Before I learned how to cook, I liked to search for recipes on the Internet and learn to cook them. I learned one dish after another, but the results were often not satisfactory, and I often couldn’t remember them if I didn’t follow them.

I have seen many people say that fish should be fried before making fish soup, but I just don’t understand it and forget it easily.

Later I went to a chef school. In addition to learning how to cook, I also took theoretical classes to learn the principles of cooking. I understood the role of frying fish before making fish soup:

First, fry at high temperature Maillard reaction can occur, making fish more fragrant.

Secondly, the melting point of frying is high (much higher than the boiling point of water), which allows the fat of the fish to melt quickly and flow out and disperse in the soup, which helps the soup turn white. After boiling over high heat, the fat and water are fully emulsified under the action of protein, and the soup becomes as white as milk.

This is the reason why the soup turns milky white, and why the fish needs to be fried.

However, basically all food recipes and videos do not tell you why you should do this. Maybe it is due to limited space, or maybe some of the authors themselves have little knowledge. The result is often that readers don't understand the principles. Just like me before, they don't know how to apply them flexibly, can't draw inferences from one instance, and can only copy what's going on.

Therefore, understanding the principles of cooking is also an important part of learning to cook well. When you understand the principle of soup turning white: it is composed of three major elements: fat, protein, and boiling over high heat. You can make other milky white soups according to this principle. The ingredients are no longer limited to fish. You can use bones, meat, eggs, etc.

After graduating from chef school, I went to work in a restaurant and hotel. I have been working as a chef for more than ten years and have accumulated a certain amount of experience and experience. Next, I will share a few cooking principles. I believe it will be useful to you after reading it. Helps.

Foods containing a lot of sugar, starch, and protein will quickly solidify, burn, or decompose when exposed to heat. If not handled properly, they will easily stick to the pan. How to prevent food from sticking to the pan when cooking? Relying on non-stick pans cannot fundamentally solve the problem, and the coating of non-stick pans will fall off, which is not good for your health.

Taking cooking as an example, our chefs have a standard process. After the pot is hot until it starts to smoke, pour a little oil and turn it around, pour it out and then add an appropriate amount of cold oil, then heat the pot and serve. This is called "hot pot, cold oil". Many people know that hot pot is cold oil, but they can't explain the reason.

Let me briefly explain the principle:

①. The purpose of heating the pot is to reach a temperature above 200 degrees, and the "Leidenfros effect" will occur. At this time, if you put water into the pot The dripping water does not evaporate immediately, but turns into small water droplets rolling around, so food placed on a pot with Leidenfrost points usually does not stick to the pot.

Of course, the chef will not pay attention to this point deliberately. Based on experience, if the pot is heated until it emits green smoke, the temperature is sufficient.

For home operations, it is recommended to prepare a thick-bottomed iron pot or a thick frying pan, and burn it for a minute or two on high heat (note that non-stick pans cannot be burned empty, we are talking about iron pans here). Turn the heat to medium, pour in the oil and mix well, then add the ingredients.

②. Pour the oil for the first time after heating the pan and stir it evenly. In order to form a thin film of oil, increase the medium of the pan and make the pan lubricated enough to facilitate the sliding of the ingredients on the pan.

③ Pour the oil (cold oil) for the second time. The high temperature of the bottom of the pot will instantly give it a lift. When you add the ingredients, they will not stick to the pot immediately.

In addition, different foods have different processing methods:

Foods with high starch content will decompose too much starch when fried and solidify on the surface of the pot. Therefore, foods such as shredded potatoes should be washed before frying, remove excess starch on the surface in advance, drain the water and then fry in hot pan with cold oil to prevent them from sticking to the pan.

Foods that are not resistant to burning, such as Sichuan peppercorns, dried chili peppers, bean paste, minced meat, etc., are easily dehydrated and fried into paste, so you need to use low heat and low oil temperature after hot pan is cooled.

Foods that are high in protein but need to be tender, such as fried shredded pork, sliced ??meat, diced meat, diced chicken, etc., add cooking oil after sizing to allow the fat to wrap around the starch to prevent the starch from directly sticking to the food. pot.

Foods that require frying, such as fried steak, fried fish, fried eggs, fried tofu, etc. Take frying fish as an example. Put the ingredients in a hot pan with cold oil. Here are the key points:

First, fry over high heat, which can quickly brown and create a special roasted aroma layer, and reduce the loss of moisture in the ingredients.

