Kinmen Lees-Fed Beef 酒糟牛肉
Kinmen Lees-Fed Beef is featured among the local specialties of Taiwan.
Image notes
Resized for the web; the photo itself has not been edited.
Kinmen Lees-Fed Beef (酒糟牛肉) is beef from cattle raised on Kinmen (金门) and fed largely on the lees (酒糟) left over from distilling the island's sorghum liquor. FTV reports that beef meals are the food visitors to Kinmen are expected to try and beef jerky the souvenir they take home, and that restaurants and jerky makers advertise "lees-fed cattle" (酒糟牛) as a mark of quality.
Where it comes from
An editorial in Kinmen Daily News (金门日报) says that island farmers have fed livestock on lees from the Kinmen liquor company, mixed with other farm by-products, for more than thirty years. According to FTV, the older Kinmen cattle were draught yellow cattle, not suited to tender steak or hot pot, so in 2011 the county's Livestock Research Institute imported 250 Brangus breeding cattle from Australia to improve the meat. In 2015 the Kinmen County government started a lees-feeding programme under which the distillery supplies its lees to farmers free of charge.
Ingredients
FTV reports that lees make up as much as 70 to 80 percent of a Kinmen beef animal's daily feed, and that the Kinmen Farmers' Association had the meat tested by Tunghai University (东海大学), which found that lees-fed beef could reach US Prime grade. The Kinmen Daily News editorial notes that sorghum lees are acidic and advises farmers not to feed cattle on lees alone but to add 40 percent forage.
How it is eaten
Kinmen has many beef restaurants and brands of beef jerky, and FTV's report shows a tomahawk-steak noodle dish made from lees-fed cattle.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-25. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.