Why does Master Lu Chuan always tell me that "the formula is not important"? So what is the most important thing to learn about pot-stewed dishes?

However, in the usual cooking, we often find that even if we have accurate recipes in our hands, we can't achieve the proper taste. This is because the flavor of brine depends not only on the formula, but also on the comprehensive influence of technological process and specific operation process. So in my opinion, even if there is a whole formula, it is not the essence of brine. Moreover, the taste of each region is different, and the formula of cattle is not suitable for the taste of the whole country, so I only learn formula and fur. It's not enough to cook braised dishes by formula alone. Only by systematically learning the whole operation process and matching the formula can we make delicious braised pork products. Therefore, the formula mentioned by Master Lu Chuan is not important, and I agree.

I think the important essence of marinated vegetables can be roughly divided into three aspects, namely, preparation and maintenance of brine, selection of raw materials, primary processing and marinating, and sales of finished products. Below, I will introduce the main points of these three aspects in detail with the experience of braised pig's head meat, hoping that the subject can refer to it.

Key points of brine preparation

A good braised pork, the taste of the finished product is strong or not, and the old brine plays an important role. In order to make the brine produce the effect of old brine as soon as possible, old chicken, pig bones and other raw materials are generally used to make broth as the base soup to make up for the lack of heavy taste of the finished product.

Hanging method of broth:

1. Take ten catties of pig leg bones, two old hens and three catties of pig skin, soak them in blood water first, then blanch them to remove blood foam, and chop them into large pieces for later use.

2. Use a stainless steel barrel, add 50 kilograms of clean water, add raw materials for blanching, boil with strong fire, stew with low fire for eight hours, then rinse the soup with strong fire for half an hour, stir with a spoon to prevent the pot from burning out, and finally boil the bones into slag and filter to get about 35 kilograms of broth.

Soup to bittern soup: add spices (0.75% soup juice can be added), stew for two hours, add sugar color (boiled with gardenia water), salt (1.6%-2%), monosodium glutamate (0.8%) and crystal sugar (0.4%), and seal the oil after frying.

Note: 1. In order to make braised pork products look red and bright, salt water should be moderately viscous and naturally thicken. Adding fried sealing oil can make the finished product more shiny (with the continuous increase of braised pork in the later period, fried sealing oil will no longer be used).

2. The sealing oil in salt water should be controlled at about 3 cm. Too much brine is easy to stew. Later, more and more bittern oil can be skimmed.

Key points of brine maintenance and preservation

After a long period of marinating, the taste of the finished product will become stronger and stronger. In fact, the old brine and the ingredients themselves are mutual. The old brine is getting fresher and thicker by the ingredients, and the cooking of the old brine makes the ingredients more and more fragrant. The most important key here is salt water maintenance. Without high-quality maintenance, reciprocity cannot be achieved.

Key points of brine maintenance: 1. After the salt water is used up every day, the residual residue should be removed by leakage.

2. Skim the upper oil slick, remove impurities between salt water and oil slick, then filter the salt water in the middle into a clean bucket, and pour the salt water soup at the bottom of the old bucket for two or three centimeters.

3. Pour the bittern oil back into a new barrel, ignite and boil for about three minutes, then turn off the fire.

4. Put the pot of brine soup in a ventilated and dry place, put a shelf under it as far as possible, keep the bottom of the pot ventilated and cool it as soon as possible.

Key points of brine preservation

Common salt water: according to the above method, salt water should be cooked once or twice a day in summer. Winter can be extended to three or four days.

Unusual brine: When the brine cools, separate the brine from the brine oil and put it in the refrigerator for freezing.

Note: 1. Salt water can't be burned out. Generally, there are two kinds of empty burning. First, when curing the marinated soup, you can turn off the fire after boiling for three minutes, and it is not allowed to burn out for a long time. Second, the ratio of halogen to halogen is wrong. You can't just use 30 Jin of bittern and 10 Jin of pig's head, which also belongs to empty burning. Empty burning will make the bittern darker and darker.

