But in daily cooking, we often find that even if we hold a precise recipe in our hands, we cannot achieve the desired taste. This is because the quality of the brine flavor not only depends on the formula, but also is comprehensively affected by the technological process and specific operating procedures. So in my opinion, even if there is a whole recipe, it is not the essence of brine. Moreover, the tastes of each region are different, and no matter how awesome the recipe is, it will not suit the taste of people all over the country. Therefore, when learning braised vegetables, you only learn the recipe and only scratch the surface. It is impossible to make braised vegetables by relying on the recipe alone. Only by systematically learning the entire operation process and then matching the recipe can you make delicious braised meat products. So I agree with what Master Chuanlu said about the recipe not being important.
I think the important essence of braised vegetables can be roughly divided into three aspects, namely: the preparation and maintenance of brine, the selection, initial processing and brine of raw materials, and the sale of finished products. Below, I will introduce the key points of these three aspects in detail based on my experience in braised pork head meat. I hope that the subject can refer to it.
Key points in preparing brine
For a good braised pork, whether the finished product tastes thick or not, the old brine plays an important role. In order to make the brine produce the effect of old brine as soon as possible, raw materials such as old chicken and pork bones are generally used to make broth as the base soup to make up for the lack of flavor in the finished product.
How to make soup stock:
1. Take ten kilograms of pig leg bones, two old hens, and three kilograms of pig skin. First soak them in the blood, and then blanch them in water to remove the blood foam. , chop into large pieces and set aside.
2. Use a stainless steel bucket to add 50 pounds of water, add the raw materials for blanching, bring to a boil over high heat, then turn to low heat and simmer for eight hours, then turn to high heat to make the soup for half an hour. Stop stirring to prevent the pot from sticking. Finally, boil the bones into dregs and filter. The resulting broth is about 35 kilograms.
Turn the stock into stewed soup: Add spices to the stock (the spices can be added according to 0.75% of the stock), simmer over low heat for two hours, add sugar color (use yellow gardenia water to make sugar color), salt ( 1.6%-2%), MSG (0.8%), rock sugar (0.4%), fry and seal with oil, simmer for ten minutes, turn off the heat, and the soup is ready.
Note: 1. In order to make the finished braised pork appear red and bright in color, the brine should be appropriately viscous and naturally thickened. Adding frying oil can make the finished product brighter (later as the As the amount of braised pork increases, frying and sealing oil will no longer be used).
2. It is best to control the frying and sealing oil to about three centimeters above the brine. Too much will easily spoil the brine. In the later stage, more and more brine oil can be skimmed out.
Key points in maintaining and preserving brine
After a long period of brine cooking, the taste of the finished product will become thicker and thicker. In fact, the old brine and the ingredients themselves are mutually beneficial. The old brine becomes fresher and thicker by relying on the ingredients, and the ingredients become more and more fragrant by being cooked in the old brine. The most important key here is brine maintenance. Without high-quality maintenance, reciprocity will not be achieved.
Key points for brine maintenance: 1. After brine the goods every day, use a tight drain to remove the remaining residue.
2. Skim off the upper layer of floating oil, remove the impurities between the brine and floating oil, then filter the middle brine into a clean bucket, and pour out the two or three centimeters of brine soup at the bottom of the old bucket.
3. Pour the brine oil back into the new bucket, light the fire and bring it to a boil. After boiling for about three minutes, turn off the heat.
4. Place the stewed soup bucket in a ventilated and dry place, and try to use a shelf underneath to maintain ventilation at the bottom of the bucket and make it cool as soon as possible.
Key points for preserving brine
Commonly used brine: According to the above method, the brine should be boiled once or twice a day in summer. In winter, it can be extended to once every three or four days.
Uncommonly used brine: When the brine is cool, separate the brine and brine oil and put them in the refrigerator.
Note: 1. Do not boil the brine in an empty state. Generally, there are two types of empty burning. One is when maintaining the brine, turn off the heat after three minutes of boiling. Do not burn the brine in the empty state for a long time. Second, the proportion of brine and brine is wrong. You cannot brine only ten kilograms of pig heads with thirty kilograms of brine. This is also considered empty cooking. Empty cooking will make the brine darker and darker.
