Classifying bacon by region is probably the best way to reflect the taste differences of different bacon. There are many ways and varieties of bacon in China, but Guangdong, Hunan and Sichuan are the most famous.
Guangdong bacon. Cantonese bacon is divided into red wax and Bai La. The traditional bacon in Foshan is mainly red wax, that is, soy sauce is added in the curing process, and the bacon has a sauce flavor and a color like amber. Bai La is popular in northern Guangdong, and the famous preserved food in Dongpo of Lianzhou is a typical Bai La. Bai La is more primitive and smells better.
Cantonese-style bacon is characterized by being cured with wine, so Cantonese-style bacon smells a faint bouquet, the fat is amber and transparent, and the taste is crisp and crystal clear, fat but not greasy. Lean meat is bright and firm, tough and elastic, and there is no obvious dent in finger pressure. The aroma of wine is rich, and the more you chew it, the more fragrant it becomes. In addition to bacon, Guangdong's more distinctive bacon tastes include gold and silver liver and preserved duck run. Guangdong's classic bacon dishes include steamed bacon, boiled pork feet with radish, roasted rice with bacon, boiled duck with taro and so on.
Hunan bacon. Hunan's climate is warm and humid, smoked bacon is antiseptic and storable, and local people have also developed the eating habit of eating bacon. The most famous Hunan bacon are Anhua bacon and Xiangxi bacon. Anhua bacon is big, black in color, smoked dry, fine in meat quality and delicious; The bacon in Xiangxi is red and bright, smoked and salty.
Because Hunan bacon has been smoked for a long time in the production process, many burned stumps have special fragrance, so the smoked bacon is not attractive, but it tastes salty, oily and not greasy, which is very popular with consumers.
Sichuan bacon. Sichuan bacon is golden in appearance, distinct in red and white, bright in color, moderately salty and fragrant, suitable for wine and rice. The production method of Sichuan bacon is to marinate the slaughtered local fresh pork with salt, white wine, spiced powder and pepper according to different tastes. In the past, all villagers in Sichuan burned firewood stoves with shelves on them. After the twelfth lunar month, they used the residual temperature of the stove mouth to hang the pickled meat on the shelf of the stove mouth and smoked it with the rising smoke in the stove. Some villagers also add white teeth, orange peel, grapefruit shell and other things to the stove to smoke it into a special flavor and taste.
Zhejiang Jinhua ham. Also known as Huobi, it is one of the local traditional famous products in Jinhua, Zhejiang. It is famous for its beautiful appearance, bright meat, unique fragrance and pleasant flavor, that is, the "four musts" of color, fragrance, taste and shape. Jinhua's "double-headed black" pig has fat hind legs and tender meat. After curing, shaping, turning legs, washing, drying and other processes, it takes several months to make it. The fragrance is rich. Easy to store and carry, selling well at home and abroad.
Yunnan Xuanwei ham. One of the famous local specialties in Yunnan Province, named after its production in Xuanwei. Its main characteristics are: it looks like a pipa, with only big bones and small bones, thin skin and thick meat, and moderate fat; Cut into sections, with rich aroma and bright color, lean meat is bright red or rose red, fat meat is milky white, bones are slightly pink, and blood gas looks moist. Its quality is good enough to represent Yunnan ham, so it is often called "cloud leg".
Yunnan nuodeng ham. The natural salt well of Nuodeng with a history of thousands of years has created the unique delicacy of Nuodeng ham. In the documentary "China on the Tip of the Tongue" produced by CCTV, there is a 6-minute video about Yunnan Nuodeng Ham. It was this short 6 minutes that Jeannot Deng Ham became famous instantly. Nuodeng ham made by skillful Bai women in Yunlong County is one of the three famous legs in Yunnan except Xuanwei ham and Heqing round leg. As early as the pre-Qin period, it was exported to Southeast Asian countries such as Myanmar, India and Vietnam through the "Southern Silk Road".
