Jinzhou Pressed Tofu Sheets 锦州干豆腐
Jinzhou Pressed Tofu Sheets is featured among the local specialties of Liaoning.
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Jinzhou Pressed Tofu Sheets (锦州干豆腐) are the paper-thin sheets of pressed bean curd made in and around Jinzhou (锦州), Liaoning. A programme by the Taihe District (太和区) publicity centre and culture and tourism bureau, republished by Jinzhou News (锦州新闻网) in October 2025, describes hand-made dried tofu as a traditional soy technique handed down in the Jinzhou area and sold across Jinzhou, Huludao (葫芦岛) and the three north-eastern provinces.
How it is made
The Taihe method uses non-genetically-modified soybeans, brine (food-grade magnesium chloride) and deep well water. The beans are soaked, ground on a stone mill, filtered, boiled, set with brine, ladled out into sheets and pressed, using tools such as water vats, sieves, wooden boards and filter cloths. Ru Yi (茹义), who carries on the technique, says his workshop boils the soy milk in a large wok to 100°C, adds the brine at about 85°C and presses the sheets for 15 to 20 minutes. His soybeans come from the company's own plots in Baiquan County (拜泉县), Heilongjiang, and Ru Yi credits Taihe's groundwater, moderate in calcium and magnesium, with helping the curd set without turning coarse.
Flavour and texture
The sheets are known for five qualities summed up as "dry, thin, fine, tough and fragrant" (干、薄、细、韧、香). Ru Yi puts their thickness at about 0.5 mm: thin enough to let light through and to read newsprint underneath. They are pale yellow without additives, soft yet chewy, with a strong bean aroma, and they hold together through long stewing.
Where it comes from
The Taihe line goes back four generations. Ru Yi's grandfather Qi Guangfeng (齐广凤) made dried tofu before Liberation (解放, the Communist takeover), reopened a home workshop in the lean years just after it and then opened a shop in the town called Qi Family Bean Shop (齐记豆坊). His daughter ran a cooperative from 1980 and a company from 1999, and Ru Yi took it over in 2002. Dried tofu is also a product of other parts of the city: China Daily lists dried tofu from Yixian (义县) among the farm products that Jinzhou showed in Beijing in September 2025.
How it is eaten
Ru Yi sells the sheets in one-jin (500 g) packs meant to go straight into the pot. Jinzhou dried-tofu rolls also appear, alongside grilled dishes from other cities, in the 2018 street-barbecue documentary Life in a Skewer (人生一串).
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-24. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.