Do you love drinking soup? Can you make soup? Are you drinking soup correctly? For drinking soup to truly have the effect of strengthening the body and preventing and curing diseases, certain scientific principles must be followed in its preparation and consumption, otherwise, deviations may occur.
Notes on making soup:
If you want to cook a delicious pot of soup at home to share the joy with your family, you should also pay attention to the following points:
Ingredients: When selecting Chinese medicinal ingredients, it is best to choose materials that are recognized by the public to have no side effects, such as ginseng, angelica, goji berries, astragalus, Chinese yam, lily, and lotus seeds. In addition, you can choose mild soup ingredients based on your physical condition. For example, if you have excessive internal heat, you can choose herbs that clear heat and moisten the body, such as mung beans, kelp, winter melon, and lotus seeds. If you have excessive internal cold, you should choose ginseng or similar ingredients as the soup base.
Water Temperature: Add meat to cold water. This way, the protein on the outer layer of the meat will not coagulate immediately, and the protein from both the inner and outer layers can fully dissolve into the soup, making the soup delicious.
Adding Ingredients: Meat should be blanched first to remove residual blood water and some fat, avoiding greasiness and ensuring a clear broth. The whole chicken should be stewed to ensure the meat is tender and not coarse after cooking. Also, do not add salt too early, as salt will draw out the moisture from the meat and speed up the coagulation of protein, affecting the soup's flavor. When making fish soup, first fry the fish on both sides in oil. This will set the skin, preventing it from breaking apart and removing any fishy smell.
Heat Control: The heat should not be too high; the level of heat should be judged by the boiling of the soup. After it comes to a boil, simmer on low heat for about three hours in general. Because ginseng contains a compound called ginsenoside, which will break down and lose its nutritional value if cooked for too long, the optimal time for cooking ginseng soup is about 40 minutes.
Time: The main nutrients in soup are amino acids. If heated for too long, new substances will be produced, and the nutrients will be destroyed. Generally, one hour is enough for fish soup, and about three hours for chicken or pork rib soup is sufficient. Therefore, cooking for a longer time is not necessarily better.
Handling the Meat After Cooking: No matter how long the soup is simmered, the nutrients in the meat cannot be completely dissolved into the soup. Therefore, you should still eat an appropriate amount of meat after drinking the soup.
The Art of Drinking Soup:
1. When you have a cold, it is not suitable to use soup for nourishment. Even mild herbs like American ginseng should be avoided, as these greasy soups can worsen cold symptoms.
2. Women should consume warm-natured soups before their menstrual period, but be careful not to overdo it, as excessive nourishment can lead to heavy menstrual flow.
3. For these soups with therapeutic effects to work, they should be consumed regularly. Two to three times a week is appropriate.