Anhui Huizhou knife board incense. Anyone who loves Huizhou cuisine should know "Dao Xiang". The "knife incense" made of bacon is a main course for Huizhou people to entertain guests. It can be said that if you haven't eaten the incense of the knife board, it is equivalent to not eating authentic Huizhou cuisine. The knife board incense in Huizhou is made of black pigs, Lantian pigs and farm pigs produced in Huizhou, and the rich pork flavor is incomparable to the pigs fed by feed. Shannon's practice is to put the slices into a large iron pot burning wood and steam them dry. Large bowls of coarse porcelain with blue edges are piled in a pyramid shape. Pork pieces are red and white, sparkling, and the aroma goes straight to people's noses. The bamboo shoots braised with knife board have both the fragrance of bamboo shoots and the thick soup of meat, which is simply more delicious than meat.
Beijing sauce meat. Beijing Sauced Meat, also known as Beijing-flavored ham, and Jinhua Ham and Guangdong Bacon are also known as the three famous meats in China, which is a traditional famous food with China characteristics. Created in the Ming Dynasty, it was mostly made by Shandong restaurants in the early years. Shandong people called soy sauce clear sauce, so it was called clear sauce meat.
The production method is to remove the pig's hind leg bone, marinate it for 7 days, then soak it in a soy sauce tank for 8 days, usually in the twelfth lunar month, and then air-dry it until the surface of the ham oozes oil the next spring. Its meat is delicious but not greasy, and can be preserved for 2 years. The finished product is sauce red, the shredded pork is distinct, the mouth is crisp, the flavor is delicious, the mouth is not greasy, the fat slices are thin, crystal clear, the lean slices are not scattered, and the flavor is unique.
Badong bacon in Enshi, Hubei. The raw material of meat comes from "Selenium Capital of China"-pigs that eat wild vegetables in Enshi mountain area. Every year in the twelfth lunar month, every farmer kills Nian pig and Kang bacon. Farmers salted the pork and hung it on the pit of the farmhouse, and smoked it with firewood for a long time. Its taste is different from other wax products, with brown color, hard outside and soft inside, rich aroma and unique flavor. Tujia people in Enshi have a special hobby for the taste of bacon, so Tujia bacon is famous all over the country.
Guizhou Chishui Alpine Bacon. The alpine bacon in Chishui is made of pigs and pork by farmers and hung on the stove burning firewood for a long time. I don't know, it's dark, and sometimes it's moldy. How to eat? When the host processed bacon, or cooked bamboo shoots or fried Sichuan-style pork, he couldn't help but move his forefinger when he saw pieces of glittering and translucent bacon. It was fragrant but not greasy, oily but not bright, and the special fragrance made you unforgettable. This kind of bacon in Chishui Mountain is the best. Chishui locals also regard eating a real mountain bacon as a beautiful thing.
Gansu Longxi bacon. Longxi is "the hometown of China bacon", and Longxi bacon is rated as China's intangible cultural heritage. Longxi bacon has a long history, which began in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. Longxi bacon slaughter pigs mainly come from Zhang Xi 'an and Min County, especially the Potentilla anserina pigs in Min County. Because there are a large number of wild medicinal materials in Min County, the pigs raised by farmers graze in spring and are kept in captivity in autumn. When bacon curing households buy and slaughter in winter, pork is fat and thin, medicinal and pure in taste. Lean meat is gorgeous like Xia Hong, thin but not firewood; The fat meat is crystal clear as agate, fat but not greasy, slightly transparent. The meat cured and dried with salt, pepper, fennel, ginger bark, cinnamon, Daxiang and other seasonings 10 has delicious color and unique flavor.
Shanxi Changzhi donkey meat breast. It is famous both inside and outside Shanxi Province, and it is a famous specialty in Shanxi Province. The traditional technology of Changzhi preserved donkey meat has the formula of "nine"; That is, cut the meat into nine parts, soak it for nine hours, cook it with nine spices, then add the old soup of double spiced herbs, simmer it with stones for nine hours, and finally take it out of the pot for nine hours to dry. Pickled donkey meat is bright in color, tender in meat quality, fragrant and delicious, and suitable for table wine.
Henan Kaifeng cured mutton. Kaifeng preserved mutton is bright in color, firm in meat quality and slightly elastic. After the advent of cured mutton, it has been circulated among Muslims, and some people or businessmen have put it on the market, and most of them are workshop-style production and small-scale operation. By the Qing dynasty, the production technology of preserved mutton had reached the point of perfection.