2. Do not put a lid on the brine when it is boiling to prevent the steam from falling and causing the brine to go rancid.
3. Another key to brine maintenance is circulation. Cycle is not only about stewing new products every day, but also maintaining the cycle of brine. After cleaning the old soup at the bottom every day, some water or stock must be added. Circulation (normal brine cooking also has losses), this part of water is added every time, but not too much at one time, so as to keep the brine alive (not only the color is easy to control, but also the saltiness is easy to control). Even if the entire brine is sufficient, some should be skimmed off and added with water. If you think it would be a pity to throw away this part of the water, it can be used for braised dishes.
4. When the stewing is finished, the spice packets must be taken out together. Do not put them in the stewing soup. Let them cool and seal them in the refrigerator.
Key points in the selection of raw materials
The first priority is freshness. Using fresh ingredients is half the battle for braised pork. The next step is to choose ingredients that are free of congestion and hair.
Key points in the initial processing of raw materials. Take pig heads as an example:
1. Buy fresh pig heads (usually split) and soak them in water for two to three hours to remove the blood.
2. Cut off the pig ears, remove the miscellaneous hair from the pores, and remove the lymph. Bake the whole pig's head with a fire gun, then use a steel ball to brush away the black spots. Put the pig's head in a pot under cold water and blanch it. You can add a little red yeast rice (packed), put a layer of pink background on the pig's head, take it out and rinse. , waiting for marinating.
Note: 1. Even if the pig head is clean to the touch, it needs to be roasted once. This has two effects. One is that there are hairs under the skin, which may be exposed after cooking, so it needs to be roasted at the beginning. Deeper. Second, part of the fishy smell of pig heads comes from sweat glands, which can be broken by roasting them to remove part of the fishy smell.
2. Pig heads have a strong fishy smell, so the blanching time can be slightly longer. Remember to skim the froth.
The key points of marinating raw materials
This also includes key points such as coloring, seasoning, and heating time.
Coloring highlights: I use a purely natural coloring technique for braised pig head meat, using a combination of sugar color, yellow gardenia and red yeast rice, without using soy sauce and other condiments. The specific method of frying the sugar color:
1. Add one hundred grams of yellow gardenia to one kilogram of water and simmer for about ten minutes, filter to remove the gardenia (can be used twice), and keep the water.
2. Fry one kilogram of rock sugar with oil until the sugar liquid turns yellow and then pour in the yellow gardenia water and simmer for three minutes.
3. The usage of red yeast rice is to add it when blanching the pig head above.
Focus on seasoning: The proportion of salt, monosodium glutamate, and sugar used when the soup is officially braised is the same as when it is newly braised. The only difference is the proportion of spices. The proportion of spices needs to be controlled at 1%- Between 2%, I generally use 1.5%.
Key points of heat and time: After the brine is boiled, add the seasonings and pig head. Open the pot again and maintain medium heat. Start adding sugar to tone the color. Continue on medium heat for ten minutes to stabilize the color of the pig head. Reduce the heat to low. After fifty to sixty minutes, remove the pig head and debone it, put it into the brine again, and simmer for forty minutes.
Notes: 1. The sugar coloring method for the formal brine of pig head meat is the same as the initial brine adjustment. The amount of sugar color for the formal brine can be added according to the local preference.
2. Try not to put yellow gardenia and red yeast rice directly into the brine. First, the quantity is difficult to control, and second, it is easy to cause the brine to go rancid.
3. When using sugar color, be sure to turn on medium heat and continue medium heat to stabilize the color.
The focus of selling finished products
Mainly is how to maintain the brightness of braised meat, which also includes how to reduce the oxidation speed and extend the oxidation time of braised meat.
Key points to reduce the oxidation rate: 1. Reasonably control the temperature of the pot. If the meat that has just been braised is taken out of the pot directly, the dispersion of steam will intensify the blackening of the braised meat (the color of the braised meat will not be oxidized if sugar is added). So I usually cook at a temperature of 67 degrees, which also requires controlling the simmering time.
2. The upper layer of oil slick on the brine can be brushed on the surface of the braised meat, and then covered with white cotton cloth for sale to reduce direct contact with air and reduce the oxidation rate.
