A delicious soup not only whets the appetite but also replenishes the nutrients the body needs. Some soups can even have beauty and anti-aging effects. However, there are some small details to pay attention to when making soup. Just how many little secrets are there? Let's find out together.
1. Choose the right ingredients
This is the key to making a good soup. The ingredients for making soup are usually animal-based, such as chicken, duck, lean pork, pork elbow, pork bones, ham, salted duck, and fish. When purchasing, you should ensure they are flavorful, have little off-flavor, and minimal bloodstains. These foods are rich in protein, nucleotides, and other substances. The nitrogenous extractives that dissolve in water from poultry are the main source of the soup's umami flavor.
2. Use fresh ingredients
"Fresh" here doesn't mean the traditional "eat meat right after slaughter, eat fish while it's still jumping." The "freshness" we talk about now refers to a period of 3 to 5 hours after the fish, livestock, or poultry is killed. At this time, various enzymes in the meat break down proteins and fats into amino acids and fatty acids that are easy for the human body to absorb, and the flavor is at its best.
3. Choose the right cookware
An aged earthenware pot is the best for simmering soup. The earthenware pot is made from clay, which is a mixture of materials that are not good at conducting heat, such as quartz, feldspar, and clay, and is fired at high temperatures. It has good ventilation and absorption properties, as well as characteristics like even heat conduction and slow heat dissipation. When simmering soup, the earthenware pot transfers the external heat to the ingredients evenly and continuously. The relatively stable ambient temperature is conducive to the mutual penetration of water molecules and food. The longer this mutual penetration lasts, the more the umami components are dissolved, resulting in a fresh and mellow soup flavor and a more tender texture for the food.
4. Control the heat properly
The secret to simmering soup is to bring it to a boil over high heat and then simmer it over low heat. This allows the umami substances from the food, such as protein extracts, to dissolve as much as possible, making the soup fresh and delicious. Only by simmering over low heat for a long time can more extracts be dissolved, resulting in a soup that is both clear and rich.
5. Use water reasonably
Water is both a solvent for the flavorful ingredients and a medium for heat transfer. The water temperature and the amount used directly affect the flavor of the soup. The amount of water is usually 3 times the weight of the main ingredient. The food should be heated together with cold water, meaning you should not simmer the soup directly with boiling water or add cold water midway. This allows the nutrients in the food to seep out slowly, ultimately resulting in a clear soup.
6. Pair ingredients appropriately
Many foods have established pairing patterns that create a complementary effect on nutrients, known as the "golden pairings" on the dining table. For example, in seaweed and meat soup, the acidic meat and the alkaline seaweed have a synergistic effect, which is a very popular longevity food in the longevity areas of Japan. To keep the soup's flavor pure, it is generally not recommended to simmer different types of animal foods together.
Regarding the order of adding seasonings, it is particularly important not to add salt at the beginning of cooking. Salt will draw moisture out of the ingredients and cause the proteins to coagulate, resulting in a lack of umami flavor. A temperature of 60°C to 80°C can easily destroy some vitamins, whereas stewing keeps the food temperature between 85°C and 100°C for a long time. Therefore, vegetables should be added to the soup and eaten right away to reduce the destruction of vitamin C. Adding an appropriate amount of seasonings like MSG, sesame oil, pepper, ginger, scallion, and garlic can give the soup a unique flavor, but be careful not to use too much to avoid affecting the original flavor of the soup.
7. The timing of drinking soup matters
"Drink soup before a meal to be slim and healthy"; "Drink soup after a meal, and the more you drink, the fatter you get." There is some truth to this. Drinking soup before a meal is like adding a lubricant to your digestive system. Sipping soup during the meal helps to dilute and mix the food, which is beneficial for the stomach and intestines to absorb and digest it. At the same time, drinking soup before a meal fills the stomach, reducing the intake of staple foods and avoiding excessive energy intake. Drinking soup after a meal, on the other hand, can easily lead to excessive nutrition.
8. How much water should you add?
This is a key point in making soup. Research has found that when ingredients and water are simmered in different ratios such as 1:1, 1:1.5, and 1:2, the color, aroma, and taste of the soup vary greatly. The best result is achieved with a 1:1.5 ratio. Analysis of the soup's nutritional content shows that the content of ammonia nitrogen (a component that represents amino acids) is also highest at this ratio, even higher than when less water is used. This is because too little water means the ingredients are not completely submerged, affecting the concentration of nutrients in the soup. As the amount of water increases, the concentration of ammonia nitrogen in the soup is diluted and decreases. However, the calcium and iron content in the soup is highest when the ratio of ingredients to water is 1:1.
9. The longer you stew, the less nutritious it gets
For a long time, people have believed that "the longer you stew soup, the more nutritious it is." In response to this, the Institute of Nutrition and Health Food at the School of Medicine of Tongji University conducted an experimental study. They chose pork knuckle soup, free-range chicken soup, and old duck soup. Through testing, they found: In the pork knuckle soup, the protein and fat content increased significantly after 1 hour of heating and then gradually decreased; In the free-range chicken soup, the protein and fat content gradually increased after 0.5 hours of heating, reaching their maximum values at 1.5 hours for protein and 0.75 hours for fat; In the duck soup, the protein content remained basically unchanged after 1 hour of heating, while the fat content peaked after 45 minutes. Long stewing did not, as people might expect, increase the nutritional value of these three types of soup. Especially for the free-range chicken soup and old duck soup, the longer the stewing time, the lower the protein content.