Beef and Mutton · FFET10370

Hu sheep

A sheep breed raised in pens on the Taihu Plain, its meat is used in hot pot, red-braised dishes and clay pots.

Hu sheep are a breed raised in pens on the Taihu Plain, including Huzhou and Jiaxing in Zhejiang; their meat is used in hot pot, red-braised dishes and clay pots. They were fed wild-rice leaves and mulberry leaves as part of local mulberry-dike farming (documented in 2025). They mature early, breed year-round and have multiple births (documented in 2023).

What

Hu sheep are a sheep breed of the Taihu Plain, raised in pens for uses including meat. Their meat is used in hot pot, red-braised dishes and clay pots.^1,2,3,4

When

Accounts of northern Hu sheep raised in Huzhou and Jiaxing trace back to Tan Yue's Jiatai Wuxing zhi, associated with the Jiatai era (1201–1204). This claim comes from a July 28, 2025, article's secondhand account of the gazetteer; its original wording remains unverified, so it cannot establish the breed's earliest documented appearance or origin date.²

Where

Hu sheep are associated with Huzhou and Jiaxing in Zhejiang on the Taihu Plain, with sheep farming and mutton dishes documented in Nanxun, Huzhou, in 2026. Hu sheep are also raised in Guang'an, Sichuan, and Yili, Xinjiang.^1,2,3,4

How

Hu sheep are kept in pens and fed wild-rice leaves and mulberry leaves (documented in 2025). Dishes documented in 2026 include mutton hot pot, red-braised mutton and mutton casseroles in Nanxun, plus mutton rolls and clay-pot dishes in Guang'an.^2,3,4

Why

Hu sheep mature early, breed year-round, produce multiple lambs and can have 2 litters a year (documented in 2023).¹

Impact and influence

Nanxun had held 11 mutton culture festivals (documented March 18, 2026). The flock described in Guang'an grew from 110 sheep in 2019 to more than 29,000 (documented July 30, 2026); 1 farm in Yili, Xinjiang, kept 26,000 ewes (documented November 26, 2023). These livestock figures concern Guang'an and Yili, rather than Huzhou.^1,3,4

Sources (4)