There are many kinds of hams in China according to different producing areas.
The ingredients and processing methods of Chinese ham curing agent vary with local flavor and climatic conditions.
However, the production process is basically the same, and it has to go through seven processes: material selection, trimming, pickling, soaking, shaping, leg drying and fermentation.
There are "ham" processed by pig hind legs and "wind legs" processed by pig front legs, also called "square legs".
The "moon leg" with bones and muscles removed from the front legs is also called "cloud hoof" or "hoof running".
There are "legs" processed by dog's hind legs and "deep mountain legs" processed by wild boar's hind legs, also called "small real legs".
There is a kind of "small ham" processed by pig tail.
The raw material of ham is mainly pig hind leg meat, but it can also be made into front leg meat, but the quality is slightly lower.
Pigs used as raw materials should be healthy and disease-free, and their legs should not be damaged. The best quality of fresh legs is 4.0 ~ 7.0 kg.
When it is too large, it is not appropriate to marinate thoroughly or unevenly; If it is too small (below 4.0kg), the meat is too tender and has high moisture.
The water loss in the curing process is large, which not only loses soluble protein, but also easily leads to high salt content, difficult fermentation and poor flavor.
Fresh pork legs with thin skin, small claws, less fat and full legs are required.
In order to make ham have a perfect appearance and ensure the curing quality, fresh legs must be trimmed.
Be careful not to damage the muscle surface when trimming. After opening your face, cut off the oil film and try to keep lean meat, only exposing the muscle surface.
When trimming, first scrape the hair and dirt left on the leather surface with a knife to make the leather surface smooth.
Then flatten the pubic bone with a osteotome, trim the ischium, and cut off the spine to expose the muscles.
Then cut off the excess fat around and the broken meat attached to the muscle surface, so that there is no meat on the skin.
The meat surface is skinless, and the fresh legs are shaped like pipa, and the leg surface is flat;
And use your thumb to squeeze out the residual congestion in the blood vessels to prevent corruption and deterioration in the pickling process.
Shaped like a pipa, only big bones and small bones, thin skin and thick meat, moderate fat; Slice, rich aroma, bright color,
Lean meat is bright red or rose, fat meat is milky white, and bones are slightly pink, as if blood gas is still moisturizing.
Its quality is good enough to represent Yunnan ham, so it is often called "cloud leg".
Generally, at room temperature, * * * rubs salt and throws it 6 ~ 7 times in the pickling process. If the curing room temperature is in the range of 10 ~ 18℃,
The salt consumption can be increased to 12%. Temperature also affects curing time, and high temperature accelerates infiltration and shortens curing time.
The curing time is also affected by the size of fresh legs and the thickness of fat layer. The bigger the fresh legs, the thicker the fat and the longer the curing time.
So when stacking, pile fresh legs of the same size together.