After researching more than a dozen cookbooks, I finally found the best way to make shredded pork with fish flavor!

A little of XX, some of XX, an appropriate amount of XX... These ambiguous descriptions in the recipes drive anyone who pursues delicious food crazy.

Although everyone has their own way of making many dishes, those imprecise descriptions are indeed inconvenient in actual operation. Is it possible to use scientific methods to find an optimal, quantifiable recipe combination that is easy for everyone to practice and improve?

The author has actually tried this, and today I will share with you the name of the dish I am trying this time:

Fish~fragrant~and~shredded~meat!

I read through a dozen new and old recipes, fried more than ten pounds of shredded pork, experimented with various seasoning proportions and side dish combinations, and finally found the best method that suits me.

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Of course, everyone has their own taste. My recipe may not be your favorite. But according to the principles and methods of my testing, you can definitely try to find your favorite recipe.

Fish-flavored shredded pork, there is really no fish...

Why is this dish called "fish-flavored" shredded pork? Because Sichuan people are used to seasoning fish with pickled erjingtiao, ginger, garlic, sweet and sour. Over time, this complex flavor is bound to fish. Later, when the same seasoning is used to cook other ingredients, it seems that the taste of fish can also be tasted, thus forming the classic Sichuan flavor of "fish flavor". The principle behind it is the memory and association of taste. In addition to shredded pork, fish flavor is also suitable for eggplant, tofu, and oyster mushrooms.

I selected 7 recipes and videos that have detailed information on the amount of ingredients used, and summarized them, including 5 old recipes from 40 years ago, a new recipe, and a video by teacher Wang Gang.

This dish can be divided into three parts according to the ingredients (you see, there is indeed no fish):

Main ingredients (shredded meat + marinade), auxiliary ingredients (scallions, fungus, bamboo shoots) and fish-flavored sauce.

Image source: provided by the author

There are two schools of thought when it comes to cooking shredded meat. Some recipes add a little fat, while others use pure lean meat.

The types of ingredients used in fish-flavored sauce are relatively uniform, with pickled erjingtiao as the core seasoning, but the amount used varies greatly, with the ratio of sugar to vinegar ranging from 1:1 to 2:1, with sugar generally being slightly more than vinegar. Excluding the obviously unreliable 1972 edition of the Sichuan Cookbook, the ratio of ginger to garlic is also 1:1, or with more garlic. Cooking wine only appears in a few recipes, and MSG has only been used in fish-flavored pork shreds in recent years.

The side dishes vary the most. There are versions that don't put anything in except green onions, and two more common side dishes, wood ear and bamboo shoots. There are also newcomers like pea tips. Beijing's fish-flavored pork shreds even have green peppers and carrots, which is actually related to the seasonality and regionality of vegetables in the past.

Now that we understand the basic raw material composition, let’s take a look at the parts that need to be tested and quantified this time.

1

Sweet and Sour Ratio

First, let's look at the core of the fish-flavored sauce. The basis of the fish-flavored sauce is the blending of four flavors: salty, spicy, sour, and sweet. The saltiness depends on the ingredients, and the tolerance for spicy flavors varies from person to person. The most worthwhile thing to explore in the fish-flavored sauce is the ratio of sugar to vinegar.

We made five sauces, with the same amount of ginger, garlic, pickled pepper, soy sauce, water and starch, and the ratio of white sugar to aged vinegar ranged from 2:1 to 4:5. The difference was obvious when they were tasted alone. Using these sauces, 50g of shredded pork was stir-fried at the same temperature. After tasting, I found that 2:1 was too sweet, 4:5 was too sour, and the three in between were all in the "fish flavor" category - I personally prefer the 5:4 version.

However, the ratio is not the whole picture of the sweet-sour problem. To deeply understand the core of fish flavor, we must first clarify two similar concepts, absolute acidity and relative acidity . Absolute acidity is the pH value, while relative acidity refers to the sweet-sour balance.

I first made 5 sweet and sour solutions, stirring different amounts of white sugar in 30g of white vinegar until it was completely dissolved. The absolute acidity of these 5 samples was the same, with pH values ​​between 2.5 and 2.6. However, the relative acidity was different. The pure vinegar sample without sugar was very sour, while the version with 10g of sugar was as sweet and sour as a drink, and the sample with 40g of sugar was not only very sweet, but even a little greasy. This is because the two tastes of sour and sweet are not independent of each other, but a relationship of mutual growth and decline. Sugar does not lower the pH value, but it can reduce our perception of sourness.

We then added pure water to dilute the 1:1 sweet and sour solution into 4 different concentrations. This time, the relative acidity of the four samples was the same, but the absolute acidity was different. When we tasted them again, these samples showed very different taste sensations, from light to thick.

