How to Write 烀 (hū) — Meaning “to simmer / to steam-cook”

Picture a steaming pot on a fire (火) and imagine the steam making a sound like 'huuu' — that's 乎. So the character 烀 is like 'fire + huu = simmering food.'

Write the left radical 火 first with four strokes, making it narrower. Then write 乎 on the right, which has a vertical hook at the end. A common mistake is making the left fire too wide or forgetting the hook on 乎.

灶 means 'stove' — a place for cooking, not the cooking action. 灸 is a medical technique of burning herbs on the skin. 烀 is specifically about simmering food in water, like cooking corn or meat in a covered pot.

烀 is used in northern Chinese dialects, especially in the northeast, for slow-cooking root vegetables or meat with minimal water. It is often seen in dishes like 烀玉米 (simmered corn), a popular winter street food.

Common words containing 烀 include: 烀玉米 (hū yù mǐ) — simmered corn; 烀土豆 (hū tǔ dòu) — simmered potatoes; 烀肉 (hū ròu) — simmered meat.