Shannan Yarlung Wind-Dried Meat 山南雅砻风干肉

Shannan Yarlung Wind-Dried Meat (山南雅砻风干肉) is raw beef and mutton that Tibetan households cut into strips and hang to dry in the cold, dry air of the Tibetan winter. The Shannan (山南) tourism development bureau presents it among its "Shannan gifts" of local food and names the dried beef from the shores of Yamdrok Lake (羊卓雍措), known as "Yamdrok gansu" (羊卓干素), as a well-known kind.

How it is made

According to the bureau, at the end of each year, once temperatures in Tibet fall below freezing and especially after the goods-exchange fair (物交会), Tibetan households cut beef and mutton into small strips and hang them in the shade to dry naturally. The meat is taken down and eaten in the second and third months of the following year. Genuine wind-dried beef is made from raw meat, usually leg, sliced strip by strip. Dried with no seasoning it is the plain version; with chilli and other seasonings it becomes a spicy or five-spice version. Because the air is cold and dry, the meat dries fast and does not turn tough.

Flavour and texture

The finished meat is described as firm, crisp and fine-grained, with little moisture and no gamey smell. The bureau adds that meat dried raw tastes purer than meat dried after cooking.

How it is eaten

When Tibetan hosts serve it, a strip is torn into thin shreds and chewed, then washed down with butter tea or highland barley wine. The bureau also points to beef from Tsomei County (措美县), raised on the Zhegu grassland (哲古草原), as sought after at the goods-exchange fair.