Chinese food has a large number of delicacies and cooking techniques, and local cuisines are even more diverse. Many people can only specialize in one of them throughout their lives. But there are also some cooking techniques that are relatively simple, basic and practical, such as blanching dishes.

Whether it is northern or southern cuisine, whether it is a professional kitchen or a small family stove, the small technique of "blanching water" is used in the preparation of many dishes, but there are many ways to blanch water for novice cooks. This time we will explain in detail the benefits of blanching dishes, how to control the blanching time, and some incidental techniques during the blanching process. What are the benefits of blanching a dish?

Any cooking technique that can be passed down for many years must have its function, so there are some benefits to blanching the dishes correctly. Let’s give examples one by one below.

1. The benefits of blanching meat make it look better: In most meat dishes cooked by stewing or boiling, blanching is almost always used to remove the blood remaining in the meat of poultry and livestock. , tissue fluid to ensure that the finished dishes have pure color and good appearance. Meats such as chicken, duck, pig, and beef will produce a large amount of blood foam during the blanching process. These pink and gray foams are mainly residual blood, tissue fluid and other substances. If they are not completely removed, they will appear after stewing or boiling. The finished dish will be dark in color and make people unappetizing. Pure taste: Cooking involves the proper and appropriate processing of ingredients, so not all the “original flavors” in the ingredients are worth retaining. For example, the fishy smell and muttony smell in meat ingredients are not worth retaining. What produces these odors The substance also doesn’t have good nutritional value. Therefore, after the blood foam is removed by blanching, not only will the stewed or boiled dishes look better, but the aroma and taste will also be purer.

2. The benefits of blanching vegetarian vegetables are pre-cooked: mainly used for meat and vegetable combinations or vegetables that are not easy to fry. Take broccoli and beef as an example. Broccoli is fresh and refreshing, while beef is What you want is fresh and fragrant. But broccoli itself is a vegetable that is difficult to stir-fry. If you stir-fry it directly, the buds on it will be burnt when the stems are cooked, and the beef will be fried long ago, so blanch the broccoli in advance until it is raw. This can avoid problems such as burning and inconsistent maturity. Improve color: Blanching can pre-cook vegetables while avoiding overheating. Otherwise, the chlorophyll in green vegetables will be overheated and converted into pheophytin, causing the vegetables to darken and turn yellow. Remove certain substances: Although eating more vegetables is a good eating habit, some vegetables need to be blanched, otherwise some of the substances will affect the taste of the dishes, and there may be some hidden dangers, such as the high amount of oxalic acid in spinach. and tannic acid, as well as the higher nitrite in toon, these substances can be removed by blanching. Remove some water: This is a method occasionally used when mixing certain vegetables with stuffing. Blanching can rupture some cells of the vegetables and release the abundant moisture inside, thereby preventing the vegetables from seeping after they are chopped and mixed with the stuffing. Too much moisture is released, causing the seasoning and condition of the filling to be destroyed.

3. Expanded content: Blanching soy products

In addition to vegetables and meat, many soy products can also be blanched before cooking. You can also use the blanching step. Get some benefits from letting the dish cook. More hygienic: When making some cold soy products, it is best to blanch the soy products. After all, although soy products are considered vegetarian, their nutritional content is still very sufficient, so they are easily contaminated by microorganisms. Blanching can solve this hygienic problem. Removing the beany smell: Although soy products do not have as obvious a fishy smell as meat, they often have a unique odor, which is the "beany smell". Blanching can remove it and make the dishes taste more pure. Firm texture: This point is mainly for tofu, especially when making dishes such as Mapo Tofu. Blanching can not only remove the beany smell, but also make the tofu pieces firmer and less likely to break. 2. How to control the time of blanching

Because the boiling point of pure water is 100 degrees under standard pressure, the temperature of blanching water is almost certainly constant, so the unit of measurement for measuring the progress of blanching is blanching water. length of time.

1. Meat

The purpose of blanching meat is to remove blood, tissue fluid and other impurities. However, if it is cooked for a long time, the flavor substances of the meat itself will be dissolved in the meat. In the water, the "original flavor of meat" is lost.

Therefore, when we blanch meat, it is generally based on the fact that the meat has completely changed color and all the blood foam has disappeared. As for the specific blanch time, it is recommended to continue cooking for 3 to 5 minutes after the water boils. The more detailed time is It depends on factors such as the size of the piece of meat and whether it has large bones.

2. Vegetables

The purpose of blanching vegetables is to pre-cook, improve color, and remove some unnecessary substances and moisture. In addition, most green vegetables are not It can withstand high-temperature cooking, so the blanching time of vegetables generally needs to be more careful. Generally, we use the observation that the color of the vegetables turns deep and bright green and the texture begins to break as the standard. The specific time can range from 3 seconds to 3 minutes, which depends on the individual's needs and understanding of the taste of different vegetables. There are some things that are useful in the third blanching process

Sometimes the process of blanching ingredients does not only use water and the ingredient itself, but also other things and other steps are involved. They all They have different functions, let’s briefly share a few below. Add salt to blanching water: Salt is the "king of flavors". Adding a little salt during the blanching process can let the ingredients absorb the flavor first. Moreover, salt can make the texture of some ingredients firmer, such as when making mapo tofu and blanching the tofu. Add green onions, ginger, and Sichuan peppercorns to blanching water: Needless to say, the role of green onions and ginger in blanching water is almost a must-have option for blanching meat to remove fishy and odor. The effect of Sichuan peppercorns in removing fishy and odorous substances is also very obvious. Only a few grains of dried Sichuan peppercorns are needed to enhance the effect of removing fishy and odorous substances. Blanching and dripping oil: The color of vegetables will become darker when blanching, but there is also the possibility of further oxidation and discoloration due to high temperature. Drop a few drops of cooking oil in the water to make it thin on the surface of the vegetables and isolate part of the air. After that, you can slightly slow down the oxidative discoloration of vegetables. Overcooling after blanching: After the purpose of blanching is achieved, sometimes in order to prevent the ingredients that have just been taken out of the boiling water from being heated by the residual temperature and becoming more cooked, we need to lower their temperature in time. This can be done after blanching. Subcooling water to cool down can preserve and create a better taste, and prevent the ingredients from being overcooked by the residual heat. Should the ingredients that are blanched should be boiled in cold water or boiling water

For most meats, it is recommended to boil them in cold water. The water temperature in the cold water pot will gradually increase, which can avoid premature contraction of the muscle fibers on the surface of the meat. This allows the meat to heat up relatively uniformly from the inside to the outside, so that the contracting muscle fibers can evenly "squeeze out" free blood, tissue fluid and other odor-containing substances inside.

If the water is boiled and then added to the pot, the muscle fibers and fascia on the outside of the meat will complete contraction in a very short period of time, and at this time, impurities such as blood and water have not been completely discharged from the inside of the meat. Therefore, it is easy to cause incomplete removal of meat smell and odor.

It is recommended to boil water in a pot for most vegetables. Boiling a pot under water can pre-cook vegetables or soy products, sterilize, tighten the taste, and remove unnecessary moisture and nitrites in a very short time. substance. If the vegetables are put into the pot with cold water, then by the time some of these effects are achieved, the vegetables will have been overcooked and rotten.

Then the above is all about blanching dishes this time. If it is helpful, please help forward and save it.