Among the world's top hams, who is the representative of Chinese ham, Jinhua ham or Xuanwei ham?

Many of our Chinese dishes have a close relationship with ham. In particular, there is always a connection with ham. It gives a wonderful flavour to an already rare ingredient. For example, ham with bamboo fungus, ham with sea cucumber and mollusc soup, ham with sea bass and so on. Ham has been used in China for thousands of years. During the Song Dynasty, a general who fought against the Jin Dynasty presented a cured ham from his hometown to Zhao Ge, who was still the King of Kang, who saw the bright red colour and savoury taste of the ham. This gave the ham its name. In China, ham is a type of cured or smoked ham, commonly known as beef shank, lamb shank or pork shank. When curing ham, a dog's leg is added in the middle, which is a mandatory step in the ham-making process. It is said that the addition of the dog's leg was originally done for fear that dogs would eat it, but it was later found that the colour and taste of the finished ham cured with the dog's leg was much better than without it, so the process gradually passed on. The most famous ham in the world is the Spanish Iberian ham. Anyone who has tasted it will be immediately immersed in the deliciousness of Spanish ham. Iberian ham is one of the world's finest hams and is made from 75% Iberian black pigs. These are free-range in the virgin forest, where they are fed on acorns, herbs and olives, and are raised freely in the forest. Production is rare and the Spanish government has very strict quality control over these pigs. I guess if this pig lived in China, it would be listed as a rare and protected national animal? Ha ha!
Chinese ham is most famous in Xuanwei and Jinhua. When I was a child, a distant relative of my family came to our house and presented me with a well-packaged ham. Only later did I realise that it was a Jinhua ham, and you could say that this ham was the ultimate tangled journey of salt and meat.
Jinhua ham is one of the most popular hams in China. After hundreds of days of fermentation, Jinhua ham has captured the hearts of people from all over the world. Even though the soup base is the original destiny of Jinhua ham, even in the corners, the ham still exudes a lingering flavour. And chefs are always looking for ways to make ham the best it can be, to bring out the best in it.
The famous Jinhua ham is cured from the pig's bell "two-headed woo", which cannot be fetched for less than 14 months. Those weighing around 70kg are the best. After the curing and fermentation process, the final weight of the ham is only 4-5 kg.
Yunnan Xuanwei Ham, one of the specialties of Yunnan, China. It is as tasty as Jinhua ham. Xuanwei ham is characterised by a lot of meat and small bones, thin skin and thick meat, Xuanwei ham represents Yunnan, hence the name Cloud Leg. Cured at low temperature, dehydrated at medium temperature, salted, turned, washed and dried over a period of months or even years, the salt is allowed to slowly penetrate deep into the meat of the leg, so that the flavour is always remembered in the minds of wanderers who have travelled far and wide.
In Yunnan, Liang Shiqiu once said that the two most distinctive Yunnan dishes were these two, pot-stickered ham and dense-stained ham. The ham is sliced with steamed buns. Two slices of steamed bun are sandwiched between the slices of ham and fried in a frying pan until golden brown. But this is now a rare dish. It is now more commonly eaten steamed, stir-fried or just raw.
No matter how you eat it, no matter how far you travel, home-cured ham will always have the taste of home. China is a land of people, who is the representative of Chinese ham, Jinhua or Xuanwei? It is indeed a little difficult, although Chinese ham has gone global, and as a Chinese child, proud to be Chinese, Jinhua ham and Xuanwei ham are even more of an honour to our country!