Braised and Sauced Cooked Meats · FFET10082
Pingyao Beef Traditional Processing Craft
The Pingyao beef craft is in the second national heritage batch, and its page says it is all hand-workshop work, passed on by word and example.
A pot of dark old stock simmers while a hand lifts a whole braised chicken out of it on a hook, sliced sauced beef fans out on the board, and a salted duck lies on a wooden platter beside it.
Meat and poultry simmered in a seasoned sauce or brine stock until the flavour is in, ready to eat as they are.
On the China Intangible Cultural Heritage website, the item "Beef and Mutton Cooking Techniques (Guanyun Pingyao Beef Traditional Processing Techniques)" is a traditional craft listed as a new item, added to the second batch of the national representative list in 2008; the declarant is Shanxi Guanyun Pingyao Beef Group Co., Ltd. The item page describes the finished meat as "red and glossy in colour, fine and tender in texture, fragrant and mellow in taste", says the work is "all hand-workshop craft, passed on by word and example from old masters", and says the craft "is on the verge of being lost".