After opening the lid of Ye Chui’s mutton stew, you can find that the soup in the casserole is actually milky white. The turbid color has a very textured feel, just like milk!
"Did you cook the mutton with milk?" Zhang Jiahui couldn't help asking Ye Chui when he saw the milky soup. After his mutton was cooked, the soup was dark in color, and the texture of the soup was not as thick as Ye Chui's. From a sensory point of view, it was not as pleasing to the eye as Ye Chui's mutton. Did Ye Chui cook the mutton with milk
"No." Ye Chui shook his head and denied Zhang Jiahui's guess, "I cooked the mutton in clear water."
"So where does this milky white color come from?"
Almost everyone looked at Ye Chui curiously. Zhang Jiahui continued to ask, "Did you use any special seasoning? What was it?"
"The seasonings I used are also used in your mutton pot, onions, ginger, garlic, cooking wine, etc., that's all." Ye Chui said with a smile.
"Then what is this milky white color?" Nick Cheung continued to ask.
"It's protein." Ye Chui said with a smile.
"protein?"
"That's right. The protein contained in the meat will break down after a long period of cooking, forming this milky white texture." Ye Chui explained.
Huang Yiyuan was a little surprised when he saw Ye Chui's mutton stew. He couldn't help but question, "Master Ye, just admit that you used other seasonings. Master Zhang's mutton stew was also boiled for a long time. When meat is boiled, protein will be decomposed. We chefs present here know this, but why didn't Master Zhang's mutton stew show this color?"
"The Lin family mutton stew did not show this color because of five reasons." Ye Chui said with a smile, "The defects of the Lin family mutton stew are also due to these five reasons."
Five reasons
Many people were surprised.
How could a dish that has long been famous and was developed by an eight-star chef as one of the eight representative dishes of Chinatown actually have five flaws
This has to be surprising.
Huang Yiyuan's heart skipped a beat, but he continued to ask: "Then I would like to ask Master Ye, what are the five defects in Master Zhang's dish that prevent this dish from forming such a milky white texture!"
"OK."
Ye Cui smiled. The five flaws of the Lin family's mutton stew were actually the key secrets of this dish. These five flaws were actually very simple, but they were summarized after countless years of development of Chinese culinary culture.
Everyone in the hall listened with bated breath.
"First of all, the cooking time for this dish is too short. There is a key point in China that says 'cook for three hours and stew for four hours'. It means that the soup should be cooked for three hours, and the stew should be cooked for four hours. If the time is not enough, the mutton will not be well cooked, and the protein will not be broken down enough."
"Then the second point is that when making soup, never add cold water - this is the most important thing. If I am not mistaken, when Chef Zhang was making this dish, he must have told people to keep standing by the casserole and keep adding cold water to it, right? When the meat is being heated, it shrinks when it is cooled, and the protein will not dissolve easily. Adding cold water will reduce the protein content."
"But..." Hearing Ye Chui's words, Zhang Jiahui immediately retorted, "If you don't add cold water when making the soup, the soup will soon dry up and burn."
"This is the third point I want to make." Ye Chui looked at Zhang Jiahui and continued, "When boiling soup, you can't use a strong fire, but a slow fire. If you let the soup boil, the protein in the meat will move violently, making the soup turbid, which will seriously affect the texture of the finished dish."
Zhang Jiahui was stunned for a moment, nodded, and whispered: "So that's it..."
"Let's move on to the fourth point. This dish requires seasoning, but the seasoning should not be too much. Only a little bit of seasonings such as green onion, ginger, and so on are enough. In addition, only a little bit of seasonings such as soy sauce and vinegar are also enough. Otherwise, the color of the whole dish will become darker and the soup will become a little sour." Ye Chui continued.
Very little or even no seasoning is used, and meat is boiled in plain water. This was the practice at the beginning of Chinese food culture. At that time, chefs had no extra seasonings and could only use their superb cooking skills to make up for the lack of taste.
It was at that time that Dageng Buhe’s culinary realm was born.
It takes a long time to make soup, but it does not require too much seasoning, just to keep the food's original flavor. This vaguely contains the truth that big soups are not harmonious. In fact, the casserole for cooking is very similar to the ancient kitchen utensil "ding".
Ye Chui had already mentioned four points, and then he came to the fifth point.
"The fifth point is also the most important one... When cooking soup, add salt at the end." Ye Chui continued, "Salt can coagulate the protein in the meat. If you add salt too early, it will destroy the dissolution of the protein, making the soup dark and not concentrated enough."