Second, fry over high heat for at least half a minute. Do not use a spatula to stir or turn over during this period. Many people are anxious when frying fish and sticking it to the pan. A reasonable approach is to fry the fish over high heat for a while to allow the surface of the fish to mature and set, then shake the pan and stir the other side so that it won't stick to the pan and become brittle.

1. Immediately after the animal is slaughtered, its muscles relax and do not experience stiffness, so there will be no excessive water loss. If cooked immediately at this time, the meat will be very tender.

However, the muscles will soon tighten and cause water loss, the meat will be particularly hard, and the pH will become low, causing the meat to become sour, which is the most unsuitable stage for consumption.

It begins when the muscle fibers run out of energy. For beef, it is about 3 hours after slaughter. For pork, mutton and chicken, it is usually within 60 minutes. This is called "rigor mortis".

Fortunately, after a few hours the muscle structure weakens and the meat softens. Chaoshan beef hotpot is particularly tender because it uses fresh beef (within a few hours of slaughter).

In addition, freshly slaughtered chickens, ducks, geese, etc. should either be cooked immediately or wait several hours before cooking.

2. Why does cooked meat taste sour and rough? How to make meat tender?

There are two main reasons why the meat is old:

① There is little water in the meat. For example, tenderloin itself does not contain much moisture, and it loses about 20% of its weight in moisture during cooking, resulting in a rough texture.

The solution is to replenish and maintain as much moisture as possible in the meat.

To replenish water, we can add a little salt to marinate before adding water. Don’t get the order wrong, otherwise water will leak easily.

Because salt is given first, the interaction between salt and protein (salt-dissolution reaction) will increase the water capacity of muscle cells, thereby absorbing more water. Secondly, salt dissolves part of the protein structure that supports contractile myofilaments.

The simplest way to maintain moisture in meat is sizing. Starch can be pea starch or corn starch, which is more versatile and has a high error tolerance.

Although starch cannot protect shredded meat, sliced ??meat, and diced meat at room temperature, at high temperatures, starch will undergo gelatinization, the hydrogen bonds between starch molecules will break, and the volume will expand to 50-100 times. , forming a paste-like sol and coating it on the surface of the meat, which can effectively prevent the loss of moisture and flavor substances in the meat.

②. The meat fiber is too thick. There are several ways to deal with it. Either use the back of a knife, a meat breaker and other tools to beat the meat fiber. Powder etc.

These meat tenderizers are enzymes extracted from plants such as pineapple, papaya, fig, and kiwi. They are refined and ground into powder, added with salt and sugar, and placed in a seasoning jar.

Summary: The meat should be tender, retain moisture, and destroy the meat fibers.

1. I believe you have seen many videos saying that you need to fry things twice, but do you know why? The first medium-temperature frying is to fry it, and the second short-term high-temperature frying (re-frying) is to force out the oil in the food, reduce the greasiness, and crisp up the skin.

2. How to determine the oil temperature?

Our kitchen generally divides oil temperature into 10% oil temperature, 20% oil temperature..., every 30 degrees is 10%, for example, 60% oil temperature is 180 degrees, and so on. .

As far as cooking is concerned, ingredients that are easy to burn, such as minced meat, are suitable for cooking at 30% to 40% oil temperature.

For sizing ingredients, such as fried shredded pork, sliced ??meat, diced meat, diced chicken, etc., you need to heat the pan with cold oil and spread over high heat. The oil temperature should be controlled at around 60 to 70%, which is a medium to high oil temperature, that is, around 200 degrees Celsius is better.

Because the higher the temperature, the faster the gelatinization of starch, and the earlier a protective layer is formed. And the higher the temperature, the easier it is for shredded meat and sliced ??meat to mature, the shorter the time, and the less water loss. Therefore, high oil temperature is a key point in maintaining tender meat texture.

What to do at home?

The stove is not powerful enough, and it is not possible to pour half a pot of oil to complete the primary processing of ingredients like a restaurant chef does.

For home operation, you can add more oil after heating the pan, 2 times more than usual. You don’t have to worry about waste or greasiness. We can wait until the meat is cooked, then pour out half of the oil and leave it. Next time I will stir-fry meat or vegetables.

Heat it to 60-70% hot and pour in the sizing ingredients. Some people may want to ask, how to judge whether the oil temperature is 60-70%?

When the oil is initially burned and there are oil splashes and squeaking sounds on the bottom of the pot, it means that the oil temperature has begun to increase. After burning for a while, the oil will make a ripple-like rolling sound accompanied by sounds, which means it is medium temperature and not at all. If it sounds, it means the oil temperature is medium-high, and the sizing ingredients should be cooked at medium-high oil temperature!

