This is a guide to eating Chaoshan beef hotpot.

Original Liu Muxuan Duchengji Studio

When young people talk about beef, their first reaction seems to be western-style fried steak.

Immediately, people began to entangle the variety, grade and maturity of beef, talk about Maillard reaction and the coking layer of "don’t wash the pot", and argue about which one is more flavorful when cooked dry and wet, and whether it is worth exaggerating the price.

On the practical level, it often goes to the extreme of being fully cooked or raw, and finally reluctantly chooses the safest but most boring method-vacuumizing and packaging, throwing it into water for slow cooking at low temperature. In this way, the different degrees of maturity of beef correspond to almost the only temperature and duration, but the way of "copying homework" turns the game between human beings and ingredients into a boring arithmetic equation.

The older generation is usually worried that beef is easy to be cooked and stuffed. Usually, it is not sliced and thickened, or simmered slowly, and then made into sauce.

However, Chaoshan people eat cattle and clear the bottom of the pot, which is extremely fresh and unique.

△ Well-known gourmet Da Dong once commented on Chaoshan beef. (Source: Da Dong Weibo screenshot)

A qualified Chaoshan person will definitely rinse meat in person in front of foreigners, so we must firmly grasp the quality control of beef.

Time Weekly visited the sponsors of Chaozhou Beef Hotpot group industry standard, communicated with many local gourmets, and tried to summarize a set of instructions for beginners to eat Chaoshan beef hot pot.

meat

Beef in Chaoshan beef hot pot is usually divided into spoon handle, hanging dragon, beef tongue, tender meat, snowflake (neck kernel), fat beef (fat belly), three-toed (front leg), five-toed (hind leg), chest oil (chest fork) and so on. Every part of the meat has different thickness standards.

Generally speaking, the rare parts of each cow, such as three-toed and five-toed, are the most expensive and sell fastest, so please eat them early!

The most important thing about Chaoshan beef is freshness. It should not take more than 4 hours from slaughter to serving, and the freshest meat will still beat.

Chaoshan beef is hardly frozen, does not drain acid, and does not pay attention to the flavor of the beef accumulated after it is cooked. The main title is "The freshest ingredients often only need the simplest cooking method".

soup

It should be beef bone clear soup, and the soup base is classic with radish, bitter gourd, soybean and corn.

As for the early use of potatoes, insiders say that the older generation yearns for the big brother of the Soviet Union’s potato stewed beef, but the taste is not bad, but the potatoes will roll for a long time and will disappear.

Some stores will put beef balls or brisket in the pot in advance, which is just as well. The more you cook, the more fragrant it will be.

From the early sand tea soup to the clear beef bone soup today, Chaoshan beef hot pot is more inclusive, giving the control of taste to diners.

For many southern diners, drinking soup is a necessary process for a meal. However, in Chaoshan beef hot pot, soup should be eaten after two or three plates of meat are put into the pot.

It’s too early to be light, too late to be greasy, and it’s a must-have with chopped celery and a little pepper.

rinse

Whether it’s "three ups and three downs" or "seven ups and eight downs", or a big fire is quick to burn or a small fire is slow to simmer, the fundamental principle is not to be too familiar.

In recent years, with the popularity of all kinds of beef eating methods, some diners have been able to accept raw beef, and Chaoshan beef hot pot can’t overcook the beef.

The most common way is to put the beef in boiling soup and cook it, then stir it with chopsticks. When the surface of the meat slices is broken, take it out for about 2 seconds to make the beef hang in the soup and then cook it in the soup. The whole process takes no more than 20 seconds, and the fresh beef is cooked.

Other parts, such as the chest oil with more elasticity and tenacity, can be directly poured into the soup for cooking, and the time takes 2 minutes to 10 minutes.

In the advanced version of some gourmets’ suggestions, it is also necessary to turn off the fire and cook the beef after the soup boils for your diners to explore and try.

The kway teow and vegetables should be put after the meat is rinsed. The former is put early, which makes the soup muddy, while the latter is put early, which makes the soup sour.

Even Lao Guang, who is obsessed with "no vegetables ~" in every meal, will choose to endure it in front of Chaoshan beef hot pot noodles and finally eat vegetables.

dipping sauce

No matter how many Chaoshan beef hot pot noodles on the seasoning table compromise foreigners, the most authentic dip is still sand tea sauce, or you can try Puning bean sauce, a specialty of Puning next door.

Shacha sauce originated in Southeast Asia, and was sent back to China by local Chinese to remove the spicy taste and improve it. Now it is widely accepted in Guangdong, Fujian and other places.

Usually the raw materials are peanuts, sesame, fish, shrimp, shredded coconut, garlic, onion, turmeric, clove, dried tangerine peel and so on.

Not only dipped in beef, but also sand tea sauce is a perfect match with the daily ingredients in Chaoshan and Minnan areas, such as kway teow, beef offal, vegetables and seafood.

Original title: "This is a guide to eating Chaoshan beef hot pot"

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