First, look at the appearance, most artificial sea cucumbers are made of molds, so the thorns are regular, the same size, almost inelastic, and even fall off when touched by hand. In order to make the sea cucumber look good, the seller of artificial sea cucumber will dye the sea cucumber into a black and shiny color, and the sea cucumber will slowly dye black when it is soaked in water.
Second, look at the inner tendons. Artificial sea cucumber has no openings at both ends and smooth inner wall. When the real sea cucumber is eviscerated, there are still residual sea cucumber tendons on the inner wall. Although artificial sea cucumber is said to be visceral, it is not normal to have no tendons. This is the most direct way to distinguish true and false sea cucumbers.
Third, soak the sea cucumber in water for a period of time. Artificial sea cucumbers are mostly gelatinous, which will fade if soaked in warm water, and will be shelled if soaked for a long time, but real sea cucumbers are not afraid of soaking and will not rot if cooked for a long time.
Introduction of sea cucumber
Among many seafood products, eight are called "eight treasures in the sea", namely sea cucumber, fishbone, shark's fin, abalone, fish belly, scallop, fish lips and roe. They are very precious seafood ingredients and can often be seen at many important banquets.
Most of the sea cucumbers we usually buy in the market are from dry sea cucumber, including dry sea cucumber and dry sea cucumber. Light dry sea cucumber is made by simply processing sea cucumber and drying it in the sun. It looks mostly black or gray, which is more natural. During the processing of salt dry sea cucumber, a large amount of salt is added, so it looks gray with salt particles on its surface.