The Mooncake Made With Ham
云腿月饼, literally "Yunnan-leg mooncake", is the classic Yunnan-style Mid-Autumn pastry, and it doesn't follow the usual rules. The filling is a good cut of Xuanwei ham, worked with honey, lard and white sugar, wrapped in Yunnan purple-wheat flour and baked. It comes out 酥松, crisp and crumbly, sweet with a salt edge, rich without being greasy, and strongly ham-scented.
The ham is the whole point. Xuanwei ham is counted among China's three famous hams. By the account that goes with it, it won a gold medal at the 1915 Panama international exposition. In 1920, at a national food competition in Guangzhou, Sun Yat-sen tasted it and praised its bright colour, tender meat and sweet finish, leaving the inscription 饮和食德, an old phrase about drinking in harmony and eating with virtue.
Baoputang's selection comes down to three checks. The ham has to be the real thing: aged about two years, from a local brand that specialises in Xuanwei ham. The pastry has to be made in Xuanwei itself, by a baker with more than thirty years of experience, with a generous filling and no preservatives or additives. And it should carry the freshest date available.
A box holds eight, 50 grams each, with a shelf life of 45 days. It is kept cold and eaten best after a short warming in an oven or microwave. In Baoputang's Mid-Autumn boxes it is packed beside the tea.
The ham behind it is aged about two years. The pastry around it has forty-five days.