Tips for making soup

Soup is a favorite dish of many people, and there are many types of soup. Making your own soup is probably the best because you can add different ingredients according to your favorite taste. Moreover, you can choose the type of soup yourself. If you choose soup outside, the taste may not be suitable. Nutrition will also be affected. So what are the tips for making soup?

1. Choose the right materials

This is the key to making a good soup. The raw materials used to make soup are usually animal ingredients, such as chicken, duck, lean pork, pork elbow, pork bones, ham, pressed duck, fish, etc. When purchasing, you should pay attention to the fact that it must be fresh, have little odor and little blood stains. This type of food is rich in protein and nucleotides. The nitrogen-containing extract in poultry meat that can be dissolved in water is the main source of the soup's flavor.

2. Food should be fresh

Freshness does not mean the traditional "eat fresh meat and eat fresh fish". When we say fresh now, we mean 3 to 5 hours after the fish, livestock or poultry are killed. At this time, various enzymes in the fish, livestock or poultry meat break down the protein, fat, etc. into amino acids and fatty acids that are easily absorbed by the human body, and the taste is also the best.

3. Choose the right cooking utensils

The best way to make fresh soup is to cook it in an aged clay pot. A clay jar is made from quartz, feldspar, clay and other materials that are not good at conducting heat, and is fired at high temperature. It has good air permeability and adsorption properties, and also has the characteristics of uniform heat transfer and slow heat dissipation. When simmering fresh soup, the clay pot can transfer external heat to the internal ingredients in a balanced and lasting manner. The relatively balanced ambient temperature is conducive to the mutual penetration of water molecules and food. The longer this mutual penetration lasts, the more fresh and fragrant ingredients are dissolved, the more fresh and mellow the soup tastes, and the crispier the food texture is.

4. The heat should be appropriate

The key to stewing soup is to boil it over high heat and simmer it over low heat. This will allow the food protein extracts and other delicious substances to dissolve as much as possible, making the soup fresh, mellow and delicious. Only by simmering over low heat for a long time can the extract be dissolved more, making it clear and rich.

5. Water distribution should be reasonable

Water is both a solvent for delicious food and a medium for heat transfer. Changes in water temperature and the amount used have a direct impact on the flavor of the soup. The amount of water used is usually three times the weight of the main food being stewed in the soup. At the same time, the food should be heated together with the cold water, that is, the soup should not be simmered directly with boiling water, nor should cold water be added in the middle, so that the nutrients in the food can slowly overflow and ultimately achieve a clear soup.

6. Matching should be appropriate

Many foods already have fixed pairing patterns that allow nutrients to complement each other, which is the golden combination on the table. For example, kelp stewed with meat soup, the acidic food meat and the alkaline food kelp have a combined effect. This is a very popular longevity food in the longevity areas of Japan. In order to make the soup taste authentic, it is generally not necessary to simmer multiple animal foods together.

Pay attention to the order in which seasonings are added, and be especially careful not to add salt first when making soup. Because salt will cause the water in the raw materials to be discharged, the protein to coagulate, and the umami taste to be insufficient. Usually, temperatures between 60℃ and 80℃ can easily destroy some vitamins, while making soup keeps the food temperature at 85℃ to 100℃ for a long time. Therefore, vegetables should be added to the soup and eaten immediately to reduce the destruction of vitamin C. Add appropriate amounts of MSG, sesame oil, pepper, ginger, onion, garlic and other seasonings to the soup to make it unique, but be careful not to use too much so as not to affect the original flavor of the soup.

7. There are some rules for drinking soup

"Drinking soup before meals keeps you slim and healthy"; "Drinking soup after meals makes you fatter", there is some truth to this. Drinking soup before eating is equivalent to adding lubricant to the stomach and intestines. Drinking some soup from time to time during the meal can help dilute and stir the food, which is beneficial to the gastrointestinal tract's absorption and digestion of food. At the same time, drinking soup before eating can partially fill the stomach, which can reduce the intake of staple food and avoid excessive energy intake. Drinking soup after a meal can easily lead to overnutrition.

8. How much water should be added?

This is the key to making soup. The study found that when the raw materials and water are used in different ratios such as 1:1, 1:1.5, 1:2, etc., the color, aroma and taste of the soup will be very different, and the best result is 1:1.5. When the nutritional components of the soup were measured, the content of ammonia nitrogen (which can represent amino acids) in the soup was the highest at this time, even higher than when less water was used. This is because the amount of water added is too little and the ingredients cannot be completely immersed, which affects the concentration of nutrients in the soup. As the amount of water added increases, the concentration of ammonia nitrogen in the soup will decrease after being diluted. However, the calcium and iron content in the soup is highest when the ratio of raw materials to water is 1:1.

9. The longer you cook soup, the less nutritious it is.

For a long time, people have believed that "the longer the soup is cooked, the more nutritious it is." In this regard, the Institute of Nutrition and Health Food of Tongji University School of Medicine conducted experimental research. They chose pork trotter stew, free-range chicken stew and old duck stew, and through testing they found that the protein and fat content of pork trotter increased significantly after heating for 1 hour, and then gradually decreased; the protein and fat content of free-range chicken gradually increased after heating for 0.5 hour, and the protein content reached the maximum value after heating for 1.5 hours and the fat content after heating for 0.75 hours; the protein content of duck meat remained basically unchanged after heating for 1 hour, and the fat content reached the highest value after heating for 45 minutes. Cooking the soup for a long time did not increase the nutritional value of these three soups as people expected. Especially for chicken stew and duck stew, the longer the soup is cooked, the lower the protein content.

Warm reminder: pay attention to the time when making soup. Prolonged heating will destroy the vitamins in the dishes. Heating for 1 to 1.5 hours can obtain the more ideal nutritional peaks of the three types of soup. At this time, the ratio of energy consumption and nutritional value is better.