Dali Carved Plum Braised Pork

Carved plum (雕梅) traces to the Nanzhao Kingdom of the Tang dynasty, when Bai women in Eryuan County—celebrated as the homeland of plums—learned to carve intricate chrysanthemum and orchid patterns into fresh green plums as a mark of marriageable skill. The carved plums were then salted to reduce bitterness, packed in clay jars with brown sugar and honey, and left to cure for months into a golden, tangy-sweet preserved fruit that was both a betrothal gift and a festival delicacy. Combining these sculptured plums with slow-steamed layered pork belly is a practice documented in the Bai feast tradition by the Ming and Qing dynasties, and 雕梅扣肉 remains the ceremonial anchor of Dali wedding and New Year banquets.

The pork belly collapses at the prod of chopsticks; below it, the carved plums have drunk up all the rendered lard and turned amber-translucent—sour, sweet, and fragrant all at once, cutting cleanly through the fat. Every bite cycles through savour and brightness.

During four hours of steaming, the organic acids in the honey-cured preserved plums—primarily citric and malic acid—slowly permeate upward into the fat layers and partially hydrolyse collagen in the pork skin, accelerating its conversion to gelatin and producing a silky, yielding texture. Simultaneously, the rendered pork fat migrates downward into the plums by capillary action, carrying fat-soluble aroma compounds and turning the fruit translucent. Maillard browning products formed on the plum surface during months of honey-sugar curing contribute caramel and roasted depth to the pan juices, while the malic acid of the plum helps suppress the perception of richness on the palate.