The marinated vegetables that we often "meet" are not just light brown salty meat. What is marinated? Where does the halogen come from? Among them, there is a lot of attention. Cantonese-style bittern has changed into salty and sweet. Before the early 1980s, Cantonese people still enjoyed the varieties of bittern brought by traditional fixed formulas such as "general bittern" and "refined bittern (oily chicken water)", while most of the materials used to make bittern were mainly spices, clear water or soy sauce, which paid attention to the flavor of black bean, but lacked meaty and umami taste, and the taste was focused on salty and sweet.
From the late 1980s to the early 1990s, with the deepening of the communication between Cantonese cuisine and the outside world, Cantonese-style brine set off a "brine revolution".
Under the guidance of a series of seasoning concepts, such as "If you want to roast chicken well, spices should add good soup" to "singing opera depends on the cavity, cooking depends on soup", the Chaozhou brine was born by learning from the preparation method of Sichuan brine and adding its own unique spices. Fresh raw materials such as Jinhua ham, bone, earth fish and scallop are added to Chaozhou Brine, which makes the "new school" brine not only have a strong medicinal fragrance, but also increase the umami and meaty taste.
Chaozhou Brine, White Brine and Fine Brine are in a tripartite confrontation, which makes Cantonese-style bittern food more attractive.
Soy sauce chicken: Soy sauce chicken is very famous in Cantonese cuisine, and it is a masterpiece of Cantonese cuisine. Even at present, many brine cooked food stalls are still called "oily chicken stalls". Black-bean chicken is selected as the black-bean sauce chicken, and the dirty parts are taken from the tail, salted 10 minutes or so, and then hot brine is poured into the chicken belly several times repeatedly, so that the temperature inside and outside the chicken is consistent before the chicken is put into the brine. Halogen immersion can turn off the flame for about 30 minutes, and immersion for about 15 minutes is enough. Chicken with black bean sauce is known as "smooth skin and fragrant bones". When served on the table, it is served with marinade and tastes sweet, even the bones are fragrant.
Brine platter: Fish goose feet, pork bellies, goose meat, etc., which are used to make platters, and then marinate them in brine. The marinating time required for various raw materials is different, ranging from 20 minutes to 45 minutes. When marinated, it is sorted and assembled, which looks very rich. Ganlu sauce duck is the master of traditional Chinese medicine, and there are many treasures in Jiangxi. In addition to simmering soup, there is also a delicious taste-pot-stewed. Jiangxi brine shops are scattered in every corner of the city, and they don't even flaunt their regional colors, but they have their own characteristics in making things, keeping a low profile, and then slowly soaking people's hearts with halogen incense.
Judging from its taste, although Jiangxi bittern is spicy, it is not as spicy as Sichuan and Hunan, but it is slightly spicy at first, which is easy for people to adapt, and once they can't eat enough, they will feel that the whole mouth is already irritable.
In addition to being slightly spicy, there are two main characteristics of the pot-stewed taste in Jiangxi. First of all, the color is heavy and the taste is heavy. This is because the process from soaking to marinating is very long. After the taste is completely infiltrated, the color becomes strong, and the spicy and delicious flavor is very obvious.
Another major feature is the heavy composition of traditional Chinese medicine. The pot-stewed taste in Jiangxi is made with special traditional Chinese medicine bags, which has nourishing effect on the one hand and makes the fragrance more rich on the other.
Sauced duck: The choice of ducks is very elegant, and they are all red-haired ducks from Poyang Lake, and they are ducklings that are stocked around 120 days, because the meat of older ducks will be harder, and the moisture of tender ducks will affect the taste.
In Nanchang, Jiangxi, Huang Shanghuang's sauced duck has become a business card of the city just like roast duck in Beijing. There is a reason for delicious food. A sauced duck needs to be added with more than 30 kinds of traditional Chinese medicines, and it takes about 20 hours to make it through dozens of processes.
Duck neck: Duck neck is actually the same as chicken feet, with less meat and more bones. However, if you marinate for enough time, the taste will enter the crevices of every bone. After exhausting all kinds of skills and kung fu, eating the meat in the crevices of bones and sucking the taste is the fun of eating duck neck. When I first entered the restaurant, I didn't feel spicy. The duck meat on the surface was tight and chewy. After eating the meat on the surface, it depends on my teeth and tongue skills. Some people eat more wastefully, and in many places, they eat a few times and give up because they feel unable to eat, while those who can eat will slowly eat all the meat in the details and eat it thoroughly and cleanly. It is a kind of advanced cooking method to soak light brine in the south and oil in the north. From eating raw meat to this step, the process is really long.
