The Sinosphere · Volume 34, The Chilli Jar, the Smoke Room and the Mountain the Tusi Ruled
Suan rou
Xiangxi
Illustration
- Time
- 30 minutes
- Researched
- Researched from 111 sources in the brief
Tujia and Miao Xiangxi. Described in Chinese sources as a delicacy genuinely unique to this one mountain region, not a variant of anything else in the province.
As tradition built it
Serves 4 to 6 as a starter. Charring and packing 30 minutes, fermentation 10 days to a fortnight.
Ingredients
- 500 g pork belly or shoulder (or beef), in one piece
- 40 g salt
- 1 tsp Sichuan pepper, ground
- 150 g cornmeal or fried rice, coarsely ground
Method
- Rub the meat all over with the salt and ground Sichuan pepper.
- Char the surface hard over embers or a very hot grill, blackening and crisping the outside while leaving the interior raw, the traditional flavour base the fermentation then builds on rather than creates from nothing.
- Slice or cube the charred meat, toss thoroughly in the cornmeal or fried rice so every surface is coated.
- Pack tightly into a clean, sealable jar or crock, pressing down to exclude air pockets, and seal.
- Leave to ferment at a cool room temperature for 10 days to a fortnight, checking periodically; the meat should turn a yellowish colour, faintly sour, fatty but not greasy, by the time it is ready.
- To serve, remove from the jar and stir-fry briefly in oil until the attached cornmeal turns golden and fragrant.
Notes
Exact salt percentage is not documented in the sourcing this brief could reach; the quantities below follow the general logic of duojiao's own well-sourced ratio, adapted to protein rather than vegetable.
What a modern chef changes
A monitored ferment, not an open-ended one.
Method
- Char the meat over live coals on the Big Green Egg, run wide open for maximum heat, to properly blacken and crisp the surface in the way an ember fire does, rather than searing in a pan.
- Ferment in a sealed container at a controlled, logged temperature, the dehydrator with its heating element off makes a stable, enclosed space, checking by smell and colour on a fixed schedule rather than "until it smells right," the same monitored-ferment discipline this chapter applies to duojiao itself.
- Finish with a short, hot stir-fry only, never a long recook, since the ferment has already done the flavour-building work the charring started; overcooking at the finishing stage flattens both.