Yongcheng Xuehu Pan-Fried Beef Buns 永城薛湖牛肉水煎包

Yongcheng Xuehu Pan-Fried Beef Buns (永城薛湖牛肉水煎包) are filled buns of beef and sweet-potato noodles, fried on a flat steel pan, that the Yongcheng (永城) city government lists among its local specialities. They take their name from Xuehu (薛湖), a town of Yongcheng in Shangqiu (商丘), Henan.

Ingredients

The Yongcheng government lists specially made fine flour, pure sesame oil, beef from yellow cattle (黄牛), sweet-potato starch noodles and seasonal green vegetables, with the filling seasoned using eighteen Chinese medicinal ingredients. A 2025 China Food News report describes a fourth-generation maker in Yongcheng's old town whose beef filling is marinated in more than twenty spices.

How it is made

The buns are fried on a flat steel pan. In the old-town shop the maker stretches the dough into long strips, wraps the marinated beef in it, and fries the buns on an iron griddle until they turn amber. The finished buns are left open, with the filling showing.

Flavour and texture

The Yongcheng government sums them up as "上浓下焦" (rich on top, crisp underneath), and describes the buns as both crisp and tender, with a clean, fragrant smell.

Where it comes from

According to the Yongcheng government, the buns date from the Northern Song dynasty. A man from Xuehu market town who cooked in the imperial palace at the capital, Kaifeng (开封), served his home town's fried buns with bean porridge at a banquet for the empress's birthday; the ministers ate every one, and the emperor named them "二品包子" (second-rank buns). The story holds that from then on Xuehu buns stood level with Kaifeng's small steamed buns and spread through the prefectures and counties. The old-town shop in the 2025 report was founded in 1903 and draws a queue at dawn.