MUZIChinese Matrix
Jiangsu Cuisine · FFET10168
Rice stir-fried with egg, shrimp, ham and peas, named for Yangzhou and usually made in the Cantonese style.
A round white porcelain plate holds white rice mixed together with yellow egg, pink peeled shrimp, ham, roast pork, green peas, orange carrot and onion, with a pair of wooden chopsticks resting beside the plate.
The regional cooking of Jiangsu, divided into the Jinling, Huai-Yang, Su-Xi and Xu-Hai style areas.
Yangzhou fried rice is made from cooked, cooled rice stir-fried with egg, shrimp, ham or roast pork, peas and scallion, with simple seasoning. Named for Yangzhou, its familiar form is Cantonese, said to have appeared in Guangzhou in the Guangxu era (1875 to 1908) and spread through Hong Kong; tradition credits the Qing official Yi Bingshou (1754 to 1815) with popularizing it. A Yangzhou origin is unproven, the credit to Yi has no cited source, and no dated original text was found, so these retold historical accounts are not taken as settled.
Yangzhou fried rice is cooked, cooled rice stir-fried with egg, shrimp, ham or roast pork, peas and scallion, seasoned simply with salt and similar flavorings. The 2015 Yangzhou municipal standard lists richer ingredients, among them sea cucumber, ham, chicken and river shrimp.1,2,3,4
Retold accounts place the familiar Cantonese form in Guangzhou in the Guangxu era (1875 to 1908), mention an advertisement in a 1927 photograph of a Guangzhou shop, and traditionally credit Yi Bingshou (1754 to 1815) with popularizing it. The first two claims lack reliable sourcing, the credit to Yi has no cited source, and no dated original text was found; these are not dated records.1,2
This Cantonese rice dish is named for Yangzhou in Jiangsu, but its origin there has not been established. It spread from Guangzhou by way of Hong Kong. English spellings include Yeung Chow, Yang Chow and Young Chow.1,2
Two home methods differ slightly. One cooks the rice slightly firm and cools it, scrambles the eggs and sets them aside, blanches the shrimp, stir-fries onion, ham and roast pork, adds the rice for about 2 minutes, then the shrimp and peas for 2 more, seasons with salt and sugar (Shaoxing wine is optional), and folds in the egg, scallion, lettuce and white pepper. The other uses overnight leftover rice, blanches peas and carrot until soft, sears shrimp and ham, adds the rice, makes a well for the beaten egg, returns the fillings, adds light soy sauce, salt and white pepper, and stirs in scallion for about 30 seconds to finish.3,4
The reasons for these methods are unspecified and are not inferred here. Both home methods use cooled rice, and one uses overnight leftover rice.3,4
Yangzhou issued a municipal standard for the dish in 2015. A world-record attempt in October 2015 to cook 4,192 kg of fried rice in Yangzhou was disqualified.1,2
Legend has it that the Qing official Yi Bingshou (1754 to 1815) popularized this dish, and tradition gives him the credit. The account has no cited source, and no dated text was found to back it.
Told in: A traditional account, which English Wikipedia describes as the credit given by tradition and leaves uncited; a published home recipe by a named author is also cautious about the Qing-era invention story.
Legend has it that a Huaiyang restaurant in Guangzhou served a dish called Yangzhou crispy rice with shrimp, roast pork and sea cucumber; a restaurant later turned the rice into fried rice and dropped the sea cucumber because of the cost. This is a retold account with no dated text.
Told in: A Guangzhou account, told in Chinese Wikipedia; that entry is tagged as lacking reliable sources, and no dated original text was found.
Grandma Li
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
This is the simpler way I make it at home, in the Cantonese restaurant style: shrimp, ham and roast pork with peas, without the sea cucumber and scallop of the Yangzhou municipal standard. I drew on two published recipes by named authors, both home adaptations: one with roast pork and lettuce, the other with carrot and soy sauce. The main amounts follow the roast-pork-and-lettuce recipe and the carrot follows the other; cups are US measuring cups, left as written. The onion, the blanching time and the heat for stir-frying are my own choices at home.
Allergens: shellfish, egg
