When cooking, many dishes require vinegar. So, how can we best use vinegar in our cooking?
1. Use vinegar to remove fishy and other odors from food
Vinegar can be used in ingredients that need to have their fishy smell and greasiness removed, such as when cooking aquatic products or tripe, intestines, heart, etc. It can eliminate fishy and unpleasant odors. For ingredients with a particularly strong fishy smell, they can also be marinated in vinegar in advance.
2. Add vinegar just before the dish is done cooking
Vinegar should be added just before the dish is finished. For example, when making dishes like sweet and sour fish that require vinegar, the vinegar should be added just before turning off the heat. If added too early, the vinegar will evaporate during cooking, and its flavor will be significantly reduced. Adding it at the end helps to preserve the full flavor of the vinegar.
3. If you've added too much chili when stir-frying, add a little vinegar to reduce the spiciness
When stir-frying, if you accidentally add too much chili, how can you fix it? If the dish is too spicy, you can add a little vinegar to counteract the heat. This is because the spiciness in chili comes from capsaicin, and the acetic acid in vinegar can neutralize some of the capsaicin, thereby reducing some of the spiciness.
4. When stewing meat, adding vinegar makes it tender more easily
When stewing meat, you can add some vinegar to make it more tender. It's generally best to add vinegar about halfway through the stewing process. This is because the collagen protein in the meat breaks down into soluble, soft gelatin more quickly when heated in an acidic environment. However, note that vinegar should not be added to lamb.