Shù xiū: The Disciple's Bundle of Dried Meat
Fine strips of meat marinated with salt and aromatics, then long dried until firm and concentrated, tied into a bundle. A travel preserve, salty and deeply umami, that keeps well and can be shared—and here, pays for schooling.
Fine strips of meat marinated with salt and aromatics, then long dried until firm and concentrated, tied into a bundle. A travel preserve, salty and deeply umami, that keeps well and can be shared—and here, pays for schooling.
Let someone bring me only a bundle of dried meat, ten strips tied with a cord, and I have never refused to instruct him who presented it of his own accord. It is not the price of the meat that matters, but the rightness of the gesture. Salt it well, hang it in dry air, let time tighten the flesh; thus it will accompany you on the roads of the state of Lu and nourish your body as study nourishes your heart.
- •Lean beef or venison — a fine piece (flesh to dry)
- •Salt — generously (salting and preservation)
- •Ginger (薑) — grated (aromatic, purifies the flesh)
- •Chinese cinnamon bark (桂) — a shard (fragrance)
- •Jiang (fermented paste) — a little (umami marinade)
Shù xiū: The Disciple's Bundle of Dried Meat
Fine strips of meat marinated with salt and aromatics, then long dried until firm and concentrated, tied into a bundle. A travel preserve, salty and deeply umami, that keeps well and can be shared—and here, pays for schooling.
Why this dish? 'From anyone who brought me, of his own accord, a bundle of dried meat and more, I have never refused my teaching' (Analects, VII). The shù xiū—ten strips of dried meat tied in a bundle—was the humble gift of the future disciple to his master. No food is more intimately linked to Confucius the teacher.
Let someone bring me only a bundle of dried meat, ten strips tied with a cord, and I have never refused to instruct him who presented it of his own accord. It is not the price of the meat that matters, but the rightness of the gesture. Salt it well, hang it in dry air, let time tighten the flesh; thus it will accompany you on the roads of the state of Lu and nourish your body as study nourishes your heart.
Ingredients (period version)
- Lean beef or venison — a fine piece (flesh to dry)
- Salt — generously (salting and preservation)
- Ginger (薑) — grated (aromatic, purifies the flesh)
- Chinese cinnamon bark (桂) — a shard (fragrance)
- Jiang (fermented paste) — a little (umami marinade)
Ingredients
- Lean beef (rump or shin) — 500 g (flesh to dry)
- Salt — 2 tsp (salting)
- Grated fresh ginger — 1 tbsp (aromatic)
- Chinese cinnamon (cassia) — 1/2 tsp (fragrance)
- Fermented soybean paste (jiang) or soy sauce — 2 tbsp (umami marinade)
- Scallion — 1 stalk (marinade aromatic)
Method
- Slice the beef into thin strips 5 mm thick, along the grain.
- Mix salt, ginger, cinnamon, jiang, and scallion; massage into the strips and marinate for 4 hours (or overnight in the fridge).
- Pat the strips dry, lay them on a rack without touching.
- Dry in the oven at 70 °C, door ajar, for 3 to 4 hours, until firm but pliable (or use a dehydrator).
- Let cool, then tie ten strips together with a strand of raffia or kitchen twine to form the 'bundle'.
- Keeps for several weeks wrapped in a cloth, in a dry place: the ideal traveler's snack.
How it was made : Without refrigeration, salting and drying were the great meat preservation techniques under the Zhou. The 脯 (fǔ, dried meat) was among the gifts codified by ritual, and the 'bundle of dried meat' (束脩) had the value of a customary gift—hence its use as a symbol of tuition fees paid to the master. The expression shù xiū still designates teaching fees in classical Chinese today.
The contemporary twist : Tie your ten strips with a strand of raffia and offer the bundle in kraft paper: a gourmet gift laden with 2,500 years of pedagogical symbolism.
Sources : Entretiens de Confucius (Lunyu), book VII · K. C. Chang (ed.), Food in Chinese Culture, Yale University Press, 1977
Confucius · Charactorium