Minor Snow · FFET10328
Pickling and curing at Xiaoxue (Minor Snow)
At Xiaoxue, people pickle vegetables for winter and prepare cured meat and sausages for the Spring Festival
First snows come, the ground freezes and pickling begins
The proverb about pickling at Xiaoxue and curing meat at Daxue, Yanshan winter pickle in Nanchong and a cured-meat and sausage street in Chengdu, both in Sichuan, appear in a 2025 account. Accounts from 2024 cover storing cabbage and radish for winter and making cured meat and sausages before the Spring Festival. Xiaoxue's cold, dry air makes it a good time to start curing pork. The Jingchu Suishiji and the Dongjing Menghua Lu both record storing winter vegetables, but neither passage consulted mentions Xiaoxue.
What
Pickling is linked to storing cabbage and radish for winter; Yanshan winter pickle in Nanchong uses salted and fermented mustard greens. Cured meat and sausages are made before the Spring Festival, with chicken, duck, fish and pork among the meats used. A proverb associates pickling with Xiaoxue and curing meat with Daxue.1,2
When
Xiaoxue falls on November 21 to 23 each year, when the sun reaches the 240-degree point. The cold, dry air makes it a good time to start curing pork, usually for the Spring Festival. The earliest source of the proverb about pickling at Xiaoxue and curing meat at Daxue has not been established.1,3,7
Where
Sichuan has Yanshan winter pickle in Nanchong and Xinkai Temple Street in Chengdu, a street of sausage and bacon shops, both documented in 2025. Two other accounts describe the practice in general without naming a place. Jinhua ham is cured from Lidong to Lichun, which includes this season.1,2,3,4
How
Yanshan winter pickle in Nanchong is made by kneading mustard greens with seasoning, adding salt, drawing off the bitter water, sealing them in clay jars with yellow mud and fermenting them for about 3 years. Chengdu's cured meat and sausages include smoked and peppercorn styles. Glutinous rice cake is served with peanut or sesame at this season and is also used as an offering to the cattle god.1,2,4
Why
Pickling is linked to storing vegetables for winter, while cured meat and sausages are prepared for the Spring Festival. The 2 historical passages consulted also record winter vegetable pickling or storage, but neither mentions Xiaoxue. The Jingchu Suishiji records that in mid-winter households dried frost-touched turnip and mallow greens and made salted pickles. The Dongjing Menghua Lu, volume 9, describes a cold capital with no fresh vegetables, where households from the palace down stocked winter vegetables before Lidong. The text consulted does not establish the usual attribution or date of the Jingchu Suishiji, so neither is stated here.2,3,5,6
Impact and influence
Pickled vegetables are now made in small batches; regional preparations include Nanchong winter pickle and Chengdu cured meat and sausages. The Jinhua ham curing technique is a national representative intangible heritage item; the designation covers the ham-curing craft, not the Xiaoxue custom itself, and the official description gives no batch or year.1,2,4
No tale about this food has been found.