With the appearance of self-cooking utensils, people's yearning for and pursuit of a new diet method not only increased the cooking methods, but also made the seasoning materials not limited to mineral salt or sea salt. In the Zhou Dynasty, the appearance of "sugar"-meat sauce made a qualitative leap in diet and cooking. With the wisdom of our ancestors, sugar evolved into fermented soybean or soy sauce made from wheat and soybeans. However, soy sauce and soy sauce are only used as snacks and wine, and there is no discussion on their good use in cooking. And sauce is already the embryonic form of "halogen".
After having a cooker, people began to toss about cooking techniques. The methods of "retort", "steaming", "frying", "frying" and "branding" also came into being. From these primitive cooking methods, it gradually developed into the "green meat method" introduced in Qi Min Yao Shu, which is the natural originator of "halogen" and "immersion". By the Ming and Qing dynasties, the material and formula of "brine" were basically fixed, and since then, the production method of "brine" has officially appeared on the table.
The twin of "halogen" is "immersion", which is heavy in flavor but light in flavor. China cuisines are differentiated according to different regions. The climate in the central plains changes greatly, so it is necessary to supplement calories in the diet to meet the demand, so it is mainly "heavy taste" and "greasy"; Northwest China, especially Bashu, is known for its "spicy" and "spicy" because of its environmental advantages. Lingnan area, especially Guangdong area, is located in subtropical zone, with mild climate, and its taste is known as "light" and "refreshing", so it is called "soaking in the south and bittern in the north".
The main materials of brine used by different schools are roughly the same, but the weight and production method make the taste very different. In fact, the weight of this thing is inconclusive, so you can adjust your own taste. If you have leisure, you can cook some braised pork and eggs at home and enjoy yourself.
Use and storage methods of brine
Use of a brine
1? All animal raw materials need to be treated with water before marinating, otherwise the raw materials will be directly put into the pot, which will lead to a sharp decrease in brine, thus causing the dishes to taste too salty.
2? A pot of good brine should always be marinated with animal raw materials with strong flavor, so as to increase the fresh flavor of brine. There is a jargon called "the older the brine, the better", which is the reason.
3? Pork, chicken, duck, goose and rabbit, which are fresh and fragrant, should be "in the water" with cattle, mutton and various animals with strong odor? For example, brine is used separately as raw materials of fat sausage to ensure the quality of brine and marinated dishes.
4? In the process of use, we should always check the color, fragrance, salinity of brine and whether the soup is sufficient. Once we find that some aspects are reduced, we should make up for them in time, which is what we often say.
Preservation of brine
1? After a period of use, brine will leave a few residues of raw materials or spices, so it needs to be filtered to ensure the quality of brine.
2? After repeated use of brine, the soup will become thicker. Although it is filtered, it still needs to be "cleaned", that is, clean animal blood is mixed with clean water, and then it is slowly added to the boiling brine. This is to use protein's adsorption and coagulation to absorb the impurities in the brine, so as to make the brine clear. If you are particular, you should use lean meat to clean the brine. However, it should be noted that the number of times of cleaning each pot of brine should not be too much, so as not to lose the fresh flavor of brine.
3? The floating oil in brine should be destroyed frequently, and it is best to keep only a thin layer of "oil face" on the surface of brine. Otherwise, too much oil will easily deteriorate the brine? Caused by oxidative deterioration of fat.
4? When the brine is not used, it should be boiled and put into an enamel bucket to let it cool naturally, and don't shake it at will. In addition, the bottom of the bucket should be padded with bricks to keep the bottom ventilated. If it is summer, the brine must be boiled every day, and if possible, it can be stored in the cold storage. When brine is not used for a long time, it should always be taken out of the cold storage to boil, cooled and then put into storage.
The above is only the author's experience in making Sichuan-style brine. However, cooking is a subject of change, so readers should flexibly master the materials and preparation methods of Sichuan-style brine according to specific conditions, so as to prepare satisfactory brine.