“These are the five flaws of this mutton stew!”
Ye Chui has finished talking about his five main points.
Many people in the hall were surprised. They didn't expect that there were so many truths in a dish. The most surprising thing was that Ye Chui could explain these truths so clearly...
In fact, for Ye Chui, these are not difficult. There are five taboos in making soup, and the taboos are exactly the five key points mentioned by Ye Chui. Unfortunately, Zhang Jiahui violated almost all of these five key points - so Ye Chui thought before that the taste of this Lin family mutton stew is not as good as the cooking skills of any housewife in the previous life...
In the previous life, any housewife who knew how to cook would deliberately avoid these five defects when making soup. Of course, this is also because those housewives were not taught to do so when they learned to make soup, and there was ready-made empirical science. In this world, although stewed dishes have been passed down, the most delicious food cooked by this method is meat.
The ban on meat has only been lifted in the past two years, and earlier experience has long been lost. This mutton stew can be said to be created by Nick Cheung from scratch, so it is understandable that he would violate these taboos under such circumstances.
As Ye Chui finished explaining these points, the other people present all showed admiration. Huang Yiyuan and Mrs. Gao were speechless, Zhang Jiahui remained silent, but Lin Li showed a refreshing smile on his face - he spent one million to buy two recipes, if the eggplant pot made him feel a little bit at a disadvantage, then the mutton pot was definitely worth the money.
He seemed to have seen that after getting Ye Chui's new recipe, the reputation of Lin's Pot would be taken to a higher level!
In comparison, the glares from Madam Gao and Huang Yiyuan were nothing...
Robert smiled heartily at this time, and seemed to be very interested in the development of the matter. He then continued, "Although it is no longer necessary, since the five gourmets are here, why don't we continue to ask the five gourmets to taste and rate Ye Chui's mutton stew."
He spoke English, and the five gourmets nodded.
Michelle was the first to speak: "From the moment the lid of this dish was opened, I have been intoxicated by the aroma of this dish, the rich aroma of mutton. To be honest, Chef Zhang's dishes have given me a whole new understanding of mutton, so I give this dish a five-point score, and I am looking forward to tasting its flavor."
"Well, I guess I don't need to say anything more, five points," Hannah continued.
"Five points." Chris, who followed the weather, shouted. He looked at Tony and Sid, "You two don't have any objections, do you?"
"Yes, five points." Tony nodded.
Sid agreed, "Me too."
"Well, I can't wait to taste this dish." Chris was obviously an impatient person, and he had already shown an impatient look - even if he was impatient, he couldn't be so enthusiastic about other dishes. This only meant that Ye Chui's dishes made him look forward to it too much.
He quickly picked up the chopsticks and picked up a piece of mutton and put it on the small plate in front of him. He waited carefully for the meat to cool down before putting it into his mouth. He exhaled a breath of satisfaction, and then he couldn't wait to take the soup spoon, took a bite of the thick soup in the spoon, blew a few mouthfuls, and put it into his mouth. He couldn't help but exclaimed: "Delicious, so delicious. If I don't give this dish full marks, I will never be a qualified gourmet!"
Michelle, Hannah, Tony and Sid also tasted the mutton stew respectively, and there was obviously no need to say much about the scoring - this was probably the first time since the International Gourmet Association established a sound gourmet system and cooking competition rules that others were completely sure of the result of the competition before the gourmets even tasted the food.
“The taste did not disappoint me, five points.”
"I regret not being able to score higher than five."
"If I had eaten this dish first, I might have given Chef Zhang a lower score when I tasted his dish just now."
"Five points. I have nothing more to say."
Another perfect score.
To obtain such results and evaluations from senior gourmets from five gourmet associations is not something that an ordinary chef can achieve - even Gordon Ramsay may not be able to achieve such results!
But Ye Chui did it.
"Then it seems that today's cooking competition has officially come to an end." Robert announced with a smile, "As the chairman of the Gourmet Association, I declare that Mr. Ye Chui has won this cooking competition completely!"
Complete victory.
This is only announced when a contestant obtains full marks and wins.
It's just like in a fighting game, when you defeat the opponent with full health, you get the PERFECT!
There was some noise in the hall, and at this time, a person walked into the Lin Family Pot Restaurant—it was the eight-star chef Jim who had not appeared since the Spring Banquet! (~^~)