The reason is that Jinhua is located in the middle of Zhejiang basin, surrounded by mountains, and has a unique climate all year round; Subtropical areas with obvious climatic characteristics, such as rainy days and dog days, are rich in heat and rainfall, with distinct seasons and long frost-free period, which can benefit nature;
Another reason is excellent raw materials. The raw material of Jinhua ham is the best of all meat products. You must choose fresh pig hind leg meat, especially Jinhua pig (commonly known as "two-headed black"). Its hind legs are moderate in size, thin in skin and bone, moderate in fat, tender in meat, full in leg heart, slightly higher in hind legs and white in hoof shell, which is the best raw material for making Jinhua ham.
Thirdly, it is the authentic flavor formed by the unique natural fermentation process, and various amino acids and trace elements produced by fermentation are very helpful to human health. Therefore, after giving birth to women in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, folk customs such as eating ham to treat diseases and preserve health have been passed down to this day.
Jinhua ham needs nine to ten months of intensive cultivation, including three stages and dozens of processes: low-temperature curing, medium-temperature dehydration and high-temperature fermentation. Only salt was used six times; Pay attention to the time, quantity and location every time you use salt. The unique technology, long-term natural fermentation and fine processing are the keys to the formation of Jinhua ham's "color, fragrance, taste, benefit, shape" and "five unique skills", making it famous in China and becoming a valuable historical and cultural heritage. The production of Rugao ham began in Qing Dynasty, and Rugao ham is generally made from the hind legs of local pigs. Jiangqu sea pigs are raised in Rugao and its surrounding areas, and the locals call them "local pigs along the river". This kind of pig is similar to Jinhua pig, with developed legs, thin skin and tender meat, and thin legs.
Its processing is similar to Jinhua ham, because it originally developed from Jinhua ham processing technology to this area, but its processing has two biggest differences from Jinhua ham:
The amount of salt used for length processing is different. In order to adapt to the local people's taste habits, the salt used in Rugao ham processing is: fresh legs 10 ~ 12 kg per 100 kg, which is about 50% higher than Jinhua ham.
2. When the ham is refurbished, the refurbished legs should be coated with vegetable oil feet, mainly to prevent moth-eaten, preserve fragrance and prevent water loss and dry consumption (because the local climate is dry). Heqing round leg, also known as round leg (cross-legged), is produced in Heqing County, Yunnan Province and belongs to cloud leg. Named for its round shape and disc shape, the legs began in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty (1522- 1566). According to Heqing County Records, during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, the crane official Chawei entertained guests by "fighting for fat legs". Fat legs are Heqing round legs, which shows that local people have regarded round legs as the top grade of hospitality. During the Republic of China, local businessmen used caravans to transport Tibet to the north, Yongchang (now Baoshan), Tengchong and Wan Ding to the south, and then to Myanmar, India and other countries.
Its processing method is: Heqing round leg is processed by salt water immersion method (or tank and kiln pickling method), and its processing procedure is as follows.
1. Material selection; 2. renovation; 3. curing; 4. hanging; 5. Fermentation; 6. Grading. When processing Mianning ham, a small hole is punched in the skin near the leg claw, and the leg claw is bent and inserted into the hole to make the whole leg form a diamond shape.
1. Marinate the fresh legs, dry them thoroughly, and then press them tightly with both hands to squeeze out the remaining blood.
2. Marinate with Sichuan salt, stir-fry with salt and put it on your legs. The dosage of salt is fresh leg 100 kg, salt 8 ~ 10 kg, and a little brown sugar.
3. Just wipe a piece of salt and put it in a jar or cement pool, soak it in bittern (salty ham below and bacon above), and turn the jar once a week for 3-4 times.
4. After taking out the can, press it with wooden boards and stones, with the weight of 10 ~ 15 kg. After 2 ~ 3 days, put the leg meat face up, flatten the leg, and then hang it on the shelf to dry.
5. Every April ~ 10, ham is buried in buckwheat or rice for preservation, so as to isolate damp heat, prevent mildew, deterioration and moth-eaten, and promote its fermentation and maturity during preservation. 10 and then put it in storage. The storage period can reach several years. Western Hubei Ham, also known as Enshi Ham, is produced in Lichuan, Xuanen, Xianfeng, Laifeng, Enshi, Jianshi and Badong counties in Enshi, Hubei. Jinhua ham processing technology was adopted. Because there are many cloudy days in the local area, it is difficult to dry legs, so the processing has two major characteristics:
1. Use kang legs to dry your legs instead of drying them. There are two types of kang legs: kang (heated by charcoal) and dark kang (heated by kang). The temperature of the kang does not exceed 40℃, and the kang is slowly heated for 7 ~ 8 days, and then it is put into storage for fermentation.
2. Wash the mold. After the Dragon Boat Festival, when the ham is set, it is necessary to brush the legs again (not soak them)-dry them before continuing to ferment. Longxi ham is a specialty of Gansu province. Peach-shaped, claw-shaped bending, the finished product weighs about 5 kg each.
1. Accessories: per 100 kg of fresh leg, 7 kg of snowflake salt (Zhang Xian local salt), 250g of pepper, and 0/50g of fennel/kloc.
2. The processing and curing time is from early winter to early spring, and it matures in March and April.
3. Dressing of raw materials: squeeze out the residual blood in blood vessels with fresh hind leg pork, dress the oil film, dress the side meat, dress the leg into a peach shape, and cool it.
4. Pickling: Mix the auxiliary materials evenly, rub them on the legs (the meat surface must be rubbed evenly, then put the leather surface down and the meat surface up in the tank (or pool), turn it up and down every 65,438+00 days, and take it out of the tank after 40-50 days of pickling.
5. Hanging: Hang the leg after hanging the cylinder in the greenhouse with glass cover to dry, hang it until the skin is hard and red, showing oil (a small amount can also be hung in the sun), and then hang it in a ventilated and dry room, and it will be finished in about 2 months. Sanchuan ham is produced in Lijiang, Yunnan, with a history of 600 years. The finished product is pipa-shaped or willow-shaped, with bright color, unique flavor and soft texture. It is the only "soft ham" in China. Sanchuan ham was cured by dry curing and wet curing. Salt and wine are used for processing. In plant ash, composting fermentation is the unique key technology of Sanchuan ham. General 10 cm furnace ash is put into the fermentor, and then the ham is ashed.
Western-style ham, also called dry-cured ham or salted ham, is a cooked meat product made by fumigation with more auxiliary materials and additives. Western ham is also divided into boneless ham and boneless ham. Boneless ham can be divided into tenderloin ham, tenderloin ham and leg-buttock-leg ham due to different parts of fresh pork. Due to different shapes and techniques, it is divided into square ham (short for square leg), round ham (short for round leg) and smoked round leg. Before 1950s, the technology of dry-cured ham in the world was basically at the same level, mainly manual operation. Since 1950s, Italy, Spain and France have systematically studied the traditional technology and quality of dry-cured ham. Since 1990s, a great deal of research data and related patents have been obtained in the aspects of raw material characteristics, processing parameters, flavor formation mechanism and the application of modern science and technology. Dry-cured ham basically retains the traditional flavor characteristics, and is more in line with the modern food consumption concept of low salt nutrition, delicious and convenient. On this basis, the modernization of traditional technology was completed, the mechanized production mode was basically realized, and the production scale and efficiency were greatly improved.
The main characteristics of western-style ham are tender meat, bright color, light and fragrant taste, high water content and low salt content (3-6%), but it is not easy to preserve for a long time at room temperature.