Stuffed Pork Trotter Roll 扎蹄

Stuffed Pork Trotter Roll (扎蹄) is the Foshan (佛山) dish known in full as yunza zhuti (酝扎猪蹄), "steeped and bound pork trotter": a boned trotter skin packed with layers of fat and lean pork, tied into shape, simmered in a specially prepared braising liquid and served in slices. It is most closely linked with Dexinzhai (得心斋), an old shop in Chancheng District (禅城区), and it is on the eighth batch of Guangdong's provincial intangible cultural heritage list.

Where it comes from

Dexinzhai began in the Qianlong (乾隆) reign of the Qing dynasty as the Heji pork shop (和记猪肉店), founded by Foshan man Yu Haozhong (余浩忠) beside the Fen River (汾江) wharf. Trotters often went unsold at closing time, so the owner turned them into this dish. Legend has it that an official visiting from Guangzhou (广州) sent out for one late at night, praised it as "de xin ying shou" (得心应手, "just as the heart desires"), and the shop took the name Dexinzhai. The Foshan government portal describes it as a dish with more than 300 years of history.

How it is made

The method has more than thirty steps and over thirty seasonings. The trotter is scraped clean, and the skin is opened and the bone removed. Fat pork is cured with fine sugar and salt; lean pork is passed through hot oil and treated with distilled liquor and sugar. The meat is skewered and roasted to about 30–40 percent done, cut into thin strips, and packed in alternating fat and lean layers inside the trotter skin. The roll is shaped with wooden sticks and tied with water grass, chosen because it is tough and gives a light fragrance. It is steeped over low heat in the braising liquid until 80–90 percent cooked, then pricked all over so the gelatin in the skin seeps out, which keeps the skin crisp to the bite. After it comes out of the pot the old grass and sticks are removed and the roll is bound again for a neater shape, then scalded in hot braising liquid to sterilise it.

How it is eaten

It is usually cut into thin slices: a golden rim of skin around glossy, light-brown meat. The usual dip is mustard with soy sauce, spring onion and minced garlic. The skin is crisp and tender with some spring, and the meat inside is loose and crisp, filling the mouth with fragrance.