Tujia bacon is a specialty dish of the Tujia people, and this traditional preservation method has been going on for hundreds of years. For Tujia people, bacon is not only a filling food, but also a kind of nostalgia. Carry some bacon with you when you go out to express your longing for your hometown. As one of the top ten famous foods in Enshi, Tujia bacon is not only loved by the Tujia people, but also by outsiders. How is such delicious Tujia bacon made? How can you turn Tujia bacon into a delicious dish? Everyone needs to understand these three common sense.

1. How is Tujia bacon made?

In ancient times, there was no food preservation technology like today, and food was easily spoiled. So the Tujia people thought of a way to preserve pork, which was the predecessor of Tujia bacon. First, rub fresh pork with salt so that the outer layer of the pork is coated with thick salt. This is the first and most critical step in making Tujia bacon. If too little salt is applied, the shelf life of the meat will be short and food will easily deteriorate, so applying salt requires experienced people. Next, hang the meat coated with salt on the beam. In areas where Tujia people gather, people will build a meat-smoking room, put a few thick logs on the roof as beams, and then hang the meat here. Finally, the trees and leaves on the mountain are used to smoke the meat, usually until the outer layer of the meat turns black or waxy yellow, and the meat is basically ready. In order to ensure the taste of Tujia bacon, local people will choose to smoke it with cypress branches, so that the bacon has a good taste.

2. How to make Tujia bacon so delicious?

There are many ways to make Tujia bacon, but there are two main ways to eat it that are most popular. The first one is fried bacon. Wash the bacon with water, then cut it into thin slices, then stir-fry it with the bacon with chili or Enshi's special dish - pressed canton pepper. The resulting fried bacon with chili pepper and stir-fried bacon with pressed canton pepper are both delicious in color and flavor. It makes people salivate just by smelling it. The second type is bacon soup. When making soup with cured pork trotters, you don’t need to add any complicated ingredients. You only need to add ginger, garlic, etc. The Tujia cured pork trotters will be fragrant and mouth-watering.

3. How to preserve the quality and freshness of Tujia bacon?

Because after the bacon is smoked, a natural antioxidant layer is formed on the outer layer. If you want to preserve bacon, you only need a simple ventilated and dry environment. At the same time, avoid overwatering the bacon and being affected by high temperatures. As long as these two points are done, the preservation time of bacon will generally last for a long time, a year and a half is not a problem