Thickening function
(1) Increase the viscosity and concentration of vegetable soup.
When cooking, add some soup or liquid seasonings (such as soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, cooking wine, etc.), and at the same time, some water overflows from the raw materials after heating, which becomes the soup of vegetables. These soups are too thin to stick to the raw materials, which affects the taste. After thickening, the viscosity and concentration of the soup increase, making the soup blend and delicious.
(2) Keep the dishes crisp and tender.
This effect is most obvious in slippery vegetables. For example, pickles are characterized by crispy outside and tender inside. If the sauce is not thickened, it will directly penetrate into the surface of the raw materials, making the fried raw materials soft and destroying the effect of crispy outside and tender inside. After thickening the sauce, the thickened juice wrapped on the surface of the raw materials is not easy to penetrate because of starch gelatinization, and the flavor characteristics of the dishes are maintained.
(3) let the soup and vegetables blend together. The main ingredients highlight the dishes made by some cooking methods such as stewing, stewing and roasting. Too much soup, the umami flavor of raw materials and the flavor of various seasonings should be dissolved in the soup, which is especially delicious. Ingredients and soup can't be mixed together. Only after thickening, due to the gelatinization of starch, the concentration of soup is increased, and the soup and vegetables are integrated, which not only increases the taste of vegetables, but also produces a soft and tender special flavor. After thickening, the soup becomes thicker, the buoyancy increases, and the main ingredients float and protrude, which changes the phenomenon that you can't see the dishes when you see the soup.
(4) Make the dishes beautiful in shape and bright in color.
Because starch becomes sticky after heating, it produces a unique luster, which can more vividly reflect the color of dishes and condiments.
(5) It can keep dishes warm.
Because the sauce is sticky after heating, it wraps the appearance of the raw materials, reduces the heat dissipation inside the dishes, and can keep the heat of the dishes for a long time.
Although thickening is an important means to improve the taste, color and shape of dishes, it is by no means necessary to thicken every dish. The timing of thickening and whether it is necessary to thicken should be decided according to the characteristics and requirements of the dishes. Some special dishes should be thickened before the main ingredients are served. For example, hot and sour soup and emerald shrimp soup. The egg liquid and shrimp are thickened and put into the pot, which can shorten the heating time, highlight the main ingredients and increase the smoothness of the dishes. Generally speaking, the following kinds of dishes do not need thickening:
(1) Dishes with fresh taste need not be thickened, especially stir-fried.
(2) The raw materials are crisp and tender, and the dishes with easy sauce penetration need not be thickened. For example, Sichuan cuisine is dry-baked and dry-fried.
(3) There is no need to thicken dishes with thick soup or sticky condiments. For example, dishes such as "braised pig's feet" and "braised fish" have a lot of gum, and the soup will naturally be very thick. Another example is "Chongqing Pork" in Sichuan cuisine and "Fried Chicken with Sauce" in Beijing cuisine, all of which are seasoned with thick condiments such as bean paste and sweet noodle sauce, and there is no need to thicken them.
(4) Various cold dishes do not need thickening. Because the characteristics of cold dishes are refreshing, crisp and tender, dry and fragrant, and not greasy, thickening will affect the quality of dishes.