Mugwort Cakes 蒿子粑粑

How it is made

The Jin'an District (金安区) government lists just three ingredients: wild mugwort, rice flour and cured pork (腊肉). The slow part is gathering and preparing the herb. Only fresh fragrant mugwort (香蒿) will do; it grows mostly on the ridges between fields and on hillsides and is tender and juicy. Cooks pinch off the tender tips, rub them over and over and wring out the juice, which is mixed into the rice flour. Diced cured pork, stir-fried first, goes into the dough, and the cakes are shaped by hand and pressed onto the rim of a big wok, ideally over a rural earth stove.

They toast over a low fire so that they crisp without burning, while the fat and flavour of the pork soak through the whole cake. Some cooks add ginger and garlic, and cornmeal can take the place of rice flour. In one community version the rice flour and mugwort leaves are scalded with boiling water and stirred before the cooked salted pork is kneaded in.

Flavour and texture

Straight from the wok, Mugwort Cakes are soft and golden, with a crisp toasted face from the pan and a fresh herbal scent from the mugwort, carried through by the pork fat.

Where it comes from

Western Anhui (皖西) has an old saying, 'when Qingming comes, eat mugwort cakes' (清明至，食蒿子粑粑), and the cakes are made when the new mugwort shoots appear in spring. They are also a traditional food of the third day of the third lunar month, the old Shangsi festival (上巳节).

Yu'an District (裕安区) of Lu'an holds mugwort cake folk festivals. The fourth, organised by the district tourism association with other bodies, was set for 21 April 2018 at Fenlukou town (分路口镇). At the 2024 festival, held from 11 to 14 April, nearly a hundred cake makers from across the district competed, judged on ingredients, making and taste by a panel from the city folk artists' association and catering bodies.