Lute-shaped Pork

琵琶肉

Lute-shaped Pork is a kind of traditionally pickled meat in Tibetan-inhabited Areas in the central plains of China. To make such pickled meat you should first remove the abdominal organs and bones from the slaughtered pig without damaging its body. After cooling off the meat, add pepper, caoguo, salt and Chinese liquor to the meat, and rub it to get the flavorings fully absorbed. Then sew up the meat and collect ashes from the kitchen stove and mix it with water or sesame oil, then apply the mixture to where the meat was sewed. After that, block the nose of the pig with a cork or a corncob to prevent moths. Finally, put a slate or a plank on the pig. And after it is dried its shape looks like a lute, which is the origin of its name.

According to Tibetan people in Di Qing area, the recipe of Lute-shaped pork was passed down from a god. However, the details of the story vary from area to area. Some people say that a beautiful and benevolent fairy once comes to the earthly world. To reward the uprightness and honesty of Tibetan people in Di Qing, she teaches them to till the earth and raise animals as well as the one-in-a-kind recipe of the Lute-shaped Pork. Others tell a different story: Once upon a time, there was an old hunter who was seasoned and skilled in shooting arrows. So whenever he hunts in the mountains he would bring home prey. He deems his good luck is endowed by god, so he always worships the god of mountain and the god of hunting. However, the preservation of the prey is an urgent problem needed to be solved. One night he dreams of a god teaching him the way of preserving his prey. When he wakes up he works accordingly and makes the lute-shaped pork which can be easily preserved.