Northeastern Pig-Slaughter Stew 东北杀猪菜

Northeastern Pig-Slaughter Stew (东北杀猪菜) commonly brings sour cabbage, pork belly and blood sausage together in one pot. It is also part of a broader whole-pig feast. In Shuangyashan’s Jixian County (双鸭山市集贤县), CCTV reported a January 2025 celebration where pork and sour cabbage cooked in a huge iron pot with capacity for hundreds of servings.

Pork and blood sausage

Xinhua describes the traditional cooking of large pork pieces by a method combining steaming and boiling, called hu (烀). Gentle heat leaves the meat tender while retaining some springiness. For blood sausage, fresh pig’s blood is mixed with stock, salt, minced ginger and other seasonings, filled into intestinal casings and cooked.

From a pot to a feast

The name can extend beyond the restaurant stew to a meal of more than twenty pork dishes. Xinhua names hand-pulled meat from around the bones, pieces of cooked liver, pork-skin jelly and meat-filled intestines among the possibilities. The Jixian event documented by CCTV used an especially large 3.16-metre-wide pot, with over 200 kilograms of pork and about 100 kilograms of sour cabbage.