How to make the first pot of brine? This is a headache for many brine lovers. Today I will share how to make a new pot of brine and the details and techniques that need to be paid attention to.
First of all, you need to make some old soup to make new brine. The making of old soup does not need to be complicated. The simpler the food, the better. Calculated based on 20 kilograms of old soup cooked in a pot (single kilogram):
Star anise: 20 grams, cinnamon 15 grams, grass fruit 10 grams, kaempferol 10 grams, cloves 2 grams, fennel 20 grams, angelica dahurica. 10g, 15g white buckwheat, 15g grassroots, 15g tangerine peel, 10g licorice, 20g fragrant fruit, 10g amomum villosum, 10g fragrant leaves, 10g galangal, plus 20g dried shiitake mushrooms, 20g pepper
The first step is to make soup: prepare 5 pounds of pork leg bones and half a hen, and blanch them first. Then add 30 kilograms of water to the brine pot (about 20 kilograms after boiling), add the blanched pork leg bones and hens, then add ginger and cooking wine, bring to a boil over high heat, skim off the foam, and simmer over low heat for 4 -5 hours. After simmering, use a strainer to remove all the bones and meat residue, leaving the old soup for later use.
Step 2: Fry the sugar color. Prepare the ingredients according to the ratio of 500 grams of rock sugar, 500 grams of boiling water, and 50 grams of oil. First heat the wok, add 50 grams of oil, pour in the rock sugar, fry the rock sugar over medium heat until it gradually turns yellow, and continue to maintain medium heat. , until the sugar color begins to bubble, turn to low heat and stir the sugar color continuously. When the sugar color turns maroon, add the prepared boiling water and simmer for 5 minutes.
The third step is to adjust the brine. Use according to the standard of 500 grams of spices per 50 pounds of old soup. For 20 pounds of old soup, use 200 grams of spices, 100 grams of ginger, 400 grams of salt, 50 grams of chicken essence, 30 grams of rock sugar, 10 grams of Sichuan peppercorns, 5 grams of chili, and an appropriate amount of sugar (add in batches according to the required color). Add the old soup together and cook for 30 seconds Minutes, the original brine is obtained.
The fourth step is to braise the meat. The brine prepared according to the above ratio can be used to marinate meat directly. However, because the new brine lacks aroma and oil, you can add more ingredients with strong fragrance and umami such as pork, chicken, and pig's trotters to the first braised pork. , chicken feet, pig skin, etc. are marinated together, and the proportion of fat can be increased to produce more brine oil to increase the aroma of the brine.
At this point, a pot of new brine is completed. Generally, the dishes produced in the first pot of new brine have a slight flavor of spices. This is normal. After all, it is new brine, and it contains nothing but spices. No, the brine lacks a complex mellow aroma. After braising the meat three times, the aroma of the brine is very normal and mellow.
Precautions for new brine:
1: The old soup should be cooked for the right time and the heat should be controlled at low heat. The so-called clear soup on a small fire and thick soup on a large fire. We don’t need thick soup for braised vegetables, so just simmer it slowly over low heat.
2: The frying of the sugar color is the key at the end. If it is tender, the color of the sugar will be sweet. If you add too little brine, the coloring effect will not be good. If you add too much brine, it will become sweet; if the sugar color is too old, The brine is bitter and black in color, causing the finished braised meat to be darker in color.
3: Soak the spice package in warm water for half an hour before putting it into the pot to remove the odor and impurities of the spices. At the same time, clean the melanin in the spices to prevent dust, melanin and other impurities from the spices from being brought into the brine, causing The brine turns black.
4: It is best to add sugar color in batches. Do not adjust the color in one go, otherwise the color of the final product will be very dark. The best coloring time for braised pork is after 7 minutes of cooking, so during the braised pork process, observe the color of the braised meat from time to time. If you feel that the color is not satisfactory, add a little more, and finally add it until you achieve a satisfactory color.
5: Use medium heat to braise fatty meat ingredients, the purpose is to let the fat meat produce as much oil as possible, so as to prevent the final product from tasting greasy; braise lean meat ingredients to low heat, the purpose is to minimize the The speed of dehydration of ingredients prevents the final product from tasting dry and woody.
Finally, after the first pot of brine is prepared, it needs to be well maintained and preserved. The longer the brine is, the more fragrant it will be. However, it is not just about braised meat without adding new water. The loss of brine is greater. When cooking, the amount of water should be added appropriately to avoid the sticky and burnt situation caused by the brine being brine for too long. If the brine is not used, it needs to be boiled once a day or stored in the refrigerator or freezer.
Braised pork is a systematic technique. Everyone has his or her own different methods. As long as we continue to experiment and summarize in practice, we can finally make dishes that satisfy us.