Chuantongmianshi Making Craftsmanship

Ⅷ-160Traditional CraftsmanshipSiping, JilinBatch 5 (2021)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

With the opening of modern railways, Siping City gradually replaced Lishu County as an important transportation hub and logistics distribution center in the Northeast. The Li Liangui smoked-meat and big-cake shop moved to Siping City in 1940 and gradually developed into a unique delicacy renowned nationwide; its craft was also perfected over time.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Li Liangui smoked-meat and big-cake craft is one of the representatives of China's traditional pasta-making crafts. It originated in Lishu County, Siping City, Jilin Province, and mainly spreads in Siping City today. Siping City lies in the heart of the Songliao Plain, belonging to the northeastern black-soil belt, with four distinct seasons and fertile soil; the northeastern wheat milled there yields dough with strong gluten and fragrance, and the locally raised northeastern black pigs produce meat with good texture and mellow aroma. The unique geography and climate between the white mountains and black waters provide favorable conditions and fine raw materials for the spread and development of the Li Liangui smoked-meat and big-cake craft. Over a hundred years ago, Li Liangui created a unique pancake-frying and meat-boiling culinary craft, with a secret Chinese-medicine formula at its core. For the meat: it is boiled and smoked in aged stock with secret seasonings, yielding smoked meat of reddish-brown color, translucent skin and flesh, rich but not greasy, lean but not dry, with an aroma that refreshes the heart. For the cake: the oil from the meat-boiling aged stock is mixed with seasonings and flour to make an oil-pastry wrapped in the cake, then pan-fried, producing a big cake round as a full moon, with a golden surface, separated layers, crisp outside and tender inside, and a rich fragrance. Eating the smoked meat together with the big cake, supplemented with soybean paste and scallion shreds, plus a bowl of millet, mung-bean, and jujube congee, further enhances the pleasure of eating. The Li Liangui smoked-meat and big-cake craft blends the traditional-cultural concept of "medicine and food sharing the same origin" with the uniquely northern cooking techniques; it warms the spleen and stomach, strengthens kidney yang, guides qi and regulates the middle, aids digestion and kills parasites, and is a rare delicacy combining deliciousness and medicinal cuisine, deeply loved by the people. Over more than a hundred years, the Li Liangui smoked-meat and big-cake craft has been passed down through masters and apprentices and has now reached the fourth generation. The Li Liangui smoked-meat and big-cake has become an important part of Siping's urban history and folk customs, a cultural symbol of the city, and has also achieved good social and economic benefits.

Simmering meat in master stock

Meat is simmered and smoked in master stock with a secret medicinal seasoning, producing red-brown skin that is tender without being greasy.

Shortening the cake with stock fat

The cake is made from fat skimmed off the meat stock, wrapped as a layered pastry and griddled until flaky and golden.

Eating them together

Smoked meat and flaky cake eaten with bean paste and shredded leek, washed down with millet, mung bean and jujube porridge.

The railway move from Lishuxian to Siping

With the railway making Siping a transport hub, the shop moved there in 1940 and the craft grew into a regional landmark.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Beginning in Lishu County, the Li Liangui smoked-meat and big-cake moved to Siping City with the opening of modern railways, then spread outward with Siping as the distribution center; today branch shops exist throughout the Northeast such as Jilin, Liaoning, and Inner Mongolia, and even in some North China cities. The Northeast's long, cold winters are just right for boiling the meat through and frying the cakes crisp, and also suit the way of eating with one hand holding a bowl of congee and the other rolling the cake with soybean paste; this way of eating was carried out with the craft and took root in various provinces along with the franchising teams. As for the method itself, it differs slightly from the approach on the inner-pass side: the meat is boiled in aged stock with secret seasonings and then smoked; the cake uses the oil from the meat-boiling aged stock to form an oil-pastry wrapped in the cake and then fried; the two share one aged-stock base, so when eaten together at one meal they do not produce two conflicting flavors.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

In the past ten years, by improving the inheritor system, training students, developing franchises, and conducting external exhibitions and promotions, the businesses relying on this craft include 14 directly operated stores, 307 franchise stores across 22 provinces (regions, municipalities), and nearly 5,000 related employees, forming a stable inheritor community. In its transmission process, the Li Liangui smoked-meat and big-cake craft organically integrates the Central Plains' culinary culture with the Guandong region's dietary customs, bearing strong northern culinary-cultural characteristics, while also incorporating the traditional "medicine and food sharing the same origin" health concept, becoming a typical representative of northern culinary culture with considerable historical and cultural value.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Chuantongmianshi Making Craftsmanship (Siping, Jilin) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回英文名录。