A robustly spiced Manchu lamb offal broth from Chengde — stomach, intestines, liver, heart, and lung simmered with Chinese medicinal aromatics until the stock turns milky white, then ladled over sesame flatbread and scattered with fresh cilantro. Emperor Kangxi named this soup and decreed it a mandatory dish at the royal hunting banquets of Mulan Weichang.
The soup's roots lie in the Manchu and Mongol herding traditions of the Rehe (Chengde) region, where nomadic peoples simmered lamb offal with local herbs as everyday sustenance. It gained imperial recognition when Emperor Kangxi — on inspection tours to Mulan Weichang hunting grounds — encountered a roadside version at Pingquan (then Bagou Town) and praised it. One account places this at his 34th year of reign (1695), when Manchu and Mongol cooks prepared the broth to reward Eight Banners soldiers after a great hunt. Kangxi is said to have named it 'Eight Banners Soup'; local culinary tradition further holds that the broth was added alongside the established Four Border Banquet Events (塞宴四事 — horse racing, Mongolian music, camel-jumping, and wrestling) as a prized feature of the imperial hunt feast, though this claim appears in regional food lore rather than verifiable court records. Pingquan lamb soup is now a provincial-level intangible cultural heritage of Hebei.
A bowl arrives cloudy white, scattered with sliced green onion and cilantro, smelling of nothing gamey. The first sip is a revelation: the stock is clean, faintly sweet from the daikon, warming from the bark-and-herb bouquet. The organ strips are tender, cut fine, with just enough resistance to remind you they are not muscle meat.
White daikon releases sinigrin during simmering; the enzyme myrosinase converts it to isothiocyanate compounds that bind short-chain fatty acids (the primary source of lamb gaminess) through condensation, neutralising the odour. Bai zhi (Angelica dahurica) contributes coumarin-family lactones that selectively mask volatile aldehydes. Long simmering above 85 °C hydrolyses collagen from the stomach lining into gelatin, emulsifying the fat droplets and turning the broth a characteristic milky-white opaque.
Variations
A leaner version uses only lamb shoulder and marrow bone, producing a clearer, lighter broth. Some vendors serve the broth with hand-torn sesame flatbread soaked in the soup, a practice close to the Shaanxi yangrou paomo tradition. Modern restaurants offer a spicy variant with chilli oil stirred in at the table.
On the Palate
Where Eight Banners Lamb Offal Soup sits in the Chinese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
7 steps · 30 min
- 115 min
Clean lamb offal thoroughly: rub stomach and intestines inside and out with coarse salt, rinse under cold running water. Blanch all offal in boiling water with ginger slices and Shaoxing wine for 5 minutes; discard blanching water.
Watch outScrub the stomach and intestines inside and out with coarse salt, then blanch — skimp on this and the gaminess never leaves.
- 210 min
Cut cleaned offal into 4 cm strips. Crack lamb bone sections with a cleaver.
- 35 min
Place lamb bone in a large pot with 3 litres of cold water; bring to a rolling boil and skim foam vigorously for 5 minutes.
- 42 min
Add the offal strips along with whole spices (bai zhi, cinnamon bark, grass cardamom, dried tangerine peel, apricot kernel), ginger slices, and a halved white daikon. Reduce to a steady simmer.
Watch outAdd a halved white daikon with the offal — its compounds bind the lamb's short-chain fatty acids and neutralize the gamey smell.
- 555 min
Simmer uncovered for 50–60 minutes; the broth will turn milky white as collagen emulsifies. Season with salt.
Watch outSimmer uncovered 50–60 minutes until the broth turns milky white — that white is the collagen emulsifying, the sign it's ready.
- 65 min
Remove daikon and whole spices; check offal for tenderness and simmer a further 5 minutes if needed.
- 73 min
Ladle into deep bowls; scatter sliced green onion, cilantro, white pepper, and a drizzle of chilli oil over the top. Serve with sesame flatbread alongside.
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