Huyumei Broad Bean Paste with Side Dishes 胡玉美蚕豆酱配菜
Huyumei Broad Bean Paste with Side Dishes is featured among the local specialties of Anhui.
Huyumei Broad Bean Paste with Side Dishes (胡玉美蚕豆酱配菜) takes its name from the broad bean chilli paste of the Huyumei (胡玉美) brewery in Anqing (安庆), Anhui, a noted Anqing product with more than 190 years of history. The Huyumei business dates its founding to 1830, the tenth year of the Daoguang reign (道光) of the Qing dynasty, and holds the 'China Time-honored Brand' (中华老字号) title.
Where it comes from
An essay published by the Anqing committee of the China Association for Promoting Democracy tells how Hu Zhaoxiang (胡兆祥), aged 17, came to Anqing from Jixi (绩溪) carrying a sauce-seller's shoulder pole in 1830, and went up the river into Sichuan three times to learn Sichuan paste-making. In the early twentieth century, according to the Anhui provincial chronicles institute, the brewery noticed that people in Jiangsu and Anhui shied away from the heat of Sichuan paste, adapted the Sichuan method and arrived at a milder paste suited to tastes along the middle and lower Yangtze. In the 1920s Hu Zimu (胡子穆) brought in diesel engines and hulling machines, replacing hand stone-milling, and the paste was sold in tin cans.
Anqing Huyumei broad bean chilli paste is a national geographical-indication protected product, and its making technique is recognised as Anhui provincial intangible cultural heritage. On 30 November 2020 the Anqing Administration for Market Regulation issued 'Geographical Indication Product: Anqing Huyumei Broad Bean Chilli Paste' (地理标志产品 安庆胡玉美蚕豆辣酱), the first local standard Anqing issued after gaining the power to set municipal standards. It sets out the production area, product requirements, test methods and hygiene rules for processing.
Ingredients
The main ingredients are broad beans, chillies and fenggang wine (封缸酒), a jar-sealed wine. Anqing's Economic and Technological Development Zone describes the paste as a seasoning that Anhui cooking (徽菜) cannot do without.
Flavour and texture
The paste is a purplish crimson with a reddish sheen. It is fine-textured and aromatic, gently hot with a little sweetness, and salty yet fragrant; the chronicles institute stresses that it is not strongly hot.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-23. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.