Yangzhou Brined Goose 扬州盐水鹅
Yangzhou Brined Goose is featured among the local specialties of Jiangsu.
Yangzhou Brined Goose (扬州盐水鹅) is a traditional food of Yangzhou (扬州) in Jiangsu whose Chinese name means 'salt-water goose'. Chinese Wikipedia credits it with a salty, fragrant, fresh and tender taste and a distinctive method of production.
Flavour and texture
In Yangzhou the dish is also simply called lao'e (老鹅), 'old goose'. Chinese Wikipedia's article on the city describes the meat as lean without being dry and the flavour as fresh and savoury.
In a 2021 report by China Jiangsu Net (中国江苏网), a Yangzhou livestream seller holding a freshly cooked goose tells viewers that his shop makes only old geese, never young ones (仔鹅), and points to the knob on the bird's head, which he says only geese more than a year old develop.
Where it comes from
The goose belongs to Huaiyang cuisine (淮扬菜), the traditional regional cooking of the Huai'an (淮安) and Yangzhou area, and Chinese Wikipedia ties it to Yangzhou's long tradition of raising geese. The city article lists Yangzhou old goose among local specialities next to Yangzhou fried rice (扬州炒饭), Fuchun buns (富春包子), Yangzhou pickles (扬州酱菜) and Yangzhou niupi candy (扬州牛皮糖).
The same China Jiangsu Net report says workshop-style production accounts for most of Yangzhou's brined goose, with factory production a small share. In 2020 a Jiangsu geographical-indication cultivation project for 'Yangzhou brined goose' was approved by the provincial intellectual property office, and an application for a national geographical-indication trademark was filed. The name also travels beyond the city: when China Jiangsu Net's reporters checked Douyin (抖音) livestream sales in June 2021, the best-selling 'Yangzhou brined goose' came from a shop in Shuyang (沭阳), Suqian (宿迁), whose owner had learned to make it in Gaoyou (高邮).
More dishes to compare
Explore related local specialties and compare their names, preparation notes and ordering guidance.
Nanjing salted duck 南京盐水鸭 →
Both are Jiangsu poultry sold under a city's name, and China Jiangsu Net measures the Yangzhou brined-goose trade against Nanjing's duck trade.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-25. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.