2. When the brine is boiled, the lid cannot be covered to prevent the brine from rancidity due to low steam water.

3. There is another key to salt water maintenance, and that is circulation. Circulation is not only to cook new goods every day, but also to keep the circulation of brine. After cleaning the old soup at the bottom every day, some water or broth should be added for circulation (normal salt water cooking also loses). This kind of water should be added every time, but not too much at a time, so as to keep the activity of the brine (not only to control the color, but also to control the salinity). Even if the total amount of salt water is enough, a part should be set aside and fresh water should be added. It's a pity to lose this part of clear water, which can be used for marinating vegetables.

4. After the marinated goods are finished, the spice bags must be fished out together, and must not be put into the marinated soup. After cooling, they should be sealed and stored in the refrigerator.

Key points of raw material selection

The first is freshness. Using fresh ingredients, braised pork is half the battle. Then, choose ingredients without blood stasis and foreign hair.

Key points of primary processing of raw materials. Take the pig head as an example;

1. Buy fresh pig heads (usually separated) and soak them in clear water for two or three hours to remove blood.

2. Cut off the pig's ears, remove hair from pores and remove lymph. Roast the whole pig's head with a musket, then brush the black spots with steel balls, put the pig's head into a cold water pot, add a little Redmi (packaged), paint the pig's head with a pink background, take it out and wash it, and wait for curing.

Note: 1. Even if the pig's head feels clean, it should be roasted again, which has two functions. First, it has subcutaneous hair, which may be exposed after cooking, so it should be baked deeper at first. Second, part of the odor of pigs comes from sweat glands, which can be roasted with fire to remove part of the odor.

2. The pig's head stinks, and the drowning time can be slightly longer. Remember to skim off the foam.

Key points of marinated raw materials

There are also key points such as coloring, seasoning and heating time.

Key points of coloring: I use the pure natural coloring method of braised pig's head meat, which is colored by the combination of sugar, gardenia and red rice, without using seasonings such as soy sauce. The specific method of frying sugar color:

1. Add 1 00g gardenia to1kg water and boil for about10min. Gardenia jasminoides Ellis (reusable) retains water after filtration.

2. Stir-fry one kilogram of rock sugar in oil until the sugar solution turns yellow and falls back, then pour gardenia and boil for three minutes.

3. The usage of red rice is to put it in the pig's head when drowning.

Emphasis on seasoning: the proportion of seasoning in formal marinating is the same as that of salt, monosodium glutamate and sugar in new marinating soup. The only difference is the proportion of spices. Here, the proportion of spices needs to be controlled between 1% and 2%. I usually use 1.5%.

Heat and time focus: Add seasoning and pig's head after the brine is boiled, then boil the pot again to keep medium heat, start adding sugar color, and keep medium heat 10 minute to stabilize the color of pig's head. Reduce the brine for 50 to 60 minutes, remove the pig head, remove the bones, put it in the brine again, and stew for 40 minutes.

Note: 1. The method of sugar color is the same as that of bittern blending, and the amount of sugar color can be added according to the local favorite color.

2. Try not to put gardenia and monascus directly into salt water. First, the quantity is not easy to control, and second, it is easy to cause brine rancidity.

3. When using sugar color, you must turn on the medium fire and keep the medium fire to stabilize its color.

The focus of finished product sales

Mainly how to keep the brightness of braised pork, including how to reduce the oxidation speed and prolong the oxidation time of braised pork.

The key point of reducing oxidation rate: 1. Control the temperature of the pot reasonably. If the freshly marinated meat is directly taken out of the pot, with the emission of steam, it will aggravate the blackening of braised pork (no oxidation without adding sugar). So I usually cook at 67 degrees, which also needs to control the stewing time.

2. The floating oil on the upper layer of brine can be brushed on the surface of braised pork, and then covered with white cotton cloth for sale, so as to reduce the direct contact of air and reduce the oxidation speed.

