Do you need to skim off the foam when blanching? Why do you need to skim off the foam when blanching?

We all know that blanching is a common cooking step. Many people blanch the ingredients first when cooking, which not only removes the fishy smell but also makes the food look better. There are certain skills to blanching food, so do you need to skim off the foam when blanching? Let's take a closer look!

Do you need to skim off the foam when blanching?

When blanching, it is usually necessary to skim off the foam.

There are three situations for blanching and skimming foam:

If it is leafy greens, it is not necessary, as blanching is only for cooking, and there is not much foam on leafy greens. If it is meat, you need to skim the foam, otherwise the meat will be stuck with a lot of foam when you take it out, and it will take a long time to clean.

There is another situation. The meat for stewing soup is blanched in water to remove the fishy smell and blood. But at the same time, it is different from blanching vegetables in that it takes a longer time and the nutrients of the meat will run into the soup. Moreover, the soup will be used later and cannot be poured away. In this case, the foam must be skimmed off, and it must be skimmed very cleanly so that the soup can maintain its freshness and original flavor.

Why do we need to skim off the foam when blanching?

1. Meat itself has a fishy smell, and foam will be produced when blanching. The foam has a fishy smell and impurities. It is necessary to skim off the impurities and foam in the water in time to minimize the odor of the raw materials!

2. A lot of impurities and foam will be produced during blanching. If they are not skimmed off in time, the foam will stick to the surface of the raw materials when they are scooped up. Once stuck, it will be difficult to clean.

3. If the floating foam produced during blanching is not cleaned up in time, it will affect the color of the raw materials, making the raw materials dark gray, which is very ugly.

What is the function of blanching and skimming foam?

First of all, let's analyze it. This should be divided into meat dishes and vegetarian dishes. Let's talk about vegetarian dishes first. Blanching vegetarian dishes is also called "cutting raw". This way, we will taste good when we eat them.

Vegetables

For example, there is rarely floating foam in green leafy vegetables. Generally, blanching the green leafy vegetables can not only further remove the impurities on the green leafy vegetables, but also easily remove the dirt inside. In this way, the green leafy vegetables we eat will be better. Even if there are some floating impurities, they may not be the blood foam of pork.

Another benefit of blanching is that it keeps the color fresh. For example, when we blanch ingredients such as broccoli or carrots, in addition to removing some dust attached to the surface, we need to cook them immediately after blanching, so that we can keep the color of the vegetables bright when cooking. Another benefit of blanching is to prevent the vegetables from turning black, which is more common in lotus roots. Because if the lotus root is not stir-fried, we sometimes find that the lotus root becomes very dark and a little black. After a period of time, the color will become darker and lose water. The lotus root tastes and looks much worse than before. However, if the lotus root is cut into small slices and blanched immediately, the lotus root we cook can keep its bright color. The main reason is that a layer of shell protection makes the lotus root better. However, the white foam that appears when the lotus root is blanched is the water in the lotus root itself. After blanching, there is a little white foam that we can skim off.

meat

In addition, we also need to remove the white foam in advance when stewing meat. The white foam is the foam that appears after the blood in the meat is soaked in hot water. This part is what we call the foam that will appear whether it is stewing pork or beef and mutton. Even if the chicken, duck and goose meat is blanched in advance, there will still be white foam.

This white foam will float up when we stew the meat, which is the floating foam. Although the white foam on chicken, duck and goose meat is not as much as that on beef and mutton, this part of the floating foam is also blood foam that floats up. If this part is not removed, it will re-attach to the surface after boiling the meat. It is recommended to remove this part. In this way, not only the fishy smell is not removed cleanly, but as the floating foam increases, there is not only white foam on it, but also the color becomes slightly dark brown blood foam as the blood foam increases. This part of the floating foam still needs to be removed while stewing. Only in this way can the color of the meat we cook be better and the meat can be more delicious. The main effect is to remove the fishy smell.

Rinsing with water means washing the vegetables with hot water once and then with cold water. This will keep the vegetables crispy, which is necessary in some vegetable cooking processes.

What happens if you don't skim off the foam when blanching?

1. Blanching is the initial processing of ingredients. Blanching vegetables can keep the vegetables crisp and green, and make them look fresher. During the blanching process of some dishes, residual pesticides and dirt on the vegetables will form foam and float on the vegetables. At this time, the foam should be skimmed off to reduce the number of washing times after blanching. Some dishes will add salt or oil to make the leaves green, and the foam should also be skimmed off, otherwise the dirt will be adsorbed on the surface of the vegetables after blanching, making it difficult to wash.

2. When blanching meat, you should skim off the foam on top first. Meat is usually blanched by putting the ingredients in cold water. As the water temperature rises, the blood in the meat can be forced out. The blood forms foam when it meets heat and floats on the water surface. If these dirt is not skimmed off in time, it is easy to be adsorbed on the surface of the food. It is not easy to clean it with cold water, and it must be washed with hot water.

Skimming off the foam at this time will make it easier to clean, save water, and prevent excess dirt from adsorbing on the food.