Braised whole pig's head

Public reference · Home adaptation The 'three heads' are the three signature dishes — braised whole pig's head, crab lion's-head and boned silver-carp head — not the heads of three animals. Of the three, braised pig's head has the longest history and the highest standing. According to reported accounts, a Qing-dynasty Yangzhou lyric in 望江南百调 ends on 'the melting pork that makes guests stay', and works such as 调鼎集, 随园食单 and 扬州画舫录 all mention a similar dish; but exactly when and by whom this dish was settled has no clear documentary basis, so the anecdotes and Luo Pin's poem are treated as legend. The report also records that in 2009 the China Cuisine Association approved the three-head banquet as a famous Chinese banquet, that in 2014 the Yangzhou municipal government approved the making technique as municipal intangible cultural heritage, and that in 2018 the Yangzhou Cuisine Association issued a group standard. The whole dish turns on thoroughness: the hair must be plucked or the meat tastes of it; the head is blanched three or four times to strip the gaminess; wine, scallion and ginger are used generously; and the heat is a low three-hour simmer. The plating has its own rules — served whole, never broken up, face down, **cut from under the chin**, and the face has to be able to smile, which is why a whole head is also called a 'smiling face.' The 2018 group-standard report lists the three signature dishes by name only, so **this technique comes from the cooking tips in public reporting and from public home recipes, with no correspondence to the banquet's own kitchen method**; it is not a historical original. **The seat list records only the dish name, not the method; this version's technique comes from the public Sohu feature A Night Talk from Yangfan: Braised Whole Pig's Head, Yangzhou Intangible Heritage, and has no correspondence to the actual three-head-banquet kitchen method.** It is not a historical original, a house secret, or a formula from any intangible-heritage register. The report's accounts — the painter Luo Pin praising the pork after eating it, the Qing-dynasty monk at Fahai Temple whose braised pork was said to outshine Jiangnan, and a late-Qing Yangzhou comic tale about the pork — are treated as **legend and reported anecdote, not established fact**; the report itself says the dish's exact origin in person and time is not documented. **Downgrade disclosed:** the original lays a few clean tiles in a large iron wok, which must first be soaked through in chicken or meat stock or they smell of mud and ash; this version **substitutes a clay pot or enamelled deep pan available at home and says so**, with the anti-stick and fat-absorbing roles played by bamboo sticks or ceramic pieces at the base, which changes the flavour slightly. **'Simmer gently about three hours' is the report's own wording**; domestic burners differ, so go by whether a chopstick passes through and the meat is yielding. **Quantities and braising time are editorial for 6 servings and have not been kitchen-tested.** No therapeutic or health claims from the source are adopted; only the cooking technique is taken. Contains wheat and alcohol (yellow rice wine) and soy (light soy, dark soy); yellow rice wine and compound seasonings may carry other ingredients, so check labels. Pork head must be **cooked right through** — raw pork can carry pathogens such as Streptococcus suis, and under-braising is unacceptable, so judge by a chopstick passing easily with the centre fully yielding; reheating before service is advised. **All bone and tooth-plate fragments must be removed during boning** so none is served. Contains meat; this is not a vegetarian dish. 扬帆“夜话”丨舌尖上的扬州非遗：扒烧整猪头（搜狐，2020-03-17） — The method itself (cooking technique section): first the hair must be plucked clean or the cooked pork smells of it; second, blanching — the head is blanched in the pot three or four times to remove the gaminess, the boned head put into cold water and brought to the boil over medium heat, lifted out, scraped clean and the excess fat trimmed, and after three or four repetitions the gaminess is gone and only then is the real cook begun; third, seasoning requires plenty of yellow rice wine, scallion and ginger, plus star anise, cassia and other spices; most critical is the heat — a few clean tiles are placed in the base of a large iron wok (the tiles should first be soaked through in chicken or meat stock, or they may smell of mud and ash), the prepared head is put in with the seasonings and enough water to cover, and simmered over low heat for about three hours; the tiles prevent the head sticking and scorching and absorb some fat; when finished the head must be served whole, never broken, and to keep it intact and presentable it is laid face down and cut from under the chin — a whole head is also called a 'smiling face'; the result melts in the mouth and is eaten with a spoon, described as glutinously tender and sticky, richly fragrant, the ear slightly crisp, the tongue soft-tender, the eye springy, the meat very yielding, red-bright in colour, tender and sweet, soft and mellow, rich without being greasy, aromatic, sweet-savoury. The report also records that in 2009 the China Cuisine Association approved the three-head banquet as a famous Chinese banquet and that in 2014 Yangzhou approved the making technique as municipal intangible cultural heritage, while stating that the exact origin of the dish in person and time is not clearly documented. https://www.sohu.com/a/380940692_675926 下厨房：酱猪头 — The method itself: the head goes into cold water with a tablespoon of wine, comes to the boil and cooks 3–5 minutes; it is lifted out and the exposed hair pulled with tweezers; a small knife works out the bone a little at a time around the teeth, though boning can be skipped; the meat goes into a pressure cooker with all the seasonings and enough water to cover. This version turns the blanching, hair-plucking and boning into followable steps and, following the cited report, uses a long low simmer rather than a pressure cooker. https://m.xiachufang.com/recipe/252409/ 扬州晚报美食团：扬州发布“三头宴”团体标准（搜狐，2018-01-18） — Seat evidence and naming: the three-head banquet group standard consists of three signature dishes — braised whole pig's head, crab lion's-head and boned silver-carp head — with eight cold starters, nine hot dishes, Yangzhou fried rice as the staple and a seasonal fruit platter. The report quotes Huang Dingming's lyric 'the melting pork that makes guests stay' and 'Yangzhou is fine, a fine banquet has its three heads', notes that receiving guests with pork head had become a custom, and that the three head dishes show the Huaiyang school's precision and skill at simmering and stewing, keeping perfect form and a bone-tender yield. The report records dish names and allusions only, with no quantities or method. https://www.sohu.com/a/217424559_740963 AI-generated illustration; not kitchen-tested.

Source: WorldBite · public-reference adaptation · Source-attributed editorial adaptation; AI illustration; not an authenticated original recipe.