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Meat from China

Suanrou酸肉

Suanrou is the sour pork of south-west China. Slices of streaky pork are salted and spiced, then packed with roasted corn flour or rice flour into a jar with a water-sealed lid and left at ambient temperature for 30 to 60 days, while lactic acid bacteria bring the pH from about 5.8 to about 4.1.

Fully documentedMeat31 days – 2 months

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceOne 10 kg batch of the traditional western Hunan method (technique A) used in a Guizhou University study. Other recipes use rice flour and white wine.
Streaky pork, sliced 3–5 cm wide and 3–4 cm thick10 kg[zeng2021]
Salt400 g[zeng2021]
Chinese prickly ash, star anise and Chinese cinnamon10 g each[zeng2021]
Dry chilli powder100 g[zeng2021]
Ginger slices400 g[zeng2021]
Stir-fried corn flour2.6 kgMixed with 100 g more salt and a little of each spice; corn flour is a quarter of the jar mix[zeng2021]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 31 days – 2 months

Start
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What changes: Streaky pork is cut into thick slices

Step 1 of 5
Slice the streaky pork
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Suanrou is the sour pork of south-west China. Slices of streaky pork are salted and spiced, then packed with roasted corn flour or rice flour into a jar with a water-sealed lid and left at ambient temperature for 30 to 60 days, while lactic acid bacteria bring the pH from about 5.8 to about 4.1. Made in 5 steps over 31 days – 2 months. The longest step, ferment, takes 30 days – 2 months (Liu S 2026) and runs at 25 °C (Liu S 2026). Salt is 4 % (Zeng X 2021). Lactiplantibacillus plantarum and Pediococcus pentosaceus and Latilactobacillus sakei (74 % of bacteria at 30 days) giving way to Lentilactobacillus garvieae (47 %) and Lactiplantibacillus plantarum (33 %) by 60 days in a laboratory batch; Lactobacillus and Pediococcus are the core genera do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 2 monthsReported[liu2026][zeng2021]Ferment
Temperature25 °CReported[liu2026][guo2026]Ferment
Salt4 %Reported[zeng2021]Salt and spice, and cure in the cold
AciditypH 5.8 → 4.08Measured[liu2026]Ferment

What makes this one different

Suanrou is a long jar ferment, at ambient temperature, of whole pork slices packed in roasted grain flour. Thai naem is a short, room-temperature ferment of minced pork.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Regional sour meatSamples from Guangxi, Hunan, Guizhou and Yunnan differ in their bacteria and metabolites.

Safety

In a laboratory batch total volatile basic nitrogen, a spoilage marker, reached 12.88 at 60 days, under the 15 mg/100 g limit those authors cite. In the western Hunan study it rose from 14.8 to about 21 mg/100 g, above that figure, though those authors judged it against a 35 mg/100 g limit for fish. In the same study, enterobacteria and pseudomonads fell below detection by day 30 in the faster-souring batches but not in the traditional one. None of this is a botulism test. The jar holds raw pork at about 4 % salt, sealed at ambient temperature for weeks, and the traditional batch fell slowly, from pH 6.89 to 4.45 by the end of fermentation. Taiwan's health authority advises against curing raw meat at home or making sealed low-acid foods, and advises heating such foods before eating, because ordinary cooking destroys the toxin.

Hazards the sources name: Enterobacteriaceae, enterococci and pseudomonads (2.0–2.9 log CFU/g at the start; below detection by day 30 in two of three batches).

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

History
The sources we found do not record its history.
  1. [mohw-botulism] Ministry of Health and Welfare (Taiwan), 慎防肉毒桿菌危害 (Beware of botulism)gov
  2. [zeng2021] Zeng X., Meng J., Zhang W., He L., Deng L., Ye C. 2021, Changes in the microbiological, physicochemical properties of Chinese traditional fermented Suan rou at ripening fermentation, Food Science & Nutrition 9(11):5899-5913paper
  3. [liu2026] Liu S., Ding Q., Zhao L., Li M., Liu Y., Liang D., Ma Y. 2026, Unraveling the mechanism of "smelling slightly off but tasting delicious" of fermented sour pork via multi-omics analysis, Food Chemistry X 38:104295paper
  4. [guo2026] Guo Q., Liu S., Ding Q., Li M., Liang D., Zhao L., Liu Y. 2026, Comparative analysis of microbial community and metabonomics in traditional sour meat from different regions of China, Foods 15(19):3424paper