The key to cooking pot-stewed vegetables is brine. There are many ways to make brine, as long as it suits your local taste. Maintenance is the key to precipitate a pot of good brine, and restaurants and marinated vegetables shops attach great importance to it, but families often ignore it, which is why many friends complain that the marinated vegetables they cook at home are not fragrant!

Let's talk about the first detail that needs attention: the production of brine.

Take Chuanlu as an example here. It is best not to directly boil the brine with water, but to boil a pot of broth with pig's tube bone, ham bone and chicken rack bone on low fire 12 hour, and then put the marinade into the broth to boil the brine. The marinated vegetables made in this way have a strong and lasting fragrance.

The second detail: halogen material should not be dispersed into brine.

To prepare a good marinade, at least dozens of spices should be used. So many spices are scattered in the brine that it is embarrassing to think about it. Therefore, spices should be wrapped with clean sand cloth and put into brine. Remember, there is a slight gap between the sand cloth and the spices, so it is not advisable to wrap it too tightly.

The third detail: the amount of halogen material should be appropriate.

Many people don't know how much halogen material to put in a pot of brine. Generally speaking, 500 grams of spices is enough for 10 kg of brine, and the amount of spices for other weights of brine can be analogized.

The fourth detail: Never use soy sauce when coloring halogen products.

It is best to use the modulated sugar color for the coloring of halogen products (I have shared the production method of sugar color in an article earlier, and interested friends can look for it). Of course, you can also use some natural plant colors (such as red gardenia, etc.), but never use soy sauce. Because many soy sauces contain additives: caramel color! When caramel color is repeatedly heated and boiled in brine, the brine will turn black. Do you still have an appetite for a pot of black braised pork?

The fifth detail: the storage and maintenance of brine

This detail is highly valued in braised dishes shops or restaurants, and there is a special system and a special person in charge. However, household brine is mostly ignored. Strictly speaking, the brine must be boiled once a day to remove the floating oil and foam on the upper layer, and then let it stand for storage, so that the brine will not deteriorate and rot, and it will become more and more fragrant as time goes on. It is hot in summer. Boil it once in the morning and once in the evening, and let it stand for storage. Nowadays, many restaurants and pot-stewed food shops use large freezers to store old brine, but they should also take it out and boil it at least two or three times a week. Because most of the brine in the family is not taken care of regularly, it is suggested to store it in the refrigerator, and it is always ok to take it out and boil it once a week, otherwise, your brine will not smell fragrant if it is frozen in the freezer for ten years.

Sixth detail: add broth instead of water.

The water in the old brine volatilizes quickly during the boiling process, so we should remember to add broth to it often. Delicious food is deducted from the details. Remember, it is best not to add water directly, and adding water will dilute the original flavor.

The seventh detail: different halogen products have different halogen materials.

Good pot-stewed food shops and restaurants usually have several barrels of brine with different marinades, and the brine used for different marinades is different. Usually, there is only one pot of brine in the family, and all kinds of brine are spices in the same pot, which is not acceptable. For example, many people like to add licorice to the marinade, but cooking licorice with pork has side effects on the human body, do you know? It is suggested that when you choose spices according to the halogen products, you should inquire about the nature, taste and application scope of each spice before making a decision.

The eighth detail: the addition of salt

Every time you buy a new marinated dish, you should taste the saltiness of the brine, which will directly affect the quality of the brine. Under normal circumstances, the taste needs to be tested in three stages: before the brine is put into the pot, a small amount of salt is added, and the salty taste of the brine is slightly salty than that of the usual dishes; After marinating for 20 minutes or half an hour, when the salty taste enters the marinated product, taste it, which is generally the same as the salty taste of the vegetables you usually eat; After the bittern is soaked in brine, it should also be tasted. If it is too salty, it should be returned to the pot and added with broth to make it salty. If it is too light, add salt and continue to soak it.

Ninth detail: Brine is best packed in crock or casserole.

As we all know, the so-called casserole is a pot made of clay and sand. Many people use iron drums to fill brine, which is not very good. The taste will change after a long time. In order to make it convenient for the stored brine to be heated directly without turning, it is suggested that you choose a crock or casserole that can be heated directly to hold the brine, so that the stored brine will not taste bad for a long time.