Stinky tofu smells bad. Why do so many people like it?

Have you ever eaten stinky tofu? Although stinky tofu stinks, some people like it very much, and some people hide when they smell it. If you ask a person who likes to eat stinky tofu why, they will generally say that stinky tofu smells bad but tastes delicious!

If you have eaten stinky tofu, you must agree with this statement. But have you ever wondered why? Next, I will tell you why stinky tofu smells bad and tastes delicious. Let's start with why it stinks.

Stinky tofu is actually fermented from ordinary tofu. So what is fermentation?

Simply put, fermentation is to let bacteria or fungi help us deal with this piece of tofu first. Don't be afraid, these bacteria or fungi are harmless to us. When processing tofu, they will decompose protein in tofu, and then produce some chemicals, mainly some sulfides, sulfuric acid and sulfur. Because sulfide is volatile, it is easy to smell, and the smell is a bit choking. This is the main source of stinky tofu odor.

However, when these bacteria or fungi decompose protein, they not only produce unpleasant sulfide, but also produce another substance called glutamic acid. You may think glutamic acid is strange, but in fact, there are a lot of glutamic acid in chicken essence and monosodium glutamate used in our home cooking. It is it that makes us eat delicious food.

Since there is a lot of glutamic acid in stinky tofu, you should understand why it is delicious. And when we eat stinky tofu, we usually fry it in hot oil first. Glutamate will become more fragrant after high temperature.

However, you may ask, don't bacteria and fungi make food moldy? Then why can stinky tofu be eaten after being fermented by bacteria and fungi?

This is because when we make stinky tofu, we artificially control the fermentation degree of bacteria to prevent them from being completely decomposed. In addition, the bacteria and fungi that make stinky tofu are specially selected and can be safely eaten.

Finally, I want to ask you, besides stinky tofu, can you think of other smelly and delicious food? Think about the reason. Write down your answer in the message area and share it with us!