The origin of the stinky mandarin fish in Anhui can be traced back to more than 2 years ago. At that time, every winter, fishmongers along the Yangtze River packed mandarin fish in wooden barrels and trafficked them to Huizhou mountainous areas. In order to prevent mandarin fish from deteriorating during transportation, fishmongers sprinkle a layer of fish with a layer of salt, and often turn mandarin fish on the way, which takes about seven or eight days to arrive.

When the fishmonger transports Siniperca chuatsi to the mountainous area of Huizhou, the gills of Siniperca chuatsi are still bright red, and the scales remain unchanged, that is, they will emit a special smell that looks like smelly but not smelly. People washed this mandarin fish and made it into a dish. As a result, it was found that it not only had no smell, but was more delicious than fresh mandarin fish. So this practice has been handed down slowly, and it is still prestigious until now.