Shanghai Cuisine · FFET10190
Yan Du Xian (salted pork and bamboo soup)
A spring soup of cured pork, fresh pork and spring bamboo shoots, simmered slowly and often served with tofu-skin knots.
A deep white porcelain bowl holds pale golden-yellow broth with pork belly, salted pork, ginger, spring bamboo shoots, tofu-skin knots and chopped green scallion in the soup, with wooden chopsticks resting beside the bowl.
The benbang and Haipai cooking of Shanghai, rich and dark-sauced, drawing on flavours from many places.
Yan du xian is a spring soup of cured pork, fresh pork and spring bamboo shoots, often with tofu-skin knots. It belongs to Huizhou, Suzhou-style, Shanghai and Hangzhou cuisines, with other names including xian du xian, yan dun xian and yi chuo xian. Its origin is unresolved: a 2022 interpretation identifies Huizhou salt pork with spring bamboo as its commonly accepted ancestor and suggests Yuan Mei's Suiyuan Shidan entry on bamboo stewed with ham as a possible early form. This is an interpretation, not a dated record of the soup.
What
Yan du xian is a milky seasonal spring soup of cured pork, fresh pork and spring bamboo shoots, often with tofu-skin knots.1,3,4
When
The soup's origin is unresolved. A 2022 interpretation identifies Huizhou salt pork with spring bamboo as its commonly accepted ancestor and suggests Yuan Mei's Suiyuan Shidan entry on bamboo stewed with ham as a possible early form; this does not establish an origin date, and no dated record of the soup was found.2
Where
Yan du xian belongs to Huizhou, Suzhou-style, Shanghai and Hangzhou cuisines and is a soup of Shanghai and Jiangsu. A Huizhou preparation is commonly accepted as its ancestor; Anhui cooks brought it to Shanghai, where it became widely known.1,2,3,4,5
How
One method blanches pork belly and salted pork, simmers them with ginger for about 90 minutes, adds bamboo for 30 minutes and finally tofu-skin knots for 20 minutes. A Suzhou home method simmers cured pork and ribs for 1 hour, then adds blanched spring bamboo. An adaptation uses pork shank and bone-in smoked ham, with no fresh pork or tofu skin, simmered about 3 hours over very low heat. A Shanghai method presented in April 2026 calls for at least 1 hour of simmering until the broth turns milky.2,4,5,6
Why
The name joins yan (salted), du (simmered) and xian (fresh); du comes from the Ningbo dialect. Cured pork seasons the soup with saltiness, and bamboo shoots bring umami. One recipe author's family makes it only 1 time a year, at Chinese New Year, because the ingredients are costly and otherwise reserved for special guests.2,3,4,5
Impact and influence
By 2022, yan du xian was common on Shanghai local-style restaurant menus and had recently appeared in new forms, including fillings for qingtuan and mooncakes. No further information was found.2
No tale about this food has been found.
Grandma Li
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
This is the yan du xian I make at home, a simplified home version: salted pork and pork belly with bamboo shoots and tofu-skin knots, simmered slowly in one pot. The amounts are half of those in a recipe by a named blogger, because I use a smaller pot, and the simmering times follow that recipe; I judge for myself whether the pork is tender and the broth is milky. A second recipe by another named blogger is an adaptation with pork shank and bone-in smoked ham, no fresh pork and no tofu skin, simmered about 3 hours over very low heat, and I did not follow it.
Ingredients
- Pork belly 225 g
- Salted pork 225 g
- Water About 1.7 liters
- Ginger 2 slices
- Spring bamboo shoots (or ready-peeled shoots) 225 g, cut into chunks
- Tofu-skin knots A small handful, about 8
- Scallion 1, chopped
- Salt To taste, possibly none
Steps
- Cut the pork belly and salted pork into pieces about 3 cm across, put them in a pot with cold water to cover, bring to a boil and cook a few minutes more. Skim off the foam, lift the meat out and rinse it.
- Cut the bamboo shoots into chunks, blanch them in boiling water and drain.
- Return the meat to the washed pot with about 1.7 liters of water and the ginger. Bring to a boil over high heat, turn the heat down, cover and simmer for about 90 minutes (the time follows the named recipe).
- Add the bamboo shoots and simmer another 30 minutes, then add the tofu-skin knots and simmer 20 minutes more (the times follow the named recipe).
- Taste the broth before deciding whether to add salt. The pork belly should be very soft with no pink inside when cut, and the broth milky. Scatter the scallion over and serve hot.
Tips
- Salted pork is already salty, so I taste the broth before salting, and often add none at all.
- I keep the pot at a gentle bubble and do not let it boil hard, because I find the broth turns milky more easily that way; this is my own way.
Allergens: soy