Shanghai Cuisine · FFET10179
Tang Cu Pai Gu (sweet-and-sour spare ribs)
Bite-size pork ribs in a sticky, glossy sweet-and-sour sugar-vinegar glaze, served hot or room temp.
A round white porcelain plate holds small pork spare ribs coated in sticky, glossy brown sweet-and-sour glaze, with ginger, scallion, star anise and toasted white sesame seeds, with wooden chopsticks resting beside the plate.
The benbang and Haipai cooking of Shanghai, rich and dark-sauced, drawing on flavours from many places.
Tang cu pai gu is pork ribs cut into small pieces and coated in a sticky, glossy sweet-and-sour glaze, eaten hot or at room temperature. One method fries marinated ribs and tosses them with salt, sugar, ketchup and a vinegar sauce. It is also a Shanghai dish, with two English-language recipes braising the ribs and reducing a glaze of caramelized sugar, soy sauce and vinegar. Claims that it began in Suzhou, Jiangsu, spread across the country and is common in Huaiyang cooking appear in an entry tagged since 2014 as lacking sources; no dated text was found, and its place of origin is unsettled.
What
Tang cu pai gu is pork ribs cut into small pieces and coated in a sticky, glossy sweet-and-sour glaze, served hot or cold and often eaten at room temperature.1,5,6
When
No dated text for this dish was found. The Suzhou origin claim gives no year, and the relevant entry has been tagged since 2014 as lacking sources.1
Where
Sweet-and-sour small ribs are a popular Shanghai dish, with two English-language recipes using Shanghai preparations. Regional accounts differ: the claim that it began in Suzhou, Jiangsu and is common in Huaiyang cooking lacks a source, while the consulted entry on Shanghai cuisine does not list it.1,2,4,5,6
How
There are two routes. One fries marinated ribs and tosses them with salt, sugar, ketchup and a vinegar sauce. Two Shanghai preparations skip deep-frying: one browns the ribs, caramelizes rock sugar, and braises the ribs for 30 minutes with soy sauce, black vinegar and water; the other boils small rib sections for 5 minutes, coats them in caramelized sugar, and reduces a sauce of vinegar, soy sauce and sugar.1,5,6
Why
Shanghai cooking tends toward sweet flavors, and tang cu pai gu is a signature southern Chinese dish often served cold. These traits do not explain why the dish arose, and no explanation was found.4,5,6
Impact and influence
In Japan, tang cu pai gu is often confused with the Cantonese gu lou rou. No intangible heritage listing or production or sales figures were found for it.3
No tale about this food has been found.
Grandma Li
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
This is my simplified home version of Shanghai-style tang cu pai gu: no deep-frying, but boiling, braising and reducing, and no ketchup. Both recipes I drew on are Shanghai braise-and-glaze recipes, one by the recipe author Judy Leung and one by Maggie Zhu; I found no recipe to follow for the fried ribs tossed in ketchup that Chinese Wikipedia describes. The braising time of about 30 minutes follows Judy Leung, and the amounts are my own choices at home.
Ingredients
- Pork spare ribs (have the butcher chop them into pieces 3 to 4 cm long) 500 g
- Cooking wine, for boiling the ribs 30 ml
- Ginger 4 slices
- Scallions 2, cut into sections
- Star anise 1 whole star
- Cooking oil 15 ml
- Rock sugar 30 g
- Light soy sauce 30 ml
- Dark soy sauce 10 ml
- Black vinegar 45 ml
- Water 250 ml
- Toasted white sesame seeds 1 teaspoon, optional
Steps
- Put the ribs in a pot, cover with cold water, and add the wine, ginger, scallion sections and star anise. Bring to a boil, boil for 5 more minutes, then lift the ribs out, rinse off the foam and drain.
- Heat the oil in a clean pot over low heat, add the rock sugar and let it melt slowly until it turns amber. I stay beside the pot for this step, because the sugar turns bitter as soon as it scorches and it is very hot.
- Add the ribs and turn them for about 1 minute so that every piece is coated.
- Pour in the light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, vinegar and water, add back the ginger and scallion from the boiling step, bring to a boil, cover, and braise over low heat for about 30 minutes. The ribs are done when a chopstick slides easily in beside the bone and the meat is no longer pink.
- Uncover, pick out the ginger, scallion and star anise, turn the heat up, and keep turning the ribs until the sauce is thick and clings to every piece in a glossy coat.
- Plate the ribs and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve hot, or let them cool to room temperature.
Tips
- When the liquid goes into the caramel it bubbles up hard, so I take the pot off the heat before pouring in the soy sauce, vinegar and water, then return it to the burner.
- I like to let the ribs sit a while after cooking, when the glaze turns stickier; this is my own habit.
Allergens: soy, wheat, sesame