Putting some hawthorn in meat food is good for your health. Hawthorn can strengthen the spleen, stimulate appetite, promote digestion and eliminate stagnation. When cooking meat, it can relieve greasy food and make meat easier to be digested by human body. Hawthorn is also rich in acidic substances and lipolytic enzymes, which can enhance the function of enzymes after entering the stomach. When mixed with meat, it can neutralize amine substances in meat, thus removing fishy smell, promoting meat digestion and helping cholesterol conversion. Every 100 gram of hawthorn contains as much as 89 mg of vitamin C. It can eat meat and vegetables with hawthorn and promote the absorption of iron.

Hawthorn stew, a folk home-cooked dish, is mainly made of hawthorn and pork belly.