You might be a great mom who can cook delicious meals that make your baby eat happily. But moms, are you sure your cooking methods retain the maximum nutrients in your ingredients? Perhaps the cooking methods you commonly use have already caused the nutrients in your meals to be lost.
Today, the editor will list some common incorrect cooking methods in households, so that we can make a nutritious and delicious meal for our children.
Boiling Milk
Incorrect cooking method: Pouring milk into a pot every morning and bringing it to a rapid boil over high heat.
Correct cooking method: When boiling milk, first, heat it quickly to raise the temperature rapidly. Never place the milk pot on the stove before the flame is strong. Second, do not let the milk come to a full boil. As soon as you see a lot of foam forming on the surface, promptly remove the pot from the center of the flame and let it sit for a moment.
Boiling Eggs
Incorrect cooking method: Filling the pot with more than half its capacity with water when boiling eggs.
Correct cooking method: Place the eggs in cold water, then heat slowly over low heat. Once the water boils, cook over a low flame for 2 minutes, then turn off the heat and let them soak for another 5 minutes. This method results in tender egg whites and firm, not overcooked, yolks.
Some people put the eggs in and boil until the water is almost gone, and some eggs even break. If eggs are not boiled properly, both the whites and yolks become very hard, which is not good for digestion and absorption.
Washing Rice
Incorrect cooking method: Repeatedly washing the rice until the water runs clear.
Cooking method
Correct cooking method: When washing rice, use plenty of water and rinse it quickly twice. According to experiments, Vitamin B1 in rice is reduced by 70% after one rinse and 80% after two. Vitamin B1 not only stimulates the appetite but also maintains normal gastrointestinal motility and digestive secretions, and participates in the normal metabolism of sugars. If the body lacks Vitamin B1, sugar metabolism will be affected, and the normal activity of nerve cells will be disrupted.
Stir-frying
Incorrect cooking method: Often making dishes that are deep-fried first and then stir-fried.
Correct cooking method: Reduce high-heat stir-frying. Instead, use cooking methods like steaming, braising, blanching, or boiling. Choose vegetable oils rich in monounsaturated fats, such as olive oil, tea tree oil, or peanut oil.
Fried foods contain a large amount of free radicals, peroxides, and carcinogenic substances, increasing the risk of cancer. Moreover, high temperatures destroy nutrients in food, such as Vitamins A, E, and D, leaving them with almost no nutritional value.
Washing and Cutting Vegetables
Incorrect cooking method: Cutting vegetables first and then washing them, or soaking them in water.
Cooking method
Correct cooking method: Soak and wash the vegetables whole first. Before cooking, do not rinse them for too long; generally, no more than 10 minutes.
Blanching and Stir-frying
Incorrect cooking method: Putting vegetables in cold water for blanching, and heating slowly when stir-frying.
Correct cooking method: Blanch vegetables in hot water, and stir-fry them quickly over high heat. The method of high-heat, quick stir-frying can shorten the cooking time and reduce the loss of nutrients in the ingredients. For example, pork is rich in Vitamin B1. If it is cut into shreds and stir-fried over high heat, the loss of Vitamin B1 is about 13%, whereas if it is cut into cubes and stewed over low heat, the loss is about 65%.
Three Cooking Methods to Retain Nutrients
Cooking method
When washing rice, the more times it is rinsed and the longer it is soaked, the more water-soluble vitamins and inorganic salts in rice and flour are easily lost.
When making congee with the water from boiled rice, large amounts of vitamins, inorganic salts, carbohydrates, and even proteins dissolve in the rice water. If the rice water is discarded, these nutrients are lost.
Adding alkali when making congee or steamed buns can destroy Vitamins B1 and C.
Many fried foods, such as french fries, have their nutritional value almost completely depleted after high-temperature deep-frying.
In summary, when making rice and flour products, steaming and pan-frying are better methods. Boiling, draining, and deep-frying should be avoided to reduce the loss of nutrients.
Rational Cooking of Meats
Generally, the protein, fat, carbohydrates, and inorganic salts in meat are relatively stable and suffer less loss during cooking. When cooking, stewing in soy sauce or clear stewing causes the most loss of Vitamin B1, as high as 60-65%. Steaming and deep-frying result in a 45% loss, and quick stir-frying causes a 13% loss. For Vitamin B2 in meat, steaming meatballs results in an 87% loss, while stewing meat blocks in soy sauce or clear broth results in a 40% loss, and quick stir-frying shredded meat only results in a 20% loss.
Rational Cooking of Vegetables
Vegetables are rich in water-soluble B vitamins, Vitamin C, and inorganic salts. If not cooked properly, these can be easily destroyed and lost. For example, slicing a fresh cucumber thinly for a salad and leaving it for 2 hours results in a 33-35% loss of vitamins, and after 3 hours, the loss is 41-49%.
If you add too much water when stir-frying green vegetables, a large amount of vitamins will dissolve into the water and be lost. When making wontons, we often boil the vegetables first, squeeze out the juice, and then use them for the filling. This causes even more severe loss of vitamins and inorganic salts.
Spinach contains a large amount of oxalic acid. When dissolved in water and entering the body, it easily forms insoluble calcium oxalate, which hinders the body's absorption of calcium. The scientific way to eat spinach is to boil it in a little water, discard the broth, and then eat it cold as a salad.
Carrots contain a large amount of beta-carotene. However, this is only present in the cell walls and must be released through methods like chopping, cooking, and chewing. Furthermore, beta-carotene is a fat-soluble substance, so it cannot be absorbed when eaten raw or in a soup. The most scientific cooking method is to cut it into pieces and stew it with meat for about 20 minutes.
When cooking vegetables, many moms struggle with how to preserve vitamins. So, how can you retain them? Here are some tips from the editor.
1. When washing all ingredients, use cold water and keep the washing time short. Do not soak or scrub for long periods.
2. Adhere to the principle of washing before cutting. Cutting first and then washing will cause the loss of water-soluble vitamins and minerals.
3. When the quality of the dish permits, cut ingredients as finely as possible to shorten the heating time and help preserve nutrients.
4. Try to cut and cook ingredients just before serving, and avoid keeping them warm for long periods or reheating them multiple times to reduce oxidative loss of vitamins.
5. When blanching vegetables or making flour-based foods, try to avoid adding alkali or alkaline substances, as this can prevent the significant loss of vitamins, proteins, and minerals.
6. When possible, add more vinegar. This helps protect vitamins and promotes the absorption of calcium.
7. For fresh and tender ingredients, advocate high-heat, quick cooking to shorten the time the ingredients spend in the pot, which can effectively reduce the destruction of nutrients by heat.