Key point of prolonging oxidation time: 1. The color of sugar is tender, not light. 2. Color with sugar when marinating formally, and the color of braised pork is lighter.

It should be said that there is a key point in every link of braised dishes production, which is a whole system and can not be solved by any formula. Even the disposal of braised pork leftovers is focused and skillful. Only careful work can make high-quality braised pork products.

The above is my real experience, I hope I can give you a reference. Due to the limited time, I wrote it in a hurry. Friends who like brine knowledge can also leave a message in the comment area below. It's just a statement, and I hope that the shortcomings will be corrected by the criticism of brine coffee.

The preparation of marinated soup requires star anise150g, cinnamon100g, pepper 300g, fragrant leaves 20g, fennel10g, dried ginger 50g, angelica dahurica 40g, fragrant fruit 50g, Amomum tsaoko 60g, white button 30g, licorice 50g and honey 20g.

Step 1: all the ingredients are cooled in oil, and then boiled in a pot until bubbling.

Step 2: Add1500g soybean oil, 300g dried chili, stir-fry until fragrant, and add 30kg water to boil.

Step 3: add 600 grams of salt, 800 grams of sugar, 900 grams of monosodium glutamate and a proper amount of cooking wine.

Step 4: Color matching and sunset yellow.

Precautions:

1. For example, stewed pork intestines with strong flavor must be separated separately to avoid other braised dishes.

2. It is very important to grasp the temperature. Duck feet for about 45 minutes, duck wings for about 35 minutes, beef for 60 minutes, duck head for 35 minutes and fat intestines for 40 minutes.

3. The salted soup can be reused. When preserving the marinated soup, the impurities in it must be removed, and then it should be thoroughly cooled and put in the refrigerator. Salted soup should be packed in ceramic or glass containers.

4. The marinade package should be soaked in hot water for more than 2 hours before use, and then added with salt water after cleaning.

5. There is no need to add soy sauce, soy sauce and oyster sauce to the salt water.

6. Always clean the floating foam on the brine pan and filter the sediment with brine every day.

7. Don't overcook the sugar, and the heat must be controlled.

Cooking pot-stewed vegetables is a long process, and you must have enough patience and confidence to do it better.

What is the best dish sold in Sichuan and Chongqing in summer?

Lu Wei, all kinds of Lu Wei! Take our community as an example. There are no fewer than six pot-stewed food stalls close to the community, and each household also has its own best pot-stewed food.

What is Sichuan-style pot-stewed dish? Pot-stewed vegetables can be divided into white brine and red brine, both of which belong to the largest category of the five flavors. The simple explanation is that white brine is colored without sugar, and the brine is light and suitable for blending. For example, Rongchang braised goose and Fengdu spicy chicken in Chongqing are typical white brine.

Red halogen needs to be colored with sugar, which is much heavier. Relatively speaking, red brine is suitable for large pieces of meat, such as the famous Chengdu No.1 trotters and the braised beef series in Yunyang, Chongqing. Whether it is red or white, it is all spiced, and it has the characteristics of crispy, soft, delicious and fragrant, which is suitable for all ages.

A stewed pig's trotters, waxy and lively, soft, rake-like, with pleasant aroma, especially delicious, not salty, with just the right ingredients, a little sweet, sticky hands after eating, fragrant lips and teeth and endless aftertaste.

In fact, it is very difficult to learn authentic Sichuan brine, because generally, the shops with good taste are old shops that have been passed down for a long time, and each one has its own uniqueness. It's hard for you to eat two kinds of special braised dishes with similar tastes.

As for the fact that Master Lu Chuan always tells you that "the formula is not important", it is actually like saying "I'm not drunk" to a drunk person. Not drunk = drunk; Not important = important.

