When it comes to cooking, no matter ancient or modern, Chinese or foreign, soup is an element that cannot be bypassed.

In the era when monosodium glutamate and chicken essence had not yet been invented, what did dishes rely on to flavor them?

At first, it was the original taste of the ingredients themselves, then the salt, and then the discovery of many natural condiments and spices, and the taste on our table became rich.

However, some high-end dishes, such as swallow abalone and winged ginseng, do not have any outstanding flavor on their own, and the single use of salt or spices is too monotonous and lacks layers in taste. So the wise ancestors came up with a brilliant idea to supplement the flavor with taste, increase the flavor with the flavor, and use other ingredients to boil fresh soup to add freshness and flavor to the dish.

To a certain extent, it can be said that it is the cooking skills of soup stock seasoning that the brilliance of high-end dishes is achieved.

In the sixth century A.D., there was such a record in Jia Siyi's "Qi Min Yaoshu" of the Northern Wei Dynasty:

“…… The mallet beef and mutton bones are crushed, cooked to extract the juice, the foam is swept away, and the ...... is cleared Boiled soy sauce with bone juice, color and flavor notes"

Even in modern times, when all sorts of bizarre chemical condiments are flying, stock is still the norm for top chefs. Therefore, there has always been a saying in the catering industry called "the tone of singing, the chef's soup".

is to say, the tone of singing must be correct and round in order to become a famous character; The chef's soup needs to be umami in order to make a real delicacy. This shows how important a good stock is to a chef.

Zhao Lei took the bowl of chicken soup and returned to his own preparation table, and did not directly use the chicken soup to prepare the ingredients. He first emptied the pot of stewed chicken, cleaned it up slightly, and then poured the chicken broth back into the jar and placed it on a charcoal fire to warm.

Then Zhao Lei took some fresh top rows, chopped them into small pieces, blanched ginger slices, scooped them up, and added them to the chicken broth. Then Zhao Lei concentrated on controlling the heat, boiling the chicken soup over high heat, turning to medium-low heat and simmering, always keeping it slightly open.

At the same time, Zhao Lei also took a colander to remove the impurities little by little, but he was careful not to take out the thick chicken fat. This hand is called using oil to nourish the soup, and the soup is not fresh without oil.

The secret of the flavor of the soup stock taught by the ancestors is that the hanging soup stock is "no chicken, no freshness, no bones and no fragrance".

This dandan noodle dish is made with pork, so the best soup stock is simmered with whole pork chops and hens.

Zhao Lei will use an emergency method, through the control of the heat, to accelerate the release of the umami of the meat steak, and strive to make a soup stock that combines the two flavors of chicken and meat in the shortest possible time.

Zhao Lei had no time to patronize Fang Yu, but Lin Xiaoxiao kept staring at Fang Yu, her small fists clenched tightly, more nervous than she was on the court.

Fang Yu's approach to getting the chicken soup was completely different from Zhao Lei's. Instead of using the steak to stew the soup, he set the soup aside to clarify it first, turned around and took a piece of pure lean tenderloin, a piece of deboned chicken thigh, and a piece of chicken breast with fascia removed.

Fang Yu's strange behavior also attracted Liu Zhenqiang's attention.

He watched Fang Yu wash the three pieces of meat with clean water, then absorb the surface moisture, marinate the tenderloin with rice wine, add ginger to the chicken thighs, and add green onions to the chicken breast, respectively, and chop them into extremely fine minced meat.

Liu Zhenqiang thought to himself: "Is this going to make soup with minced meat?" Well, this method is okay, and the soup should come out faster. ”

Unexpectedly, Fang Yu poured these minced meat into three bowls respectively, added a little mineral water, and made a paste.

This can completely confuse Lao Liu, this kid wants to match Dandan noodles with meatball chicken soup like last time? This doesn't go well with dandan noodles.

Fang Yu carefully strained the bottom residue of the chicken broth, poured the clarified chicken broth into the pot, and added a little rice wine to boil. Then Fang Yu poured the well-mixed pork paste into the pot with a hand spoon. As soon as the meat paste is in the pan, it becomes a hot ball of minced meat.

It's not to make meatball soup, Liu Zhenqiang can only affirm this, as for what Fang Yu wants to do, he still can't guess.

When the water boils again, the pork foam is pushed against the churning soup and gathers in the pot.

Fang Yu immediately moved the pot out of the stove, leaving only one-third of the bottom of the pot to continue heating. The meat foam naturally gathers on the side as the soup boils and tumbles. When the chicken soup was boiled and the meat foam became a "flower" shape, Fang Yu took the opportunity to quickly remove the meat foam.

At this time, Liu Zhenqiang keenly noticed that the soup in the pot seemed to become brighter than just now. Liu Zhenqiang had some vague thoughts in his heart, but he didn't dare to believe it.

That thing has been circulating in the top chef circle, and Lao Liu has naturally heard of it, and he has tried to do it, but it has never reached the legendary level.

After removing the foam from the pot, Fang Yu poured the chicken porridge into the pot again and made it again according to the previous method. After doing this twice, Fang Yu turned off the heat and skimmed the oil, took a piece of gauze and folded it, and filtered the soup again.

At this time, the soup is slightly yellow and clear as water!

Liu Zhenqiang was dumbfounded and in disbelief.

There is a legend about the best dashi stock among many famous chefs. It is said that some people are able to make the broth clear to the bottom, like white water, and it is called clear soup.

For ordinary chefs, clear soup is just a legend, but Liu Zhenqiang knows that the ancestor of Huangmen once said that a chef once invented a legendary dish called "boiling water cabbage", which is said to have been developed on the basis of clear soup.

Liu Zhenqiang only knows such a name, and it is not good to ask the ancestor of the Yellow Gate directly, whether you will make that "clear soup", naturally I have never seen what clear soup is like. But I didn't expect to accompany the two children to play the house wine today, and I unexpectedly saw the birth of a bowl of clear soup.

Liu Zhenqiang was surging there, but Fang Yu was not shocked here. His technique of refining the soup is called "sweeping the soup", which is to remove impurities from the soup through the adsorption power of the meat foam.

The name "sweeping soup" comes from the ingredient, which is the meat sauce. Originally, it was called "Zang Soup", but later because the name was not good, it was changed to "Sweeping Soup" with homophony.

Although this was the first time Fang Yu had made clear soup, when he was contemplating the Taoist thoughts, he had dreamed for thousands of years, and he didn't know how many times he repeated these steps, and he had already been familiar with it by heart.

Now that he is trying the knife in reality, Fang Yu also changed the formula slightly according to the situation.

In Dao Nian, the "sweeping soup" uses three dishes, the first dish uses beef, which is called blood cheek, the second dish uses chicken thigh meat and ginger called red cheek, and the third dish of chicken breast meat and green onion is called white cheek.

Fang Yu was afraid that adding beef would not be good enough to control the final taste, so he changed the beef to pork according to all his crispy types.

At present, it looks quite good, and just by looking at the condition, you know that it is the best in the stock.

With this bowl of clear soup as a base, Fang Yu was a little more sure of defeating Zhao Lei.

The origin of Zhao Lei's division is not clear to Fang Yu. However, just looking at Liu Zhenqiang's reaction, Fang Yu also guessed that this person was quite big. Although this did not change Fang Yu's disgust with this person's rude behavior, it was enough for him to treat this duel cautiously. Even if the big killer of "clear soup" has been sacrificed. Fang Yu still completed the next work carefully and prudently.