China · Chinese
Poached pork meatballs
A Luoyang water-banquet accompaniment: coarsely minced pork worked with scallion-ginger water until springy, then poached in barely simmering broth with wood-ear and greens. Clear broth, delicate meatballs. Public reference · home adaptation, not a historical original.
Public reference · Home adaptation Poached meatballs sit among the eight accompanying courses, alongside Luoyang pork slices and the fried vermicelli balls, and represent the banquet's soup-first character. Luoyang home cooking also serves them, often together with xiaowan tang. Published menus record the name only; this version follows public recipe sources and is not a one-to-one match to that menu. Unlike fried balls, poached ones show no fried crust and let the broth speak. **This entry previously also cited a Zhihu column page (zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/1992002327276704200); in this pass Zhihu returned 403 to every non-browser client and the body could not be opened by either curl or web_fetch, so that source has been removed. The method here rests on the remaining openable sources listed above.****Name check**: 'cuan' means poaching in barely simmering liquid; this is not the fried meatball. The dish goes through no deep-frying. Public recipes agree on two points: adding scallion-ginger water in stages so the meat absorbs it, and beating in one direction until the mixture is springy so the balls hold. The source uses egg white; this version uses whole egg for better binding, which is a declared change. Ratios, poaching temperature (held just below boiling, around 90°C) and timing are editorial for four servings. Not kitchen-tested. Contains egg; sesame oil contains sesame. The broth is chicken-based, so this is not a vegetarian dish. Keep the broth below a rolling boil while poaching or the balls will break up and go mushy. 抖音：孬师傅教你在家做正宗洛阳·生汆丸子 — Its identity as a Luoyang dish, and the described result: fresh broth and springy, slippery meatballs. https://www.douyin.com/video/7553560480694947110 FDA: Food Allergies — Basis for declaring the egg and sesame allergens. https://www.fda.gov/food/food-labeling-nutrition/food-allergies AI-generated illustration; not kitchen-tested.
Ingredients
- pork shoulder, roughly 3:7 fat to lean, minced400 g
- egg1 piece
- scallion-ginger water120 ml
- spring onion, chopped20 g
- ginger, minced10 g
- cornstarch10 g
- dried wood-ear mushroom, soaked and shredded15 g
- yellow Chinese chive, cut into lengths60 g
- clear chicken broth1000 ml
- salt4 g
- white pepper powder1 g
- sesame oil5 ml
Directions
- 1
Cover the chopped scallion and ginger with 120 ml warm water and steep 10 minutes, then strain the aromatic water. Soak the wood-ear and shred it.
- 2
Add the aromatic water to the minced pork in three additions, beating in one direction each time until the mixture looks springy and no water streaks remain. Then mix in the egg, starch, chopped aromatics and seasoning and beat until evenly combined.
- 3
Heat the chicken broth until small bubbles form on the base of the pot, around 90°C, just short of boiling.
- 4
Squeeze balls from between thumb and palm and lower them in one at a time, keeping the broth below a rolling boil and nudging them apart with the back of a ladle so they do not stick.
- 5
Poach 3 minutes until all the balls float and turn white, then add the wood-ear and chives and cook 1 minute more.
- 6
Turn off the heat, season with salt and white pepper, drizzle in sesame oil and serve in a bowl with the broth. If the broth boils hard the balls will break apart, so drop to low heat immediately if it does.
Source: WorldBite · public-reference adaptation · Source-attributed editorial adaptation; AI illustration; not an authenticated original recipe.