Tujia Cured Pork 土家腊肉

How it is made

In a January 2025 report, the Enshi Daily watched Yao Wanquan (姚万泉), a prefecture-listed heritage bearer in Jianshi County (建始县), at work. She rubs handfuls of salt into fresh pork with both fat and lean, then works in Sichuan pepper, star anise and cassia bark. Once the salt has penetrated, the meat hangs above the household fire pit or in a smokehouse and is smoked at low heat for more than a month over cypress branches and citrus peel.

An essay in China City News (中国城市报) describes pork from the front leg cut into whole strips and rubbed with salt and Tujia maize liquor (苞谷酒). The strips hang in a smokehouse from loops twisted from palm leaves over burning pine and cypress branches, then finish above the fire pit. At a cured-meat factory in Laifeng County (来凤县) visited by Xinhua in 2025, the meat is smoked for more than 30 days in rooms kept at 42–45°C, and only pine or cypress wood is used; the smoker says other wood gives a less fragrant result.

Where it comes from

Xinhua ties the practice to Enshi's high mountains, deep valleys and humid climate, in which fresh meat is hard to keep. Smoking draws water out of the pork so that it keeps for a long time and gains its distinctive aroma, and the forested hills supply plenty of wood. The head of Jianshi's heritage protection centre told the Enshi Daily that the county's cured-pork technique had been put forward for Hubei's provincial heritage list.

How it is eaten

In the China City News essay, an elderly man in Tujia dress says Enshi cured pork is known as "Tujia abalone" (土家鲍鱼). Before cooking, the black layer is washed off the surface and the meat is cut into thin slices and fried slowly over low heat; it is also pan-fried, steamed or deep-fried for guests. The essay names cured trotters stewed with kelp as a New Year dish, and a steaming cured-pork dry pot (腊肉干锅) that no Tujia winter is without, with potatoes, dried bamboo shoots, radish and yam added as the family eats.