From lap Cheong to yak jerky: 9 ways Asia masters the art of cured meat

From Cantonese kitchens strung with glistening pork bellies to Himalayan villages air-curing yak meat in the cold, Asia’s approach to cured meats goes well beyond just preservation—it’s about patience and pride. While European charcuterie often gets the spotlight, Asian curing traditions are older, more regional and still evolving.

Across Asia, cured meats were craftsmanship born of necessity: wind-dried in winter, smoked over laborious fires, salted for survival. Today they’re heritage, craft and flavour layered together. Modern butchers and chefs are refining the craft just as much as they're reviving it, celebrating the textures, salts, sugars and stories that turned meat into memory. Each slice is a map: of place, climate, migration—and the enduring human need to cure, preserve and share.

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China and its waxed meats (lap mei)

Chinese sausages aren't typically enjoyed on their own; they're use to flavour other dishes (Photo: Mo Riza / Wikimedia Commons)

When winter approached in southern China, kitchens transformed into curing stations. Pork bellies were salted and air-dried, ducks marinated in soy and rose wine and glossy links of lap cheong (sweet-salty sausage) hung from bamboo poles. This practice, known as lap mei (腊味), dates back to the Qin dynasty and was born from the need to store meat without refrigeration.

As Cantonese merchants sailed abroad, they carried lap cheong to Southeast Asia—its smoky perfume shaping Chinatowns from Manila to Singapore. Modern artisans in Hong Kong and Guangzhou now tinker with the formula: aging meats in climate-controlled rooms, using whiskey instead of rice wine, or infusing the fat with Sichuan pepper oil for a modern burn.

See more: Eating history: Where to experience Asia’s most revered culinary traditions

Other examples:

• Lap cheong (腊腸): a sweet-salty pork sausage
• Yun cheong (潤腸): pork/duck liver sausage with a softer texture
• Hunan la rou (腊肉): a heavily smoked, chilli-forward inland variant

Japan’s culture of ham and smoke

Kurobuta pork bacon from Japan demonstrates the intersection of craftsmanship and flavour (Photo: Instagram / @wolfgangsteakhouseph)

Japan’s love affair with cured meat began during the Meiji era (1868-1912), when British and German butchers introduced European curing techniques to a newly industrialising nation eager to modernise its palate. By the early 1900s, Yokohama’s foreign settlements had their first ham curers producing bacon, sausage and smoked pork for expatriate tables—and soon, for Japanese ones too. The local taste softened these imported traditions: the smoke grew gentler, the salt subtler and the sweetness more pronounced.

Modern Japan now treats ham-making as an art of precision and presentation. A new wave of micro-curers in Gunma, Kagoshima and Hokkaido are reinventing Japan’s charcuterie with heritage pigs, cold-room ageing and minimalist French techniques. Their hams are sold in design-forward delis and hotel shops. They are cured with sake lees or miso, smoked over cherry wood, sliced with reverence and served with wasabi mustard or pickled daikon. Hams are also often packaged in beautiful wooden boxes as luxury gifts.

Other examples:

• Kurobuta bacon: made from Berkshire pigs raised in Kagoshima, cured locally and prized for its buttery fat and tenderness
• Sakurabuta ham: from pigs fed on cherry blossoms and rice bran, imparting a faint floral aroma that feels unmistakably Japanese.
• Yokohama ham (est. 1907): Japan’s first domestic branded ham, developed by early foreign-trained butchers and still considered a benchmark of craftsmanship

Philippines’ sweet smoke and holiday cures

Practically every region in the Philippines boasts its own version of longganisa (Photo: Sasha Mariposa)

Cured meat in the Philippines reflects centuries of integration. After all, Chinese traders brought sweet soy-cured pork over. The tradition began long before the Spaniards, but colonisation gave local preservation a European accent. The Spanish introduced paprika, sugar and vinegar-based marinades, which Filipinos localised into tocino, a sweet-cured pork and longganisa sausages. Meanwhile, American rations introduced luncheon meats.

Regional differences became cultural signatures: The longganisa from Pampanga is garlicky and lean, Lucban longganisa is tangy and vinegar-forward, and those from Vigan are coarse and rustic. In Bacolod, modern charcutiers are reviving old-style tocino, using natural curing agents instead of synthetic red dye, while pairing it with craft vinegar and local rum glazes. Others, such as chef Angelo Comsti, have come up with more high-end ways to elevate these everyday treats.

Other examples:

• Lucban longganisa: sharp, vinegary and garlicky
• Vigan longganisa: coarse, achuete-colored, smoky
• Chinese-style hamonado: pineapple-syrup cured pork for fiestas

Korea’s post-war innovations and boutique cures

Watch the meticulous process of preparing yukpo, or Korean beef jerky

After the Korean War, imported canned ham and sausages became survival staples. But the tradition of air-drying pork belly (called jeyuk) and beef (yukpo) in cold winter winds had existed for generations. Before the refrigeration age, Koreans preserved meat using the same logic as kimchi—balance the elements. Meat was cured with either salt, doenjang or soy sauce, then hung or smoked. During the Joseon dynasty, game meats like pheasant and boar were cured this way for winter feasts.

