Pork Braised with Dried Yellow Croaker 黄鱼鲞烤肉
Pork Braised with Dried Yellow Croaker is featured among the local specialties of Zhejiang.
Pork Braised with Dried Yellow Croaker (黄鱼鲞烤肉) is a pot of pork stewed with dried fish, made here with dried yellow croaker (黄鱼鲞), the fish that people on the Zhoushan (舟山) islands off Zhejiang traditionally open out flat, salt and hang in the north wind.
Ingredients
A Zhoushan Daily (舟山日报) essay on island New Year food, recalling the winter fishing season of three or four decades ago, names wild large yellow croaker as the most prized fish for drying. Each fish was opened out flat with strips of bamboo into the shape of a large palm-leaf fan and salted for half a day. It was then hung from bamboo poles under the eaves until the north wind dried it to a glossy finish.
An essay by Zhejiang Propaganda (浙江宣传) on Tide News (潮新闻) names traditional baixiang (白鲞, 'white dried fish'), which is dried yellow croaker, as the best of the many dried fish made in Zhejiang. It also gives the seaside rule for drying fish in general: split the fish without washing it in water and without scaling it, cutting along the back so the belly stays joined, then rub a little salt on both sides and leave it to dry in the wind.
How it is made
In the same Zhoushan Daily essay, pork stewed with dried fish is one of the substantial dishes of the New Year's Eve dinner. That household made it with dried eel and pork belly (五花肉): the salty savour of the fish soaks into the pork fat as the pot stews until the meat is falling-apart tender.
Tide News quotes the Shaoxing (绍兴) method for pork stewed with dried fish: stew the dried fish with fresh pork but add it only once the pork is tender, or the fish breaks down to nothing; chilled, the pot sets into xiangdong (鲞冻, dried-fish jelly).
How it is eaten
China Civilization Net (中国文明网) calls pork stewed with dried fish an everyday home dish along the Jiangsu and Zhejiang coast, known as a 'grandma's dish' (外婆菜) and cooked ahead in a large pot that is kept simmering. It describes the sauce as thick, with the pork taking on the savour of the fish and the fish taking on the aroma of the pork, and presents it as a dish for eating with rice. Tide News places it on the New Year table, rich with oil and soy sauce.
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.