Why is beef almost never cooked in Chinese food?

This problem can be mirrored in the fact that Europeans and Americans catch fish, and they either eat them fresh, or add a lot of salt to dry them or ferment them completely. China people's "pickled fresh fish", that is, smelly mandarin fish, is incredible in the concept of Europeans and Americans.

To some extent, cooked beef and snakehead fish are actually the same kind of food: on the basis of keeping the fresh texture of meat food, it is endowed with better meat quality and richer taste through mild fermentation of microorganisms.

since they are born from the same root, what are the reasons for not understanding each other?

No:1-1

Cooked steak is not a kind of food with a long history. In the 17th century, the legendary French chef Kaham, who invented French soups, once said, "Store beef at room temperature as long as possible."

This heresy, which seems to be a fallacy today, actually comes from a famous chef. It can be seen that only 3 years ago, the beef ripening technology in Europe was still in an extremely chaotic and immature stage.

But Europeans of that era did observe that beef tastes better after being stored at room temperature for a period of time. In the famous painting "Beef" created by Rembrandt in 1655, it describes a whole cow with its belly cut open and hung at room temperature.

In fact, after the animal dies, the blood circulation stops, but the metabolism of most cells is still going on. After a period of time, the metabolites of cells can not be discharged, and muscle contraction, hard meat and dull color will occur. Anatomically, this situation is called "rigor mortis".

Cattle are large in size, and the rigor mortis comes slowly, about 1-24 hours. This is the reason why authentic Chaoshan beef hotpot needs to be sent to the table against time after slaughter: use this short buffer time for most of the day to let diners eat hot fresh meat that has not hardened yet. But obviously, 3 years ago in Europe, there was no such logistics infrastructure level and social commodity circulation order.

Therefore, eating hard beef has become a choice for Europeans. The habit of frying beef half-baked so far may also be to resist the cooking process and make the already hard beef more crusty and chewy.

However, people soon found that some beef that was not treated in time became softer, tender and fragrant after being hung in the butcher shop for a few days.

The reason is very simple: About 72 hours after the occurrence of rigor mortis, calcium ions in beef activate protease, which gradually decomposes meat with the help of microorganisms. Anatomy summarizes this process as ripening-autolysis-corruption. Eventually, a fresh muscle will turn into a pool of pus.

if we can grasp the gap between after-ripening and before autolysis, we can get a good piece of meat that is not fresh but not bad in taste. In addition, long-term suspension can also lengthen the muscle fibers of beef under the action of gravity of the earth, further making the meat soft and chewy; At the same time, it takes away some water to make the fat in beef more fragrant.

The concept of cooked beef, a famous western food, sprouted in this way.

no: 2er

In terms of eating, human wisdom is infinite.

The phrase "the longer the better" by French Kaham explains the truth of meat ripening from a certain angle: the longer the ripening process, the softer the taste. At the same time, the protein of meat is broken down into smaller amino acids, which makes the taste buds feel delicious more easily.

This is the same logic as cooking for a long time, stewing beef until it is tender and getting delicious beef soup.

how to prolong the ripening cycle of meat? The earliest method invented by Europeans is dry ripening: beef is hung in a cool and ventilated place. After a few days, the surface of the meat piece produces hard shells and even mold hyphae, but the inside is still soft and tender.

Dry-cooked beef wastes a lot. In addition to a lot of water loss, the hardened shell must be cut off before eating, and the loss is above 3%. The most important thing is that the state and flora of each piece of meat are different. No one can guarantee that the growth of miscellaneous bacteria will not spoil beef during the ripening process. It is likely to be cut hopefully, only to find that it has rotted into a pool of pus.

This is the most fundamental reason why China did not produce and popularize cooked beef: China people, who take hard work and courage as their motto, have to try their best to make a piece of pork skin into jelly and pour it into soup bags; Or fry it into a belly and let it absorb the soup. It's a sin to waste good meat in chunks, Amitabha.

In On Eating and Painting Cakes to Fill Hunger, Zhang Ailing wrote in a sarcastic tone: "Westerners actually put the meat until it stinks for the sake of tenderness, and China students frown at it." It is quite representative of China people's understanding of ripeness at that time.

The whole process of a piece of beef jerky

On the contrary, it was the creation of China people at the same time to use a small amount of salt to help inhibit miscellaneous bacteria and make pickled fresh fish and pickled meat. Compared with direct ripening without adding anything, this method has a much higher success rate and is more convenient for storage and transportation. Although it will give birth to an unpleasant smell, China cooks with superb cooking skills are good at masking the taste with garlic, sesame oil and yellow wine, which Europeans can't learn and understand.

However, in Europe, the great powers plundered a lot of material wealth in the great voyage that began in the 16th century. A large number of nobles and adventurers have made their fortune. In their eyes, what's the big deal of wasting a few pieces of beef in order to get a better taste?

Different national personalities and historical experiences have created different eating habits.

No:3

in p>1851, the first artificial refrigeration compressor was invented. This indicates that human beings can control the temperature accurately from now on, which is a big step across the times for beef ripening.

Soon, a cooking cabinet specially used for beef cooking was made. Artificially create an environment with bacteriostasis, ventilation and appropriate temperature and humidity for cooked beef, and the unnecessary waste is greatly reduced. Since then, cooked beef has changed from the enjoyment of a few people to the delicacy that ordinary people can eat by tightening their belts.

in 197s, with the maturity of vacuum packaging technology, wet ripening was born. Compared with dry cooking, it is simpler and more economical, just put the vacuum-packed beef pieces in a constant temperature freezer. The lost water will slowly infiltrate back into the beef, making it softer and juicier. There is no need to worry about oxidation, water loss and microbial erosion. As long as the temperature and time are properly controlled, the taste that is not inferior to dry ripening can be harvested.

The comparison of the same amount of beef after dry and wet ripening

Statistics show that by the 199s, wet cooked beef had occupied more than 9% of the cooked beef market in the United States. Today, the vacuum-packed sliced steaks we bought in the supermarket are all wet cooked beef in a broad sense.

In addition, more and more methods of minority maturation have sprung up. Some people wrap beef with butter to promote its maturity; Some people soak beef in bacteriostatic bubble mineral water and cook it; Some people have done ice temperature ripening for a long time in an environment of MINUS 1 degree Celsius; The Japanese, who came from behind in breeding beef cattle, also sorted out a complete set of "dry ripening" which is different from dry ripening, reducing air volume and temperature, fully highlighting the advantages of fat between black hair and beef muscles.

comparison of butter cooked left and dry cooked right on p>youtube.

However, perhaps because of the limitation of tradition, or because Europeans think that waste can reflect the essence, they still think that the dry cooked beef with the highest loss rate is authentic cooked beef. European and American gourmets rated wet cooked beef as "sour with blood", but when faced with dry cooked beef, they generously praised adjectives full of subjective colors such as "nut flavor", "metallic flavor", "mushroom flavor" and "barbecue flavor".