Flaky Lard Pastry 猪油盒

Flaky Lard Pastry (猪油盒) is a pan-fried pastry of Tianshui (天水), Gansu, made from fine wheat flour and raw pork leaf lard with a layer of youshu (油酥), a fat-and-flour pastry paste, rolled into the dough. The making technique is on Tianshui's municipal intangible cultural heritage list.

How it is made

The Tianshui culture and tourism bureau lists the local materials as flour, lard and youshu, and specifies top-grade fine flour and raw pork leaf lard (生猪板油). From mixing the dough to lifting the pastry out of the pan takes twelve or thirteen steps and about forty minutes. The dough is mixed, rested, given alkali and kneaded, then pinched off into small portions. The pastry paste is made separately. Each portion is pressed flat, spread with the paste and rolled up with it, then closed up and put into the pan with oil, where it is fried until done.

Flavour and texture

The bureau describes Flaky Lard Pastry as crisp yet soft, richly fragrant and bright in colour, and oily without being greasy. It can be eaten hot or cold. Hot, it is richly fragrant and at its best in the mouth; cold, it is cool and pleasant to eat, still soft and crisp. The bureau sums this up in a phrase: "热食不腻，凉食不散", not cloying when eaten hot, not falling apart when eaten cold.

How it is eaten

In its 2024 spring food series the Tianshui culture and tourism bureau recommends Flaky Lard Pastry for breakfast, and names the lard-pastry shop on Yusheng Lane (育生巷) in Tianshui as its recommended place to try it.

Questions before you order

Can Flaky Lard Pastry be eaten cold?

Yes. The Tianshui culture and tourism bureau says it is eaten hot or cold: richly fragrant when hot, and cool, soft and crisp when cold, without falling apart.