The sweet half of the Sichuan banquet烧白 pair, also called 夹沙肉. Thin broad slices of skin-on pork belly are each folded around sweetened red-bean paste, laid over a bed of glutinous rice studded with candied fruit, and steamed long until the fat melts into the rice. Inverted onto the plate, it is a glistening dome of dark pork and amber rice — soft, sweet, and rich, the rendered lard soaked through every grain. A celebration dish, served opposite its salty twin 咸烧白.
Sweet Glutinous Pork comes out of the same rural Sichuan banquet tradition — the 田席 and its 三蒸九扣 core of steamed dishes — as its salty twin. In an era when sugar and fat were luxuries reserved for feasts, a dish that paired pork belly, sweet bean paste, glutinous rice and rock sugar read unmistakably as celebration food, and it became fixed at weddings, New Year and birthdays. Its other name 夹沙肉 ("bean-paste-folded pork") describes the build: each slice of belly folded around a layer of 豆沙. The fat-rich richness is deliberate — at a banquet a sweet, heavy steamed pork was a sign the host had not stinted.
A slice lifts off in two folded leaves of pork with a dark seam of red-bean paste between, the fat clear and trembling, the rind soft and sweet from a soy-and-sugar glaze. Underneath, the glutinous rice is sticky and burnished, every grain swollen with rendered lard and dotted with candied winter melon or jujube. It is frankly sweet and unctuous — eaten in small pieces — the bean paste earthy-sweet, the pork dissolving, the rice carrying both. Rich enough that one or two slices satisfy.
Like 咸烧白, the belly is boiled and its skin fried to tiger-skin and soy-glazed, but here it is sliced into连刀片 — paired slices joined at the rind so each can be opened and stuffed with sweet bean paste. Laid skin-down, the slices render their lard downward during a long steam; the glutinous rice packed beneath acts as a sponge, swelling as it drinks the fat — this is the whole point, lean rice would be dry. Rock sugar and a little lard tossed through the rice first ensure even sweetness. The long steam (90 minutes-plus) melts the fat to silk and binds rice and pork into one block, turned out by inverting the bowl.
Variations
The standard filling is 豆沙 (sweetened red-bean paste); some kitchens use jujube paste or a layer of crushed candied fruit. The rice is variously studded with candied winter melon, raisins, or red dates, and sometimes a layer of 醪糟 (fermented rice) for fragrance. A close cousin keeps the folded pork-and-bean-paste but omits the rice base, served as 夹沙肉 proper. Always plated as the sweet counterpart to 咸烧白 at a full banquet.
On the Palate
Where Sweet Glutinous Pork sits in the Chinese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
7 steps · 45 min
- 130 min
Boil a slab of skin-on pork belly with ginger until just cooked; pat dry, rub the skin with dark soy, and fry skin-down in hot oil until blistered, then soak in cold water.
Watch outAfter frying the skin blistered, plunge it into cold water — the cold shock is what puffs it into the loose 虎皮 texture that later drinks up sauce and steam.
- 28 min
Slice into paired "hinged" slices joined at the rind (连刀片), each thick enough to open like a book.
- 37 min
Spread sweetened red-bean paste between each pair and close; lay the stuffed slices skin-down to line a deep bowl.
- 46 min
Toss soaked glutinous rice with crushed rock sugar, a spoon of lard and candied fruit; pack firmly over the pork.
- 595 min
Steam over high heat for 90-100 minutes, until the fat is translucent and the rice is soft and glossy.
Watch outSteam a full 90 to 100 minutes — only a long steam melts the fat to silk and lets the lean rice sponge up the rendered lard; rush it and the rice stays dry.
- 62 min
Invert a plate over the bowl and flip; lift the bowl away.
- 72 min
Finish with a sprinkle of sugar and, if liked, a thin sweet glaze poured over the dome.
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