China · Chinese
Honey-glazed ham
Jinhua ham soaked repeatedly in changing water to draw out salt and any off-flavour, then slowly braised with honey and rock sugar until the skin yields, the reduced honey glaze poured over at the end — glossy, sweet and savoury, a Kongfu centrepiece. High in salt; eat in small portions. Public reference · home adaptation, not a historical original.
Public reference · Home adaptation Honey-glazed ham is a centrepiece of the Kongfu banquet, turning the saltiness of cured meat into sweetness. Qufu’s Kong cuisine series attributes it to the Kongfu recipe collection and notes that Jinhua ham is renowned for colour, aroma, taste and form. Kong cooking follows “eat what is in season”, and a cured ham appears precisely for the depth that slow ageing gives it. Cured ham is high in sodium and unsuitable in quantity for people with high blood pressure, kidney disease or oedema; this is ingredient information only, not a health claim. **The *Zhongguo Kongfu Caipu* process originally cited here came from the Qufu municipal government site, which this pass could not reach at all — the site root fails TLS handshakes from this machine, so this is a network-path problem rather than a dead page. That source has been removed and replaced with the Kongfu roll page, which opens normally; the process detail in the body of this entry should be read as resting on the baidu baike entry for *mizhi huotui* together with the roll attribution.**The Qufu recipe uses a whole 1 kg ham scorched over open flame and soaked repeatedly; this home version uses a 600 g piece and drops the open-flame step for safety, keeping the core: soak to draw salt, colour the honey, braise until the skin yields, reduce the glaze. A long-cured ham cannot be guaranteed to taste like a Kongfu kitchen product, so salt control depends on the number of soaking rounds and their length. Six servings, three 10-minute soaking rounds — editorial and untested. Contains pork. Cured ham is high in sodium and soaking only draws out part of the salt. No major allergens, but the salt content is significant. 百度百科：蜜汁火腿 — The full method: warm-water wash, simmer about 2 hours to draw the salt, score the skin, steam long with rock sugar and honey, then thicken the liquid and pour it over. This is the source of the steps used here. https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E8%9C%82%E6%B1%81%E7%81%AB%E8%85%BF/2885784 中华书局上海聚珍：真正的“孔府宴”吃些什么？ — Slot evidence: the hereditary roll reads “honey-glazed ham (large course), rock-sugar almond tofu, steamed red-scaled fish”, placing the ham among the large courses alongside almond tofu and steamed fish. The page introduces the roll with “it is said” — a hereditary list, not an archival original, recording names only, never methods. https://applet.10100.com/article/106509520 AI-generated illustration; not kitchen-tested.
Ingredients
- Jinhua ham with skin, a 600 g piece600 g
- honey60 g
- rock sugar100 g
- water, for soaking and braising1500 ml
- vegetable oil20 ml
- cornstarch4 g
Directions
- 1
Soak the ham in warm water 1 hour to wash away dirt and surface salt, trim any unusable edges, and discard the soaking water.
- 2
Bring the ham to the boil in cold water for 10 minutes, lift it out and discard the water; repeat two or three times with fresh water until it tastes only lightly salty and has no brine or rancid note.
- 3
Heat the oil to about 120°C, add the honey and cook over low heat until it turns deep tea-brown, then loosen with a little water.
- 4
Lay the ham in the pan, pour over the honey mixture, add water to just cover, add the rock sugar, bring to the boil then turn to the lowest heat, cover and braise about 2 hours, turning once.
- 5
It is ready when a chopstick slides into the skin without resistance; transfer the ham to a large serving plate and keep the glaze over low heat.
- 6
Thicken the glaze with a cornstarch slurry to a consistency that coats a spoon, take off the heat and pour it evenly over the hot ham.
Source: WorldBite · public-reference adaptation · Source-attributed editorial adaptation; AI illustration; not an authenticated original recipe.