish and wild bamboo shoots line the bottom of the pot. The main ingredients, chicken, mutton or beef already cooked, are poured in layer by layer on top. Tofu, pig's blood, kelp, tofu skin, meat cake (肉糕), fish balls, meatballs and cured pork go on last. The paper says the pot is filled mainly with local ingredients, all of them from the Dabie Mountains.

How it is eaten

Family and guests sit round the fire pit, warming themselves, eating from the pot, talking and drinking rice wine. Luotian has held several hanging-pot festivals, which the paper says draw crowds from Hubei, Henan and Anhui. In January 2015 a copper hanging pot 5 metres across and 3.5 metres high was unveiled at Yu Sansheng Square (余三胜广场) in Jiuzihe; it held more than 300 ingredients, including Luotian chestnuts, free-range chicken, cured pork and beef, and weighed three tonnes in all.