Stichopus japonicus has strict requirements on utensils, and it is best to use casserole or stainless steel utensils. At the same time, it should be remembered that copper pots or iron pots should not be used, and the utensils should be clean and free from grease.

In addition, salt and alkali can't be contacted in the process of swelling, because oil will stick to the surface of sea cucumber, which makes it difficult for water to penetrate; Salt will make sea cucumber shrink and spit water, and alkali will make sea cucumber dissolve and rot. These factors will affect the rising rate of sea cucumber and reduce the quality of rising sea cucumber.

When the sea cucumber grows, many chefs use tap water directly, which is not desirable. Because tap water in some places is relatively hard and belongs to alkaline water, if it is used to swell, the sea cucumber will not only rot on the surface, but also swell inside.

Distilled water does not contain any impurities, and its ion content is low and easy to penetrate, so the effect of swelling sea cucumber with distilled water is obviously better than tap water.

Both Radix Aconiti Japonici and Radix Apostichopus Japonicus have thick and hard skins. Before they swell, the sea cucumber should be burned on the fire until the skins are scorched and yellow.

It should be noted that when burning the skin of sea cucumber, if the skin is not completely burned, it will often affect the hair-making effect; If it is overcooked, once it hurts the muscle fibers inside the sea cucumber, it will also affect its growth rate.

after the burnt sea cucumber is knocked off the coke crust on the surface, it is sent to a steaming cabinet for steaming for about 1.5 hours. When the ginseng body absorbs the moisture of the steam and becomes soft, it is taken out and soaked in pure water with ice cubes.

There is no process of steam dry steaming in the traditional swelling method, and the water used for soaking sea cucumbers is tap water at normal temperature. So what are the benefits of dry steaming and soaking in ice water for swelling sea cucumbers?

We know that the water content in dry sea cucumber is relatively low, and when it is put on fire, the water content of ginseng is further lost. If the sea cucumber is directly immersed in water at this time, the high-temperature ginseng will immediately absorb water and expand.

However, after the surface of this fleshy sea cucumber absorbs water and swells, its cell wall will prevent water from penetrating into the sea cucumber, and the imbalance of water absorption of the ginseng will lead to the fleshy skin of the sea cucumber being soft and rotten due to excessive water absorption in the next step, and at the same time, the inside of the ginseng may not absorb enough water to swell.

If the burnt sea cucumber is first put into a steaming cabinet for dry steaming, so that a small part of the sea cucumber can absorb water from the outside to the inside, then the appearance of the sea cucumber will not be excessively swollen or even dissolved due to soaking in water. Therefore, only when the whole ginseng absorbs water evenly and becomes soft can the water balance inside and outside the ginseng be guaranteed.

The purpose of pouring the steamed and soft sea cucumber into the ice from the ice-making mechanism is to fully cool the sea cucumber, but in the melted ice water, the sea cucumber will slowly achieve the same water absorption inside and outside, thus laying a good foundation for the next step.

After soaking the sea cucumber in ice water for 24 hours, the ginseng body has fully absorbed water and softened. Next, scrape off the burnt cortex on the sea cucumber surface with a knife, clean it, put it in a stainless steel bucket, add purified water and boil it for 5 minutes, then remove the fire and let it stand for 6 hours before taking it out. At this time, the sea cucumber can easily open its abdomen by hand.

First, cut the belly of the sea cucumber with scissors, and remove the viscera and mouth sandbags of the sea cucumber, and then carefully scrape the skin of the sea cucumber with a knife. Because when the sea cucumber is dried, it is often absorbed by lime or plant ash, and these substances mainly remain in the skin of the sea cucumber that has not been burned, which is also a reason why the sea cucumber will be bitter and astringent.

When cleaning sea cucumbers, the methods we use are somewhat different from the traditional methods. If it is cleaned by the traditional method, the peritoneum of the sea cucumber will be cleaned together, but we intend to keep the peritoneum on the inner wall of the sea cucumber. Because peritoneum has a protective effect on the inner wall of sea cucumber, if the peritoneum on the inner wall of sea cucumber is removed prematurely, it will often lead to flowering of the inner wall of sea cucumber due to excessive water absorption when soaking and swelling, thus making the elasticity and chewiness of sea cucumber worse.

put the cleaned sea cucumber in a large stainless steel bucket, while adding purified water to drown it, add Pu 'er tea and bring it to a boil, then turn it to low heat for 1.5 hours, and continue to simmer for 2 hours after turning off the fire, then pour out the tea and add ice cubes to let the sea cucumber slowly absorb water and expand. Generally, 2.5 kilograms of Pu 'er tea should be added for every 51 kilograms of dry sea cucumber.

Stichopus japonicus will grow in the traditional way, and tea will not be used to assist the growth. The reason for using Pu 'er tea as hair aid is that Pu 'er tea is post-fermented, so the content of total purine alkaloids in tea is high, and this weak biological alkalinity is beneficial to the water absorption and expansion of sea cucumber, but it will not make the sea cucumber loose and rotten because of excessive hair.

In addition, Pu 'er tea is rich in tea polyphenols, which can adsorb the peculiar smell in sea cucumber, and has a certain effect of removing the fishy smell of sea cucumber and the bitter taste formed during drying, which has obvious effect.

At the same time, tea polyphenols also have certain antibacterial and bacteriostatic effects and antioxidant capacity, which is beneficial to the preservation and deterioration prevention of sea cucumbers. Generally speaking, using tea to help sea cucumber grow can promote hair growth, remove odor and prevent deterioration.

when the tea-assisted sea cucumber is soaked in ice water for 12 hours, it will be boiled together with the stainless steel barrel. After it is removed from the fire and kept warm, it will be taken out and soaked in ice water, and the already-developed sea cucumber will be picked out, soaked and stored in ice water, and can be taken at any time.

during heat preservation, due to the individual differences of sea cucumbers, special attention should be paid to some sea cucumbers that are close to success, so the heat preservation time should be shortened accordingly. When the sea cucumber is swollen, soft and elastic, you can feel it tremble when you hold it with your hand, which means that the sea cucumber has been made.

For those sea cucumbers with hard hearts after being boiled and soaked for the first time, it is necessary to continue to fire with boiling water, then soak in ice water, and so on for several times until all sea cucumbers are successfully cooked.

1. The peritoneum of the well-developed sea cucumber can be removed before the knife is changed. If the well-developed sea cucumber can't be used up for a while, don't rush to remove the peritoneum of the sea cucumber.

2. All sea cucumbers have a late-onset effect, that is to say, if they are stored and used slowly, they will continue to absorb water and expand. Therefore, the amount of swollen sea cucumbers should be well controlled. If it is stored in the refrigerator too much, it will often lead to soft and rotten sea cucumbers due to excessive water absorption and expansion.

3. When sending sea cucumbers, turn the water to a low heat after boiling, and do not put the lid on it. This is because after absorbing water, if the sea cucumber is in a boiling state for a long time, the water inside the sea cucumber will boil and vaporize, which will lead to holes in the ginseng. This is like a boiled water egg. If the sea cucumber has beehive eyes, its quality will be greatly reduced.

4. You must use ice water to soak sea cucumbers, not pure water at room temperature. This is because ice water can quickly cool the sea cucumber, thus increasing the elasticity of the ginseng. Ice water should also be used in later preservation, because it will save sea cucumbers better.