Beef-Filled Layered Pastry 牛肉火勺

Beef-Filled Layered Pastry (牛肉火勺) is a small, flaky griddled bun filled with beef and scallion, a snack native to Tieling (铁岭), Liaoning, which the Liaoning Daily calls the uncrowned king of Tieling's local foods. The Liaoning Department of Commerce includes Tieling huoshao in its list of the province's ten famous snacks and says it was named a Tieling municipal intangible-heritage item in May 2017.

How it is made

The Liaoning Daily (辽宁日报) describes a filling of local scallions and beef rib flank with a balance of fat and lean, wrapped in fermented dough. The surface is brushed with shortening, which reacts with the flour over a strong fire to form a flaky crust; the bun is turned three or four times, changing colour, puffing up and shrinking back. A traditional hand-made huoshao, the paper noted in another report, is about 5 centimetres across and 1 centimetre thick.

Flavour and texture

Baked through, it turns golden, with clearly separated layers that are crisp without crumbling and rich without being greasy. The commerce department notes the crackle each bite makes, and the Liaoning Daily says the local version looks and tastes quite unlike huoshao made elsewhere.

Where it comes from

Both the Liaoning Daily and People's Daily Online credit its invention to an old Tieling man named Yang Fu (杨福), who, in the People's Daily account, worked shortening into the flour and griddled beef-and-scallion pies in oil on a flat iron pan. Its age is given differently: close to a hundred years (Liaoning Daily, 2025), over a hundred years (People's Daily Online, 2014), or back to the late Qing, about 160 years (Liaoning Department of Commerce, 2023).

How it is eaten

The Liaoning Daily names mutton soup as its best partner, in winter and summer alike, and People's Daily Online says it is often served with mutton soup or mutton offal soup made to house recipes. In February 2025 the huoshao appeared in the Liaoning episode of the CCTV series Three Meals, Four Seasons (三餐四季).