The preparation of marinade is the first key to making a good braised dish. The quality of the marinade preparation will directly affect the color and taste quality of the braised vegetables. Marinade can generally be divided into three categories: red marinade, yellow marinade, and white marinade.

Red marinade

Ingredients: 20 grams of star anise, 20 grams of cinnamon, 50 grams of tangerine peel, 8 grams of cloves, 20 grams of kaempferol, 20 grams of pepper, 15 grams of fennel, 20 bay leaves Gram, 20 grams of galangal, 5 grass fruits, 15 grams of licorice, 100 grams of dried red pepper, 150 grams of chives, 150 grams of ginger, 250 grams of sugar, 1000 grams of rice wine, 500 grams of high-quality soy sauce, 50 grams of sugar, refined salt 200g, 250g hot peanut oil, 100g MSG, 12kg bone broth.

Preparation method:

①Crack the grass fruit with a knife, break the cinnamon into small pieces with the back of the knife, cut the licorice into thick slices, tie the chives into knots, and loosen the ginger with a knife. Cut dried red pepper into segments.

②Put star anise, cinnamon, tangerine peel, cloves, kaempferol, pepper, fennel, bay leaf, grass fruit, galangal, licorice, and dried red pepper into a spice bag, and tie the bag tightly.

③Put the spice bag, onion knots, ginger cubes, sugar, rice wine, soy sauce, sugar color, refined salt, cooked peanut oil, monosodium glutamate and bone broth into the brine pot and mix thoroughly.

Yellow marinade

Ingredients: 150g yellow gardenia, 100g bay leaves, 50g kaempferol, 25g pepper, 50g galangal, 25g amomum villosum, fried 150g garlic, 150g fried fresh orange peel, 150g celery, 150g ginger, 1 bottle of satay sauce, 1000g rice wine, 250g cooked rapeseed oil, 150g oil curry, 200g MSG, 230g refined salt , bone broth 12kg.

Preparation method:

①Crack the yellow gardenia with a knife, tie the celery into knots, and pat the ginger loose with a knife.

②Put yellow gardenia, bay leaves, kaempferol, pepper, galangal, amomum villosum, fried garlic kernels, and fried fresh orange peel into a spice bag, and tie the bag tightly.

③Put the spice bag, celery knots, ginger pieces, satay sauce, rice wine, hot rapeseed oil, oil curry, refined salt, and bone broth into the brine pot, and mix well.

White marinade

Ingredients: 60 grams of star anise, 50 grams of kaempferia, 25 grams of pepper, 25 grams of white cardamom, 50 grams of tangerine peel, 50 grams of bay leaves, 25 grams of angelica, fragrant 150 grams of green onions, 150 grams of ginger, 1000 grams of water and wine, 1000 grams of white soy sauce, 120 grams of refined salt, 100 grams of MSG, and 12 kilograms of bone broth.

Preparation method:

①Tie the chives into knots and pat the ginger loose with a knife. Put star anise, kaempferol, Sichuan peppercorns, white cardamom, tangerine peel, bay leaves, and Angelica dahurica into a spice bag, and tie the bag tightly.

②Put the spice bag, green onion knots, ginger cubes, water wine, white soy sauce, refined salt, monosodium glutamate and bone broth into the brine pot and mix well. This recipe is suitable for marinating 10 to 12 kilograms of fresh raw materials (families can reduce the amount of seasonings in proportion).

Three tips for preparing marinade

1. The amount of spices, salt and soy sauce should be appropriate: too many spices will make the finished dish strong in medicinal taste and dark in color; too little spices will make the finished dish Not enough fragrance. If there is too much salt, the finished dish will not only taste "salty", but it will also become tight and shriveled; if there is too little salt, the delicious flavor of the finished dish will not be outstanding. Too much soy sauce will make the finished product dark and ugly; too little soy sauce will not taste delicious enough.

2. Selection of raw materials: It is not suitable to use soy sauce or other colored condiments in yellow marinade and white marinade, and do not use spices that are easy to fade.

3. The marinade should not be boiled in advance: the marinade should be prepared and used immediately. This can avoid the aromatic smell in the condiments from evaporating in vain, and can also save fuel and time.

Storage of marinade

The marinade of marinated dishes should be preserved for next use. The more times the marinade is used, the longer it can be stored, the better the quality, and the more delicious it tastes. This is because the marinade contains more and more soluble protein and other ingredients.

When preserving marinade, you should pay attention to the following points: 1. Skim off floating oil and foam. The oil and scum of the marinade should be skimmed off frequently, and the residue should be filtered frequently.

2. Heat and disinfect regularly. Boil and sterilize once a day in the morning and evening in summer and autumn. Boil and sterilize once a day or every other day in spring and winter. The boiled marinade should be placed in a sterilized container. 3. The container must be pottery or white enamel. Never use iron, tin, aluminum, copper and other metal vessels, otherwise the salt and other substances in the marinade will react chemically with the metal, causing the marinade to change color and taste, or even deteriorate and become unusable. 4. Pay attention to the storage location. The marinade should be placed in a cool, ventilated and dust-proof place with a gauze cover to prevent flies and insects from falling into the marinade. 5. Addition of raw materials. Spice bags should generally be replaced after only two uses. Other seasonings should be added every time the raw materials are marinated.

Note: After you have the old marinade, you don’t have to use bone broth to prepare the marinade. You can also use water, or you don’t need to add oil.

Preparation before marinating raw materials

Cleaning treatment. After animal raw materials are slaughtered and processed, residual hair and dirt must be removed.

Preliminary knife processing. Meat, intestines and liver should be cut into pieces. Poultry and dried tofu, etc. do not need to be modified.

Blanching. All animal raw materials that need to be brine should be blanched before being used for brine.

The key to braising raw materials

The choice of brine pot. It is best to use a cast iron pot. If there are not too many raw materials to be marinated, it is better to use a casserole. The thick walls of these two pots have poor thermal conductivity and the soup is not easy to evaporate. Food is less susceptible to chemical changes with this pot. It is not advisable to use copper or aluminum pots, because the pot has strong thermal conductivity and the soup will evaporate quickly. Copper pots are also prone to chemical reactions with the salt in the marinade, which affects the color, taste, and hygienic quality of the finished product.

Have a good grasp of firepower. Generally, medium-low or low heat is used to keep the soup in a small or slightly open state. Do not use high heat, otherwise, the soup will boil and continuously splash on the wall of the pot, forming a film, and finally coking and falling into the marinade, turning into black carbon powder, some of which will adhere to the raw materials, affecting the finished product and marinade. color and taste. When braised over high heat, the raw materials will not easily become soft and rotten, and the marinade will be seriously reduced due to rapid gasification.

It is necessary to master the maturity of raw materials. When raw materials are marinated, regardless of their tender texture and maturity time, their maturity should be controlled when or before they are softened and taken out of the pot or removed from the fire.

The identification method is: pinch the marinated raw materials with your hands. If it feels very hard, it means that the heat has not reached; if it breaks into pieces when you pinch it, it means it has been overcooked (it belongs to the rotten stage); It is soft, slightly elastic, and not broken, indicating that the heat is just right, that is, the softening stage.