Smoked leg with bamboo leaves

In Hangping Town, the upper reaches of Huyuan River in the west of Pujiang, there used to be a kind of ham famous at home and abroad in history, which is Cao Yuan's smoked leg with bamboo leaves 10 kilometers away from the seat of the current town government. Caoyuan Village is a big village, located at the source of Huyuan River. Surrounded by mountains, it is rich in bamboo. Between the cold docks in the deep mountains, a cut-off Zheling leading to Jiande hovers among the mountains. In the past, the traffic was inconvenient, and it took almost one day to walk over this ridge, which shows its lofty and majestic. Especially when climbing the ridge, because the mountain is full of tall pine trees, fir trees and bamboo, the whole ridge can't get the sun. When a person walks this ridge, he will feel gloomy and even a little scared. It is precisely because of this geographical environment that the specialty of smoked legs with bamboo leaves has been created. In the past, people in the mountains rarely went to the city to buy food. When they killed a pig a year, they basically pickled it and enjoyed it for themselves, which was to entertain relatives and friends. Two pickled hind legs are usually bought by businessmen. The hams in Caoyuan Village are the most popular among merchants. Because the cured hams are hung under the joists above the stove mouth, the branches of Phyllostachys pubescens, bamboo chips and bamboo leaves are burned for three meals a day. The bamboo leaf smoke emitted from the stove mouth has been smoked on the hams for years to form a unique mellow fragrance, thus becoming a local characteristic bamboo leaf smoked leg. Because the bamboo smoke is fragrant and fragrant, it seeps into the depths of pig's trotters and legs, and its taste is delicious and fragrant. The ham called "smoked leg with bamboo leaves" is known as the best product of Jinhua ham. Cao Yuan's smoked leg with bamboo leaves is not only a place of Cao Yuan, but also three townships of Shizhai, Dongling and Caoyuan, and two sources of the three townships, one is Dongling source and the other is Sambo source, all of which are at the end of Huyuan River, with a deep source, 15 kilometers away, and are the birthplace of Huyuan River. Therefore, the two sources of green mountains overlap, trees become forests, and bamboo becomes the sea. There are more than 20 administrative villages, more than 60 natural villages, 117 production teams, more than 3,000 families and more than 13,000 people living in the two sources here. The folk customs here are simple and hospitable. In the past, the annual pigs raised by various households were all famous thoroughbred pigs in China. This kind of pig has thin leg skin, fine bones, more essence and less fat, full leg heart and tender meat. This kind of pork leg is made into smoked leg with bamboo leaves, and the lean meat is red like roses, with a sweet aroma, which can be described as the best in ham. At one time, Cao Yuan's smoked leg of bamboo leaves was once as famous as Jiang's leg in Shangjiang Village, Dongyang.
Reprinted with attribution： https://cnlocality.com/(Chinese Specialty Products)