Lute¹-shaped Pork

琵琶肉

Lute-shaped Pork is a kind of traditionally pickled meat in Tibetan-inhabited Areas in the central plains of China. To make such pickled meat you should first remove the abdominal² organs and bones from the slaughtered³ pig without damaging its body. After cooling off the meat, add pepper, caoguo, salt and Chinese liquor to the meat, and rub it to get the flavorings fully absorbed. Then sew up the meat and collect ashes from the kitchen stove and mix it with water or sesame oil, then apply the mixture to where the meat was sewed. After that, block the nose of the pig with a cork⁴ or a corncob to prevent moths⁵. Finally, put a slate⁶ or a plank⁷ on the pig. And after it is dried its shape looks like a lute, which is the origin of its name.

琵琶肉为中甸藏区一种用传统腌制方法制作而成的肉品。具体方法是猪屠宰后将其内脏和骨头取出，保留完整躯体。待其稍凉后，撒入花椒面、草果面、食盐等佐料及白酒，轻轻搓揉后，将其开口缝合，在缝线部涂敷上水或香油调好的灶灰，并用木塞或玉米芯把猪鼻塞严，以防虫蛀。然后用石板或木板压上晾干，干后形似琵琶，故名“琵琶肉”。

According to Tibetan people in Di Qing area, the recipe of Lute-shaped pork was passed down from a god. However, the details of the story vary from area to area. Some people say that a beautiful and benevolent⁸ fairy once comes to the earthly world. To reward the uprightness and honesty of Tibetan people in Di Qing, she teaches them to till the earth and raise animals as well as the one-in-a-kind recipe of the Lute-shaped Pork. Others tell a different story: Once upon a time, there was an old hunter who was seasoned and skilled in shooting arrows. So whenever he hunts in the mountains he would bring home prey⁹. He deems his good luck is endowed by god, so he always worships the god of mountain and the god of hunting. However, the preservation¹⁰ of the prey is an urgent problem needed to be solved. One night he dreams of a god teaching him the way of preserving his prey. When he wakes up he works accordingly and makes the lute-shaped pork which can be easily preserved.

对迪庆藏族人家说，琵琶肉的腌制方法是神仙教的，不过具体情节各地不一。有的地方的人们说，一位美丽善良的仙女来到人间，她十分喜欢迪庆藏族人家的善良忠厚，便在教会人们耕地养畜之后，把一手腌制肉食的绝活也传给了大家。而另一些地方的人们则说，从前有一位老猎手，经验丰富又射得一手好箭，因此只要上山，就绝不会空手而归。他觉得自己的好运气都是神仙给的，所以总忘不了祭献山神、猎神。老猎人常常遇到这样的难题，一次打到的猎物太多，吃不完，放了几天就坏了。一天晚上，他在睡梦中得到神仙的指点，醒来后依法腌制，就做成了可存放很长时间的琵琶肉。