Why do the master chefs in the workplace canteen like to use oil and thickening when cooking?

When watching chefs cooking, you often find that before the dishes are cooked, they will take a little starch and add water to the dishes, which is called thickening. So what exactly does thickening do? ?

The soup of ordinary dishes has a stronger flavor than the vegetables, and there are many inorganic salts, vitamins and other nutrients in the soup. Thickening will coat the soup with the ingredients and reduce the loss of nutrients in the food.

The so-called thickening is also called thickening by Cantonese people. In fact, to put it bluntly, it is brine. It is to dilute dry starch (also called corn starch by Cantonese people) into water starch with water. Before the vegetables are cooked but not served on the plate, add an appropriate amount of water starch and stir evenly, which is called thickening. Thickening stir-fry vegetables has many benefits.

First of all, it makes the dishes taste more delicious. As we all know, people's perception of the taste of food is closely related to the length of time the food contacts the tongue's taste buds. Thickening can extend the time that the dish contacts the tongue's taste buds, making people feel that the dish tastes sweeter and more delicious.

Secondly, thickening can increase the viscosity of food ingredients so that vitamins and other nutrients dissolved in the vegetable soup can stick to the surface of the dishes, preventing them from being left in the vegetable soup and causing waste. So people in Guangdong and Guangxi like to thicken the soup.

Third, thickening can keep the dishes fresh and tender. Regardless of whether meat or vegetables are cooked, sizing them before cooking or thickening them after frying can reduce dehydration of the cooking ingredients.

Fourth, the biggest benefit of thickening is that it can protect vitamins. Starch contains glutathione, and the sulfhydryl group in its structure protects vitamin C and exerts an osmotic pressure on the tissue of the dishes, thereby reducing excessive dehydration of the raw materials of the dishes, which can keep the dishes smooth, tender or crispy.

Fifth, thickening can also play a role in heat preservation. Take a bowl of soup just out of the pot and a bowl of steaming sesame paste. When left for the same amount of time, the soup is not as hot as the sesame paste.

Although thickening is an important means to improve the taste, color, and shape of dishes, it does not mean that every dish must be thickened. The timing of thickening and whether it needs to be thickened should be determined according to the characteristics and requirements of the dish. .