Abstract: Yao meat, a traditional delicacy from Zhenjiang region, is renowned for its distinctive lipid-derived aroma and delicate meat fragrance. To investigate the characteristic ''Yao xiang'' and aroma differences among different brands, this study employed electronic nose (E-nose), headspace solid phase micro-extraction gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS), combined with orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) and odor activity value (OAV) to analyze the aroma profiles of three representative Zhenjiang-brand Yao meat samples and three non-Zhenjiang-brand samples. Results showed that OPLS-DA effectively differentiated the overall odor profiles of the six Yao meat samples. Significant differences (P<0.05) in sensor responses (W5S, W2W, W2S, W1W, W1S) were observed between samples from different regions. HS-SPME-GC-MS identified 76 volatile aroma compounds across all samples, with nine common components, including hexanal, nonanal, 4-terpinenol, linalool, α-terpineol, α-pinene, (+)-limonene, ethylbenzene, and 4-allylanisole. Variations in the types, concentrations, and proportions of volatile compounds were evident among the six samples. Using OPLS-DA, variable importance in projection (VIP), and OAV, eight differential aroma markers were identified as hexanal, nonanal, eucalyptol, 1-hexanol, linalool, (+)-limonene, 4-allylanisole, and anethole. Hexanal, nonanal, and linalool were identified as key contributors to the characteristic "Yao xiang". The accuracy of these differential components was validated by a back propagation neural network (BPNN) model, achieving a test set accuracy of 92.31%. This study provides a scientific theoretical foundation for elucidating the unique "Yao xiang" and offers insights for quality evaluation and enhancement of Yao meat products.