If you are still worried that the oil temperature is not well controlled at the beginning, the simplest method is: first remove a piece of shredded pork and put it in the pot. If it sinks to the bottom immediately, the shredded pork has no reaction, the oil temperature is low, and then wait.

The oil temperature should be just right: the shredded pork slurry will turn white and float when placed in the pot.

Another key is to deal with the desizing of sizing lubricating oil: if the meat will be desizing just after it is put into the pot (the water slurry will separate from the shredded meat and become white pulp spots), remove the slurry. If it's cooked well, it means the oil is not warm enough, so you have to move the shredded meat slowly to prevent it from sticking to the pan, and wait for the oil to come up before stirring.

The oil mentioned above, as well as the shredded pork, do not all need to be cooked in this way. Simply stir-fry, you need to pay attention to the shredded pork being cut smoothly, and you need to know whether all the dishes are delicious or not. Material selection is proportional.

Stir-fried shredded pork: Heat the oil in the pot to a high temperature, stir the meat, and when the raw meat is completely invisible, stir-fry a little, cook some vinegar (to remove the fishy meat and tenderize the meat), and then cook some soy sauce ( (to remove the smell and add aroma), then add other ingredients.

Why are the green leaves fried in restaurants shiny and watery, but no matter how much I fry them myself, there is no such effect? This is because there is a lot of fire and oil in the restaurant, so how should you do it at home?

There are methods. Since the firepower of home stoves is small, you can put a little more oil to make up for it. After all, oil can conduct temperature well, and then stir-fry quickly over high heat. It is best to stir-fry with chopsticks (chopstick stir-fry) Some specific vegetables are much easier to use than a spatula, and they can be stir-fried evenly and flexibly). When it is about 80% hot, take it out of the pan immediately. When it is plated and served, the residual heat can continue to mature the vegetables. When served, the heat is just right and the color is beautiful. , watery, crispy and tender!

On the contrary, if the heat is low, the green leafy vegetables will easily release a lot of water, and it will become a boiled vegetable, and the appearance and taste will inevitably be inferior. Moreover, if the heating time is long, the chlorophyll contained in green vegetables will turn into pheophytin, which will turn yellow and black!

1. Rice wine, I prefer rice wine to cooking wine, especially aged rice wine. There is no other reason. If you look at the ingredients of cooking wine, you will know that there are various umami agents, while rice wine is much more honest. Furthermore, rice wine goes well with meat, and it also has a charming and unique flavor when used to stir-fry seafood.

2. White wine and high-grade sorghum wine added to braised dishes have a good effect and can reduce the greasy feeling of fat meat. The principle is: the dual solubility of wine and ethanol is used to disperse the fat in the soup.

It can also add fragrance. The principle is: fatty acids react with alcohol to generate fragrance substances.

It should be noted that the white wine must be added when the pot is very hot, and then stir thoroughly to allow the wine smell to completely dissipate, leaving only the sweet aroma of grain. Remember not to add soup just after adding wine, otherwise the "wine smell" of the liquor will be lost.

3. Beer, the yeast in it is a good umami substance, but it cannot be cooked for a long time, otherwise it will have a bitter taste.

4. Ginger and scallion water. For people who don’t want to eat scallion and ginger, or some ginger and scallion in dishes will particularly affect the taste, but will not give it and lose the taste. For example, when making meatballs, you can flatten the scallions and ginger. Put it in hot water and soak it for two to three minutes. Finally, replace the ginger and green onion with the soaked water. It can be added to meat fillings or cooking dishes. It can not only remove the fishy smell and increase the aroma, but also eliminate the unpleasant feeling of biting onions and ginger.

5. Pepper, the main spicy compound of black pepper, piperine, is stored on the surface of the thin peel and seeds. The spiciness of piperine is about 1% of the capsaicin in peppers. The main aroma component of black pepper will bring an overall taste of fresh, citrus, woody, and floral aromas.

White pepper has the same spiciness as black pepper, but loses half of its flavor because the outer seed coat has been removed. However, the subtle and charming aroma of white pepper cannot be replaced by other seasonings, especially when added to soupy foods such as wontons.

What needs to be noted is: what you want to buy is "100% pure pepper powder", not the cheap "pepper products" with rice and chili added.

There are too many other techniques and cooking principles for cooking, including the storage methods of ingredients, the harm of freezing to ingredients, how to defrost them correctly, the principles of food taste, color, and aroma, and how to adjust color and seasoning to increase the flavor. It smells good! We will talk about the taste and combination of spices, the principle of fermentation, the amount and ratio of ingredients, etc. later.

Senior Brother from Private School (End)