Key points in extending the oxidation time: 1. The color of the sugar should be tender, rather than light and not dark. 2. When using sugar to color the braised meat, the color of the braised meat should be lighter.
It should be said that every aspect of making braised vegetables has a focus. This is a whole system and cannot be solved by just one recipe.
Even the handling of braised pork leftovers has key points and techniques. Only with careful workmanship can we make high-quality braised pork products.
The above is my real experience, I hope it can be a reference for everyone. Due to limited time, I wrote it a little hastily. Friends who like knowledge about brine can also leave a message in the comment area below to exchange ideas. This is just my personal opinion, and I hope the brine masters will criticize and correct any deficiencies.
The preparation of braised soup requires 150g star anise, 100g cinnamon, 300g pepper, 20g bay leaves, 10g cumin, 50g dried ginger, 40g Angelica dahurica, 50g fragrant fruit, 60g grass fruit, 30g white button, and 50g licorice. , 20g of male cubes, 10g of tangerine peel.
Step 1: Heat all ingredients in cold oil until bubbling.
Step 2: Add 1500g of soybean oil and 300g of dried chili, fry over low heat until fragrant, add 30 pounds of water and bring to a boil.
Step 3: Add 600g of salt, 800g of sugar, 900g of MSG, and appropriate amount of cooking wine.
Step 4: Add sunset yellow to the color.
Notes:
1. For example, braised pork sausage with a strong flavor must be separated separately to avoid the smell of other braised vegetables.
2. The timing of the heat is very important. Duck feet should be cooked for about 45 minutes, duck wings for about 35 minutes, beef for 60 minutes, duck head for 35 minutes, and sausage for 40 minutes.
3. The stewed soup can be reused. When storing the stewed soup, the impurities inside must be removed. After cooling, put it in the refrigerator. The stewed soup should be packed in ceramic or glass containers.
4. The brine package should be soaked in hot water for more than 2 hours before use, and cleaned before adding brine.
5. There is no need to add light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, or oyster sauce to the brine.
6. The brine pot should be cleaned regularly to remove any scum, and the brine should be filtered out for sediment every day.
7. Don’t overcook the fried sugar color, and the heat must be controlled well.
Making stewed vegetables is a long-term process, and you must have enough patience and confidence to make it better.
What is the best-selling food in summer in Sichuan and Chongqing?
Braised food, all kinds of braised food! Take our community as an example. There are no less than 6 braised vegetable stalls in the immediate area, and each of them has its best braised food.
What is Sichuan braised vegetables? Braised vegetables are divided into two categories: white braised and red braised vegetables, and they all belong to the largest category of five-flavored types. The simple explanation is that white braised vegetables are not sugar-colored, and the braised food is lighter and suitable for mixing and eating, such as Chongqing’s Rongchang braised goose and Fengdu spicy chicken are typical white braised dishes.
Red brine needs to be sugar-colored, and the color is much heavier. In comparison, red brine is suitable for larger pieces of meat, such as the famous Zhuangyuan pig trotters in Chengdu, and braised beef in Yunyang, Chongqing. series. Regardless of whether they are red or white, they are all five-spice and have the characteristics of being crispy, soft, delicious and fragrant, and suitable for all ages.
A braised red pig's trotter, waxy, soft, with a pleasant aroma, very tasty, not salty, the ingredients are just right, a little bit sweet, and it's all on your hands after biting it It's sticky, leaves a fragrance on your lips and teeth, and has an endless aftertaste.
It is actually very difficult to learn authentic Sichuan braised food, because generally the restaurants with excellent braised food are old shops that have been passed down for a long time. Each one has its own uniqueness, and it is difficult for you to eat two. Special braised dishes with similar taste to home.
As for the Sichuan braised chef who keeps telling you, "the recipe is not important", it is actually the same as a drunk person telling you "I am not drunk". Not drunk = drink Drunk; unimportant = important.
In fact, the reason why I tell you that "recipes are not important" is because most of the recipes are handed down from ancestors. On the basis of the basic recipe of spices, old braised restaurants often add a few spices that are not available elsewhere. The basic marinade is actually very simple: star anise, cinnamon, cumin, licorice, sannai, manganese, pepper, amomum villosum, cardamom, grass fruit, cloves, ginger, scallions, cooking wine, rock sugar, monosodium glutamate, refined salt, bone broth, pork Oil, and of course light soy sauce and dark soy sauce. As for the secret recipe, I don't know, but most of them are Chinese medicinal materials.
