Healthy Home Cooking Tips----What should the oil temperature be when stir-frying? Is it really true that "more oil never spoils the dish"? What are the actual effects of "smoke and flame" on the human body? These seemingly simple kitchen questions are actually closely related to the food safety, health, and nutrition of your family.
1. Don't add salt too early when cooking meat: The main component of salt, sodium chloride, can easily cause the protein in the meat to coagulate, making the meat pieces shrink and become tough, and thus harder to cook tender.
2. Don't let the wok get too hot: Frequently eating dishes fried in oil that is too hot can easily lead to hypochlorhydria or gastric ulcers. If left untreated, this can even lead to cancer.
3. When boiling meat or bones, avoid adding cold water: Meat and bones contain large amounts of protein and fat. Adding cold water suddenly during cooking causes the temperature of the broth to drop rapidly. The protein and fat will then quickly solidify, and the pores in the meat and bones will suddenly shrink, preventing them from becoming tender. Furthermore, the natural flavor of the meat and bones will also be affected. 4. Undercooked beans should not be eaten: Beans contain a substance that interferes with the activity of trypsin in the human body. When people eat undercooked beans, they have difficulty digesting and absorbing the bean protein, which can even lead to diarrhea. However, eating beans that are thoroughly cooked and soft will not cause any problems. 5. Don't add monosodium glutamate (MSG) when cooking eggs: Eggs themselves contain glutamic acid, the same component as MSG. Therefore, it is unnecessary to add MSG when scrambling eggs. MSG will destroy the natural savory flavor of the eggs, and is certainly a waste.
6. Don't add MSG to acidic or alkaline foods: When MSG (glutamic acid) is added to acidic food and heated at high temperatures, it loses water and turns into sodium pyroglutamate. Although this is non-toxic, it has no savory taste at all. In alkaline foods, when the solution is in an alkaline environment, MSG (sodium glutamate) will convert into disodium glutamate, which is also tasteless.
7. Reused frying oil should not be consumed: The thermal utilization of repeatedly used frying oil is only about one-third of that of fresh oil. Furthermore, the unsaturated fats in the oil produce various harmful polymers when heated. These substances can stunt human growth and cause an enlarged liver. Additionally, the vitamins and fatty acids in this type of oil are destroyed.
8. Frozen meat should not be thawed at high temperatures: Thawing frozen meat near a stove or in boiling water is not advisable. The water in the meat's tissue cannot be quickly reabsorbed by the cells and will leak out, preventing the meat from returning to its original quality. At high temperatures, the surface of the frozen meat can form a hard layer, which impedes the diffusion of heat to the interior, creating an opportunity for bacteria to multiply and causing the meat to spoil more easily. Frozen meat is best thawed naturally at room temperature.
9. Don't peel eggplants when eating them: Vitamin P is a very beneficial vitamin for the human body. Among all vegetables in China, eggplants contain the highest amount of Vitamin P. The area where Vitamin P is most concentrated in an eggplant is at the junction of its purple skin and the flesh. Therefore, eggplants should be eaten with their skin on, and not peeled.
10. Avoid mixing aluminum and iron cookware: Aluminum is softer than iron. For example, if a stir-fry pan is made of iron and the spatula is aluminum, the softer aluminum spatula will quickly wear down and mix into the food. Consuming excessive amounts of aluminum is very detrimental to the body.