In fact, the reason why I told you that "formula is not important" is because most formulas are passed down from generation to generation. On the basis of the basic formula of spices, the old halogen shop often adds several spices that are not available in other families. The basic marinade is actually very simple: star anise, cinnamon, fennel, licorice, Anemarrhena asphodeloides, fermented grains, pepper, Amomum villosum, Amomum tsaoko, clove, ginger, onion, cooking wine, rock sugar, monosodium glutamate, refined salt, bone soup, lard, and of course soy sauce and soy sauce. As for the secret recipe, I don't know, but most of them are Chinese herbal medicines.

Now Sichuan bittern has changed. On the basis of natural spices, a unique Sichuan spicy sauce was made from peppers with different spicy degrees. This bittern is more suitable for drinking beer as a snack in summer.

Secondly, the reason why the formula is not important is because there is another very important thing in Sichuan brine, old brine! This is the highlight of all old brands. What is old brine? That is, the brine keeps boiling, the pot of brine does not dry up, and the halogen flavor and ingredients are added all the year round, keeping the essence of the new and old halogen flavor and ingredients in the pot of brine that has not stopped for a hundred years.

Excuse me, can this brine not taste good? Without this old bittern, what's the use of holding the formula?

In recent two years, pot-stewed vegetables are very popular in Chongqing, and they are called the essential elements of new hot pot. Everyone has put up signs. I'm not very interested in the exclusive cheats, but if you come to Chongqing to play, you can still try them. Braised pot-stewed vegetables are really a different flavor.

By the way, remember that no matter what kind of marinated vegetables are, they are not delicious and salty after being salted. Some pot-stewed food stalls with bad business will be sold after being marinated the next day. How to identify them? Look at the color, compare similar halogen products, and choose a lighter color, which is the fresh halogen dish marinated today.

I come from Pengzhou, Chengdu, Sichuan, and have been a deli for almost 30 years. I often tell my disciples that the recipe is really not the most important thing in stew.

The first function of formula in pot-stewed vegetables is to keep the aroma of pot-stewed vegetables stable. If we add spices at will every day, it will inevitably lead to different tastes every day, sometimes fragrant, sometimes not fragrant, and even some spices are too heavy, which will lead to the phenomenon of partial taste of braised dishes, so a standard amount of spices is the premise to keep the aroma of braised dishes stable; The second function of the formula is to help enhance the fragrance. When cooking braised vegetables, we should remember one thing, that is, we should keep the original flavor of the ingredients, that is, braised pork should be able to eat meat flavor, while vegetables should be able to eat clear flavor. If the spice is too heavy to cover up the smell of meat, then you are not eating braised pork, but eating spices.

The most important factor to determine whether a braised pork is delicious is not spices, which I often mentioned in my previous sharing. Of all the flavors, salt is the most sensitive and indispensable one. Therefore, salt is the most important thing in cooking pot-stewed dishes. There is no salty taste, and it is useless to put more spices. Secondly, heat is also very important for stewing vegetables. The heat determines the taste of braised pork. What kind of ingredients need what kind of heat and how long it takes to cure have strict requirements. For example, fat meat needs to be marinated in medium fire, which is conducive to the degreasing of fat meat and is not greasy to eat. Lean meat needs to be marinated with low fire to avoid excessive dehydration, drying and firewood. In addition, the marinating time is relatively tight, the marinating time is at least 2 hours, while the marinating time of chicken feet and chicken wings is only 20 minutes. Then the pretreatment of ingredients, such as soaking, pickling, blanching and so on. These are the necessary procedures to remove the odor of ingredients. So many details are superimposed, and any problem in any link will have an impact on the quality of braised pork. Therefore, there is a saying that "the spice formula in braised dishes is not the most important". Facts have proved that this statement is true!

In my previous article, I especially shared the view that seasoning is not the most important in stewing vegetables. Friends who like braised dishes can pay attention to it. For a more detailed explanation and technical points of braised vegetables, please refer to my previous article.

We have been engaged in the cooked food industry for nearly 30 years, and all the sharing is our own experience summed up in practice, which is a practical method.

Is the formula of catering industry important? Why did the master say "Formula is not important"?