Now Sichuan marinade has changed again. On the basis of natural spices, it is combined with chili peppers of different spiciness to create a unique Sichuan spicy marinade. This marinade is more suitable for drinking beer as a snack in summer.
Secondly, the reason why it is said that "the formula is not important" is because Sichuan brine also talks about one very important thing, old brine! This is the highlight of all the old braised dishes. What is old brine? It means refilling the brine. One pot of brine does not dry out. It keeps adding brine and ingredients all year round, keeping the essence of the old and new brine and ingredients in a pot of brine that has been cooking for hundreds of years.
Let me ask you, can the food cooked with such brine not be delicious? Without this old brine to enhance flavor, what use would you have with the formula?
In the past two years, hot pot braised vegetables have become very popular in Chongqing, and are called an essential element of the new hot pot. Everyone has their own signature, and I personally am not very fond of the exclusive secret braised food that is full of flavor. I have a cold, but if you come to Chongqing, you can still try it. The braised vegetables cooked in a hot pot really have a different flavor.
By the way, please remember that no matter what kind of braised vegetables, they cannot be re-braised. After being re-braised, they will not taste good and are too salty. Some braised vegetable stalls that are not doing well will sell the braised vegetables that were not sold out on the first day the next day. How do you identify it when it is sold after being re-brinated? Look at the color and compare the braised vegetables of the same type. Choose the one with a lighter color, which is the fresh braised vegetables that were braised today.
I am from Pengzhou City, Chengdu, Sichuan. I have been making braised vegetables in a delicatessen restaurant for nearly 30 years. As you said, I often tell my apprentices that in braised vegetables, the recipe is really not the most important.
The first role of the formula in braised vegetables is to keep the aroma of braised vegetables stable. If we add spices as we like every day, this will inevitably cause the aroma to be different every day. Sometimes it is fragrant, sometimes it may not be fragrant. Some spices may even be too heavy, causing the stewed dish to have an off-flavor. Therefore, a standard dosage of spices is the prerequisite for maintaining a stable aroma of the stewed dish; the second function of the formula is to assist in flavor enhancement. One thing we need to remember when making braised vegetables is to retain the original flavor of the ingredients, that is, the braised pork must be able to taste the meaty aroma, and the vegetables must be able to taste the fresh aroma. If the spices are too heavy and cover up the meat aroma, then it is not delicious. Braised meat becomes a spice.
The most important factor in determining whether a braised pork is delicious is not spices, which I have often mentioned in previous sharings. Of all the tastes, the one we are most sensitive to and the most inseparable is the taste of salt. Therefore, when making braised vegetables, salt is the most important thing. Without salt, no matter how many spices you add, it will be useless. Second, the heat is also very important for braised vegetables. The heat determines the taste of the braised meat. What kind of ingredients require what kind of heat and how long it needs to be braised have strict requirements. For example, fatty meats need to be braised over medium heat to help them degrease and not taste greasy. Lean meats need to be braised over low heat to avoid excessive dehydration and making the meat taste dry and woody. Besides the braised time, the meat of beef is longer. It requires at least 2 hours of marinating time, while the marinating time of chicken feet, chicken wings, etc. is only 20 minutes. Then there is the pre-processing of the ingredients, such as soaking, pickling, blanching, etc., which are all necessary procedures to remove the odor of the ingredients. With so many detailed factors added together, any problem in any link will affect the quality of the braised pork. . Therefore, there is a saying that "the spice formula is not the most important in braised dishes". Facts have proved that this statement is true!
Regarding the view that "spices in braised vegetables are not the most important", I have specifically shared it in my previous article. Friends who like braised vegetables can follow me and read it for more detailed operation instructions of braised vegetables and For technical points, you can refer to my previous articles.
We have been engaged in the braised vegetable and cooked food industry for nearly 30 years. All sharing is our own experience in practice, and they are all methods that can be implemented in practice.
In the catering industry, is recipe important? Why does the master of the topic say "the recipe is not important"?