The origin of Anhui smelly mandarin fish can be traced back to more than 200 years ago. At that time, every winter, fishmongers along the Yangtze River would put mandarin fish in wooden barrels and sell them to Huizhou mountainous areas. In order to prevent mandarin fish from deteriorating during transportation, fishmongers will sprinkle a layer of salt on the fish and often turn the mandarin fish on the way, which takes about seven or eight days to arrive.

When the fishmonger transports Siniperca chuatsi to Huizhou mountainous area, the gills of Siniperca chuatsi are still bright red, and the scales remain unchanged, that is, it will emit a special smell that looks smelly but not smelly. People washed this mandarin fish and made it into a dish. It turns out that it not only has no fishy smell, but also tastes better than fresh mandarin fish. So this practice has been passed down slowly, and it is still very prestigious until now.