Today, traditional cured meats are gaining artisanal revival: Jeju black-pork ham oaks-moked, hanwoo beef cured with doenjang brine, boutique delis in Seoul. What once represented scarcity now signals craft: every slice of cured Korean meat carries winter air, salt from the coast and a story of revival.

Other examples:

• Yukpo (육포): thin, marinated, air-dried beef jerky
• Jeju black pork ham: local salt-smoked ham from the island
• Budae jjigae sausages: modern hybrids of survival food and flavour

Himalayan and high-altitude cures from Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan

Forget beef jerky. Try some yak jerky when you find yourself in the Himalayan region! (Photo: Instagram. / @himalayandumplings)

In the Himalayas, altitude is the preservative. With freezing winters and scarce salt, Tibetans and Bhutanese learned to hang yak and beef in dry air, smoking them gently over juniper and pine. These meats—cured yak jerky, called shapale; and air-dried beef, called zo-thue—are essential winter fare.

Today, Bhutanese chefs are refining these traditions: slow-ageing yak in Himalayan pink salt, pairing them with local cheeses and buckwheat crackers in luxury lodges. In Ladakh and Sikkim, small-batch producers experiment with hybrid techniques, curing yak prosciutto and smoked lamb influenced by Italian alpine methods. Meanwhile, Kathmandu’s fine-dining scene now features aged yak charcuterie alongside craft gin.

Another example:

• Buff sukuti: spiced, smoked, Himalayan beef strips

Thailand’s distinct cured meat styles

Sai krok Isan comprises ground pork, fatty pork skin and raw sticky rice with salt and garlic. After being stuffed in casings, they hang at room temperature for several days to ferment and develop its signature sour and tangy profile. (Photo: Vee Satayamas / Wikimedia Commons)

Northern Thailand’s mountainous terrain birthed a distinctive preservation style: pork minced with sticky rice, garlic and salt, then wrapped in banana leaves and left to lightly ferment into naem. The result: a tangy, savoury sausage that pairs beautifully with beer or sticky rice.

While once purely rural, naem has found a new audience in Bangkok’s charcuterie bars. Chefs now make naem terrine or naem tartare, balancing acidity with umami depth. Chiang Mai butchers also smoke pork loin and belly in long, slow burns using local wood, echoing the European ham tradition, but through a distinctly Thai lens.

Other examples:

• Sai krok Isaan: fermented sausage from the northeast
• Naem moo: hand-pounded pork cured with garlic and chilli
• Chiang Mai bacon: maple-glazed and cold-smoked for hotels and export

Spices meet cold cuts in India

Spices meet smoke in India’s Anglo-Indian kitchens, from Goan chouriço to Coorg pork (Photo: Instagram / @chefttushar)

British rule left an unlikely legacy: the Anglo-Indian breakfast table. From the paprika-laden Goan chouriço to Calcutta’s salted beef, colonial kitchens adapted European curing with tropical spices and coconut vinegar.

Today, Goa’s artisanal butchers make chouriço rosary-style, sold in farmers’ markets and exported to Lisbon. In Nagaland, tribal smokehouses cure pork over bamboo fires, producing intensely flavoured cuts now featured in Delhi bistros.

Other examples:

• Kolkata Eurasian cold cuts: German deli traditions filtered through colonial India
• Coorg pandi curry: pork roast, slow-cured in black vinegar and regional spice

The cured meat textures of Vietnam

Chả huế is prepared by vigorously grinding lean pork and pork fat with black pepper, garlic and fish sauce until a sticky paste forms. This paste is tightly wrapped in leaves, then steamed or boiled until firm

Vietnam’s cured-meat story is where East met West. French colonialism brought pâté, terrines and ham; locals merged those with rice flour, fish sauce and banana leaves to create chả lụa, the silky pork roll that anchors every bánh mì.

Traditional curing involved pounding pork into a paste, wrapping it tightly, and steaming it to preserve texture. Modern delis in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City now offer house-aged charcuterie—foie gras pâté infused with nước mắm, and duck rillettes spiked with five-spice.

Other examples:

• Chả huế: spicier, garlic-rich variant
• Chả quế: cinnamon-inflected cured roll
• Chả bò: feef roll for festivals

Indonesia and Malaysia’s smoke, spice, halal

Just like any other meat floss, you can enjoy serunding daging on its own or as a topping. (Photo: Instagram / @kellykwc)

In Muslim-majority regions, curing traditions found expression through beef and chicken rather than pork. Daging salai, which is smoked beef; and dendeng balado, a spiced dried beef, emphasise spice, smoke and sun-drying, which are hot climate adaptations of charcuterie. These days, halal charcuterie platters in Kuala Lumpur combine smoked beef, sambal and specialty condiments.

Other examples:

• Ayam salai: smoked chicken in coconut curry style
• Serunding daging: crisped beef floss used as toppings

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