Pingjiang Pressed Dried Tofu 平江香干

Pingjiang Pressed Dried Tofu (平江香干) is also called Pingjiang jianggan (平江酱干). It comes from Changshou (长寿) in Pingjiang (平江), where soybeans pass through eighteen stages, including three rounds of braising and three of drying. The finished tofu is aromatic, firm and chewy.

Braising and drying

Hunan Daily (湖南日报) describes the older Changshou method as braising dried tofu in chicken stock with fennel and cassia bark, then drying it over charcoal. The pieces are small squares, about as thick as a copper coin, with a dark, glossy surface. Ten pieces were traditionally tied together with cotton thread as one bundle.

A continuing local craft

The Yuanben Jiyi (原本记忆) brand, established by Miao Hong (缪宏) in 2017, uses soybeans, chicken juice, five-spice seasoning, cinnamon and vegetable oil. Its tofu undergoes more than five hours of braising, producing a fine-textured but resilient bite. Pingjiang jianggan received a geographical-indication certification trademark in 2012.