Boneless Carp Fish Head in Yangzhou, Huaiyang Cuisine 拆烩鲢鱼头

Boneless Silver Carp Head is an iconic dish in Huaiyang cuisine 淮揚菜 which is one of the Four Great Traditions in Chinese cuisine (which includes Cantonese, Shandong and Sichuan cuisines).

Huaiyang cuisine is known for "3 heads" - roast pig head 扒烧整猪头, stewed "lion head" 狮子头 (minced pork ball), and Boneless Silver Carp Head 拆烩鲢鱼头.

Ong Lai steamed Song fish head in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The silver or bighead carp is abundant in China's rivers and is used in many dishes, usually steamed, stewed or to make soup. (It even became an invasive pest in north America.)

Seng Kee 119 Steamed Fish Head in Singapore

It is a very bony fish with many sharp bones and plates, some like razor blades.



Huaiyang cuisine which covers dishes from the cities of Huai'an, Yangzhou and Zhenjiang in Jiangsu Province has a unique way of eating silver carp. In this dish from Yangzhou, the fish head is deboned and served on a large plate, boneless and half submerged in a savoury sweet soupy aromatic sauce.

The boneless version was created during the Qing dynasty for diners (high officials) who don't want to be seen in public dealing with fish bones like picking with fingers, and spitting bones back into the bowl or worse, onto the table.

The fish head is first halved (butterflied) then cooked by boiling in 80°C - 90°C water with ginger and spring onion.

When it is 80% done, the fish head is rested in cold water.

While fully submerged in the cold water, all the bones in the head are skilfully, systemically and patiently extracted one by one.

After all the bones are extracted, we are less than half way there! The fish head is removed from the water and we next have to remove the face plates from the fish head. There are 60 - 70 pieces of bones and plates altogether in a carp fish head.

All the bones and face plates are removed while keeping the shape of the fish head fully intact. A master knows the location of every bone and plate in a carp's head. A master can complete this task in 15 minutes but it takes 8 - 10 years of practice to reach this level of mastery.



The sauce is prepared with lard, fish & chicken stock, spring onion, powdered dried shrimp, mushroom, wood ear fungus, bamboo shoot, ham, crab oil, pepper, Chinese rice wine etc. Every chef have their own secret recipe.

The deboned / boneless carp fish head is put into the sauce and stewed in it briefly to infuse it with sauce flavours.

Add a few leafy greens, and serve.



The carp fish head is served half submerged in sauce. The shape of the head must be clearly visible - the mouth, lips, snout, cheeks, eyes, chin etc all must be intact and beautiful together.

The boneless silver carp head is eaten with a soup spoon (no chopsticks). The pieces of fish are eaten together with a scoop of sauce in every mouthful. It is like eating savoury sweet tofu.

The slippery smooth skin, jelly-like gelatinous tissues and membrane, soft tender juicy fish meat altogether with the soupy sauce. The fish tastes exquisite with depth of savoury sweet flavours coming in many layers.

The cheeks considered the choicest pieces, are offered to the two oldest persons at the table.

The next time you are in Yangzhou or Jiangsu province, try to taste Boneless Silver Carp Head 拆烩鲢鱼头.




Date: 26 May 2020