Some people call it preserved eggs. Actually, strictly speaking, preserved eggs are different from preserved eggs. Preserved eggs are a specialty of Henan province, and they are pickled with eggs. Egg white is golden yellow and transparent, yolk is viscous and liquid, while preserved egg is dark brown and transparent, and yolk is solidified or semi-solidified. Preserved eggs have always been a favorite food for many people, so how is it made? Let's take a look!
How are preserved eggs made? Are they nutritious? This question needs to be answered in two parts. The first is how to make it. Second, is there any nutrition? The process of making preserved eggs is a complex chemical change process. Let's talk about nutrition first, and then learn more about how to do it and what to pay attention to.
First, the nutritional value of preserved eggs
First of all, preserved eggs are made of duck eggs. The nutritional value of duck eggs is well known, so preserved eggs must be nutritious. According to research, the amino acids decomposed by protein and protein in preserved eggs are more easily absorbed by people, and the amino acid content is as high as 32 mg (per kloc-0/00g), which is ten times that of fresh eggs. In addition, preserved eggs are more easily absorbed by people.
According to Biography of Lin Yi, preserved eggs are made of lime, grass ash and salt. Preserved eggs are pungent, astringent, sweet, salty and cold, and have the functions of purging lung heat, removing fire and treating diarrhea.
Second, the main points of making preserved eggs
Preserved eggs are many people's favorite food, which can be used for porridge, soup, cold salad and so on. Preserved eggs are both simple and complex. Simple is because of preserved eggs. Speaking of preserved eggs, people who have done it will say that it is very simple, that is, they are made into paste with ingredients such as quicklime, plant ash, salt, alkali, tea and so on, smeared on salted duck eggs and left for about half a month. The complication is. Simply put, it is formed by the reaction of alkaline components in eggs and amino acids in protein. In order to ensure the success of preserved eggs, there are still many details to be dealt with. Let's have a look.
① Selection of duck eggs
Making preserved eggs is a slow process, and the quality of duck eggs is very important in this process. Only high-quality duck eggs can make preserved eggs. So, what kind of duck eggs should be chosen to ensure preserved eggs?
1. Look, the first thing to look at is whether there are cracks on the surface of duck eggs. Secondly, the eggshell surface is not smooth, and the air chamber on the eggshell surface is not obvious. If there are cracks on the surface, it is rough, and the bubbles on the surface are obvious, so it can not be used and is easy to be broken in production.
2. Touch, besides looking, you must also touch each other. If it is found that steel-shelled eggs (hard) or sand-shelled eggs (soft-shelled eggs) cannot be selected during the touching process, the salt and alkalinity of steel-shelled eggs are difficult to penetrate into the eggs, while sand-shelled eggs are easy to break, so pay attention to the selection.
3. Listen, what does the duck egg need to hear? Just hold the duck egg to your ear and shake it to see if the sound is yellow. This should be known to all. No matter what kind of eggs you make, you can't use yellow eggs.
4. Fresh, yes, eggs are also fresh and Chen Dan. In fact, eggs also have a shelf life. According to the temperature of storage environment, the shelf life is different. Generally, it is stored at room temperature for about 15 days in winter and about one week in summer. Fresh eggs can be kept in the refrigerator for about a month. The surface of fresh eggs is generally covered with a layer of frost powder, and the eggshell looks bright and feels oppressive in the hand.
② Pre-production treatment
After duck eggs are bought back, there are usually a lot of impurities attached to the surface. Of course, it can't be pickled directly, and it needs to be cleaned before the next step can be carried out. However, preserved eggs are different from other eggs, so it is not recommended to wash them directly with water, and it is best not to use eggs stored in the refrigerator, for fear that water will enter the eggshell through the air chamber, which will lead to unsuccessful pickling. So how to do it?
1. You can't wash eggshells directly with clean water. You can wipe the eggshell surface with a wet towel. If it is difficult to remove the substance, scrape it with a knife at an angle of 30℃ along the eggshell arc. If the dirty matter is not cleaned up, it is easy to breed miscellaneous bacteria.
2. Put the cleaned duck eggs in a cool and ventilated place to dry, so as to avoid the water remaining on the surface from drying into the eggshell for a long time. Don't let the sun shine directly on duck eggs.
③ Preparation of slurry
This step is to prepare duck eggs into preserved egg paste. Whether it is well adjusted directly affects the success of preserved eggs. If you don't master it well, the preserved eggs will either not form or become water, so you should mix them according to a certain proportion. Preserved eggs are mainly made of quicklime, alkali, plant ash, salt and tea. Take 50 duck eggs as an example, it will use 200 grams of quicklime, 50 grams of alkali, 700 grams of plant ash, 60 grams of salt and 5 grams of tea. Of course, there are many ways to preserve preserved eggs, so the ingredients and quantity used are definitely different. This is just a reference value. Let's see how to prepare them.
1. Put the tea leaves in a large bowl, add a proper amount of boiling water, soak the tea leaves in strong tea water, then filter out the tea leaves and take only the tea leaves. Tea can only be used when it is cold, because it needs to react with quicklime. )
2. Put the quicklime, alkali, plant ash and salt into the basin and stir them evenly, then slowly add the tea leaves into the basin to make them neither thin nor thick. Pay attention to safety when adding tea, because quicklime and water will produce a lot of hot air, so don't splash your eyes or hurt your hands.
④ Beat duck eggs into preserved eggs.
This step is also a step of gorgeous transformation of duck eggs, from liquid to solid, which is a complex chemical reaction process. Simply put, soda ash (containing sodium carbonate) reacts with plant ash (containing potassium carbonate) and lime (containing calcium oxide) to generate strong alkali sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide, and then permeates into eggshells to react with protein, while amino acids are decomposed in protein. Sulfur-containing protein will release hydrogen sulfide when it reacts with amino acids, which is the source of the special smell of preserved eggs. At the same time, the strong alkali will further neutralize the amino acids decomposed by protein, and the crystals of the generated salt will precipitate in the solidified egg white, resulting in white cypress-like needles, hence the name preserved egg.
Quicklime, soda ash and plant ash are important chemical components, which can preserve duck eggs. Salt can accelerate the solidification of egg white, inhibit the reproduction of microorganisms in eggs, and make eggs shrink and shell after solidification, which has the functions of enhancing flavor and keeping fresh. Tea contains more pigments, tannins, aromatic oils and alkaloids, which can assist solidification, increase color and neutralize the alkaline spicy taste of preserved eggs.
1. Put the dried preserved eggs into the prepared slurry, evenly wrap them with one layer, and then put them into the bran and wrap them with another layer. This layer is for protection, and you can also use bran or sawdust. )
2. Put the wrapped duck eggs in a plastic bag, then exhaust, tie the mouth tightly, put them in a cool and ventilated place, take them out after about two weeks, and open the ventilation annealing to reduce the spicy taste of preserved eggs. Preserved eggs can't be preserved all the time, otherwise they will be easily decomposed into water again under strong acid. Take it out and leave it for another week or so, and the preserved eggs will be ready.
The above is the general process of making preserved eggs and the details that need attention. Does homemade preserved eggs look simple? Just mix the pulp and marinate it. In fact, there are many tips to pay attention to.
Preserved eggs are common foods in life. Although many people don't like which flavor, many people like it, especially a plate of cold preserved eggs, which has a high appearance rate at the table and is a necessary dish for drinking and eating.