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Meat from Vietnam

Thịt chua (Thanh Sơn)thịt chua

Thịt chua is the sour pork of the Mường of Thanh Sơn in Phú Thọ. Thin slices of pork are seasoned with salt and tossed in thính, a roasted, finely ground flour of maize, rice and mung bean, then packed into bamboo tubes lined and capped with guava leaves and left to sour for 4–7 days. No scientific study of it was found.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Thịt chua itself.

Short entryMeat4 days – 7 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedA village product with no fixed amounts in the sources found.
Pork belly, rump, lean shoulder and tenderloinFrom lợn lửng or local pigs; sliced thin[baoquocte2025]
ThínhMaize flour, rice flour and mung bean flour, roasted evenly without burning and ground fine[baoquocte2025]
Salt and spices[baoquocte2025]
Guava leavesTo line and cap the bamboo tube[baoquocte2025]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 4 days – 7 days

Start
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What changes: Pork is sliced thin and seasoned with salt and spices

Step 1 of 4
Slice and season the pork
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
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

Thịt chua is the sour pork of the Mường of Thanh Sơn in Phú Thọ. Thin slices of pork are seasoned with salt and tossed in thính, a roasted, finely ground flour of maize, rice and mung bean, then packed into bamboo tubes lined and capped with guava leaves and left to sour for 4–7 days. No scientific study of it was found. Made in 4 steps over 4 days – 7 days. The longest step, ferment, takes 4–7 days (Thuý Uyên 2025).

Key numbers
Main step4–7 daysReported[baoquocte2025]Ferment

What makes this one different

Thịt chua is coated in roasted flour (thính) and packed in bamboo tubes, while nem chua is minced pork with rind, wrapped in leaves and eaten after a short ferment.

Related ferments

Safety

This page records a practice; it is not a method to follow. The source describes raw pork sliced, packed and soured with no cooking step, and no study we found measures its pH, salt or pathogens. Raw pork can carry Trichinella worms. In northern Vietnam, five documented outbreaks among people who ate raw pork caused 126 confirmed cases and 8 deaths, and fermented nem chua from a wild boar was among the sources of one of them. CDC says curing, drying or smoking alone does not reliably kill the worms. Cook it through before eating.

Hazards the sources name: Trichinella spiralis, identified in muscle biopsies from patients of a 2012 outbreak in northern Vietnam traced to raw lap and fermented nem chua (a related Vietnamese sour pork) from a wild boar. Thịt chua itself was not tested.

History and sources

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

  1. [baoquocte2025] Thuý Uyên 2025, Về miền Đất Tổ thưởng thức món thịt chua Thanh Sơn, Báo Quốc tế, 6 April 2025web
  2. [s2] VnBusiness, Phú Thọ bảo tồn và phát triển nông sản truyền thống (Bài 2), Ngọt bùi thịt chua Thanh Sơnother
  3. [vande2015] Van De N., Thi Nga V., Dorny P., Vu Trung N., Ngoc Minh P., Trung Dung D., Pozio E. 2015, Trichinellosis in Vietnam, American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygienepaper
  4. [cdc-trichinella] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, How to Prevent Trichinellosisgov