Year-old smoked cured meat

Last updated 2026-11-10 — The traditional locally made cured meat in Fenghuang differs from the commercially smoked variety. It’s not made only around the La Ba (eighth day of the twelfth lunar month) festival, nor is it produced using mechanical processes or various additives. Instead, it is smoked year-round on the racks above the kitchen stove. In rural areas, coal is generally not used, let alone natural gas—cooking is done with firewood, so isn’t the air smoky every day? Moreover, the pigs used by the villagers to make this cured meat are the local breed commonly referred to as “di you zi,” free-range pigs that are never fattened with lean-meat powder or growth enhancers, nor are any additives or chemical feeds used. Additionally, the curing method is different—before smoking, the meat is seasoned with an appropriate amount of salt and cured carefully for 3–5 days. The stoves are fueled year-round with firewood. The mountainous climate is cool, and most houses are made of wood, allowing good ventilation, which means the cured meat can be stored for a long time—and the longer it is kept, the more extraordinarily fragrant it becomes. The cured meat dried over such stoves has a very unique flavor. Though the old cured meat is delicious in texture, its appearance is extremely unattractive: pitch-black from the stove bottom, hardened like stone, with a nose-stinging smokiness and greasy black residue sticking to your hands. Only after it is thrown into the fireplace to burn, then soaked in rice-washing water and scrubbed vigorously with straw to remove its unappealing outer layer does its true character emerge. Once it’s cooked, sliced, and served, a single bite will reveal a rich, deep, mellow, and succulent flavor that resonates through your senses and stays with you for life. There are many items made into cured delicacies: cured sausages, cured beef, cured pig’s head skin, cured duck, cured chicken… and all are prepared using traditional methods. When you visit Fenghuang County, be sure to savor the deeply rustic flavor of this traditional old cured meat—golden, glistening, rich yet not greasy, leaving a lingering fragrance in your mouth—that you’ll never forget.