When making brine, what is the best color?

In this regard, it is not an exaggeration to describe it with the word "surprise". In my understanding, brine coloring is the most basic operation in the production of marinated food, but some professionals do not understand this basic operation and the practice is completely wrong.

Let me explain this problem in detail, hoping to give a reminder and help to those who are still making this common sense mistake.

First of all, we should know the importance of coloring for salted water and salted food.

Chinese food pays attention to "color, aroma and taste", so does braised dishes. This "color" is reflected in braised dishes, which is more direct and simple than other traditional dishes, that is, it only refers to the surface color of braised dishes.

Whether the color of brine is good or not depends on brine. The color of brine is adjusted, and the brine marinated with it naturally looks good.

This is just one of them. Regarding the coloring of brine, besides making the color of brine look good, we should also consider whether there are other effects on brine after coloring. If the color of brine only looks good after coloring, and the quality of brine is affected, then the coloring process still fails. And this point is just ignored by many people, thus encountering various unsolvable problems. Let's talk about this common mistake.

Second, many people only know how to draw with soy sauce or soy sauce, which is very wrong.

I mentioned it from the beginning, because I know the cooked food circle here better and I know many halogen food producers. For example, I have met such a friend. Although his shop is not big, and the daily shipment is not much, it has been operating for many years and its business has not been very good.

Once I walked into his shop, I first felt that the color of his braised pork was not good. When I was talking to him, I asked him what to color with, and he naturally replied, "It's soy sauce or soy sauce." This has subverted my cognition a bit, but there are such people in reality, which is obviously incorrect. They persisted for many years.

More interestingly, don't they communicate with their peers around them? Especially experienced peers. At that time, I didn't have the nerve to ask, but in reality, there are many such people and their business is not good. I really can't blame others.

Third, the most common problems with soy sauce and soy sauce coloring.

1, the pickled ingredients are not completely colored and tend to turn black.

Coloring with soy sauce and soy sauce seems to be the simplest operation, but it is also the most prone to problems. First of all, braised pork tends to turn black.

The principle of coloring is actually to let colored substances start from the epidermis and slowly penetrate into the ingredients. This is the original intention. However, coloring with soy sauce and soy sauce can't let the pigment penetrate from the outside to the inside. To put it bluntly, it is simply to attach pigments to the surface of ingredients, which is difficult to penetrate further and the coloring is not thorough. These pigments attached to the epidermis are easy to turn black.

2, the color of salt water is not easy to control.

I mentioned this question before. Anyone who dares to draw with soy sauce is either a novice or an expert. Why do you say that? Because soy sauce is not a pure natural ingredient, it is artificially processed. When processing brine, it is difficult to control the color of brine unless you are an expert. But then again, real masters don't paint with soy sauce.

3. Crucially, the old pumping method can easily deteriorate the salt water.

Aside from the above two points, the most important thing is that if there is soy sauce in the brine, the possibility of souring will be very high.

The daily maintenance of salt water is a very troublesome thing, which often leads to the deterioration of salt water due to improper handling. It's a pity that a pot of good old bittern often goes bad for various reasons.

The reason for the deterioration of brine is complicated, but the main reason is that there are a lot of impurities in brine, which is the main reason. Therefore, when we usually maintain brine, we should clean up impurities regularly.

If there is soy sauce in the brine, a lot of impurities will be produced in the process of pickling ingredients, because it exists in the brine in granular form and its properties are very unstable. Brine pickled with soy sauce will not be preserved for a long time, or it will deteriorate or be replaced with brine in advance, which is the biggest drawback of coloring with soy sauce.

Four, the correct operation of salt water coloring is to use sugar with gardenia yellow or Redmi.

It is the most traditional method to color brine with sugar and gardenia or monascus rice. Let's talk about specific reasons.

1, colored with sugar and yellow gardenia and Redmi, golden and beautiful.

I won't explain this much. Braised pork is colored with sugar, matched with gardenia and Redmi (some only use sugar, some only match gardenia or Redmi). Braised pork is golden in color and looks beautiful.

2, colored with sugar, braised pork is not easy to turn black.

Pickled ingredients will gradually darken when placed outside. The reason is the role of oxidation. This will happen whether you use sugar or soy sauce.

But the difference is that with soy sauce coloring, the oxidation speed will be very fast; However, it is very obvious that the oxidation rate of sugar-colored ingredients is much slower.

The biggest advantage of using sugar color is that salt water is easy to maintain.

The maintenance of brine is mentioned above. If a pot of good brine is well maintained, it will become what the industry often calls "old brine".

Different from the coloring of soy sauce, gardenia and Redmi are natural materials with very stable properties. Even if boiled in salt water for a long time, their properties are not easy to change much, and the impurities produced are relatively few.

In this long-term marinating process, the pigment will slowly penetrate into the ingredients from the outside to the inside, which is called true coloring. Moreover, because the character is very stable, the influence of salt water is very small, and salt water is particularly easy to maintain, which is the most prominent advantage of coloring with sugar.

Fifth, the correct way to cook sugar color.

I have specially introduced the method of cooking sugar color before, so let me briefly talk about it here.

First of all, it is important to understand that the sugar color used in traditional cooking and stewing is completely different from that used in brine. This must be remembered.

Traditional sugar color used in restaurants or restaurants: boiling rock sugar with water or oil on a small fire mainly depends on bubbles. First a big bubble appeared, and then it became a small bubble. When the small bubbles disappear, add hot water quickly (be sure to use hot water), and this will be done. This is a process in which bubbles change from "bull's eye bubbles" to "fish's eye bubbles" and then water is added.

The sugar color of brine is made in a completely different way: if the above method is used, the sugar color will change from large bubbles to small bubbles, and then the small bubbles will disappear, so the sugar color is too old and it is easy to make the brine black in the later oxidation process. The correct way is to pour boiling water at the first time when you see big bubbles of sugar color. Although the sugar color made in this way feels too tender, it is the most suitable for coloring brine.

Final summary

In order to make it easy for everyone to understand and remember, here is a final summary: 1, brine coloring is a very important operation in brine production; 2, the correct coloring method, can not use soy sauce or soy sauce, but use sugar color with yellow gardenia or Redmi (or only use sugar color); 3. Know why you can't use soy sauce; 4. Know why you should use sugar to color; 5, the sugar color used in brine, its practice is completely different from the traditional practice of restaurants, to cut. I hope the above introduction can help everyone.