Therefore, when making fish-flavored shredded pork, we must not only consider the ratio between sour and sweet, but also the ratio of "sour and sweet" as a whole to the ingredients, that is, the impact of the difference in absolute sourness and sweetness on the flavor.

In Chinese cooking, this ratio is described by "slightly sweet and sour" and "strongly sweet and sour". Fish-flavored and Kung Pao-flavored dishes are both slightly sweet and sour, while sweet and sour dishes are strongly sweet and sour. So, where is the boundary of this ratio?

We used a 5:4 ratio of sweet to sour to make sweet and sour sauce, selected six portions of 50g shredded pork, controlled the amount of other seasonings, and added 5-30g of six levels of sweet and sour sauce and 10g of thickening sauce. After tasting, we found that the sample with the least sweet and sour sauce had a strong salty and fresh taste, and not much sweet and sour taste. The sweet and sour range of 10% to 15% of the weight of the ingredients is the fish flavor we know. More than 25%, it is closer to the sweet and sour taste.

If a serving of fish-flavored pork shreds has a total of about 300g of raw materials, then the total amount of sweet and sour sauce should be 30-45g. The density of white sugar and vinegar is very close to 1g/mL, which can be measured by volume. The small porcelain spoon I use has a capacity of about 8-10mL. That is, two spoons of slightly more sugar and two spoons of slightly less vinegar. (You can use a kitchen electronic scale to measure and estimate the capacity of your own small porcelain spoon to facilitate the determination of the amount)

2

Pickled peppers, ginger and garlic

How much pickled pepper should be used as the core seasoning? I tested four ratios from 5% to 20%. It is recommended that at least 10% of the weight of the shredded pork is used to create the fish flavor. If you can handle spicy food, 20% is recommended. In total, 50g of pickled pepper can be used for a total of 300g of fish-flavored shredded pork. Note that this amount does not include pickled pepper juice, pepper stems, and pepper seeds.

I also tested the amount and proportion of garlic and ginger. I personally prefer sample 4, which has more garlic than ginger. The overall style is more aggressive, with garlic and ginger accounting for 10% of the weight of the ingredients. Many times, people can't make the taste of the restaurant, just because they don't use enough ingredients. For the dish of fish-flavored pork shreds, salt and soy sauce, which contain salt, should be used with caution, but other seasonings should be used boldly, and it will taste much better.

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For these three essential seasonings for fish flavor, you can either mince them or use a mortar or juicer to crush them. Crushing them is more delicious and flavorful, and you won't have the chewing taste of ginger and garlic. You can choose according to your personal habits. I usually crush the chili and ginger, and mince the garlic to retain a certain taste.

3

Vinegar, salt and starch

As for the types of vinegar, I experimented with Sichuan Baoning vinegar, Shanxi aged vinegar, Zhenjiang balsamic vinegar, Italian balsamic vinegar, and mixed vinegar. The sources of their sourness are different. Vinegar has a greater impact on the flavor of the sauce than I thought. Baoning vinegar is not very prominent. Shanxi aged vinegar has a fresh flavor and is very good. Both aged vinegar and Italian balsamic vinegar are highly recommended. If conditions permit, you can try mixing aged vinegar and balsamic vinegar.

I also studied the concentration of thickening. My suggestion is to use potato starch , which is thicker than corn starch. We add different amounts of dry starch to every 100mL of water, stir well and heat it. We will find that 1.25% starch water is closer to the texture of thick soup, 5% thickening sauce is too thick, and 2.5% is more appropriate.

The density of potato starch is lower than that of water. The volume of 20g potato starch is about 30mL. In actual use, we use a 1:1 volume ratio to make 40% water starch, the purpose is to let the starch absorb water in advance and not easy to clump.

Everyone has their own preferences for the concentration of starch. The minimum amount of starch is 20g. If you like to mix it with rice, the upper limit should not exceed 100g. I usually use about 60g of starch. Considering the water release of the ingredients, about 7g of water starch is needed.

For the thickening medium, I tried pure water, pork bone broth that I made myself, and broth mixed with a thick soup stock. Since the thick soup stock contains salt, I adjusted the saltiness of sample 3 accordingly. After tasting, I found that 2 and 3 were slightly better than 1, but the difference was very limited, and I couldn't tell the difference between 2 and 3 at all.

Finally, let's talk about saltiness. There are many sources of saltiness in this dish, including salt, soy sauce and pickled peppers. The saltiness of soy sauce is about 15% (that is, the salt content is 15%). Based on the sodium content, the saltiness of pickled peppers is 1/3 of that of soy sauce. We know that the amount of salt used is based on the amount of ingredients. No matter what dish, the total amount of salt should be 0.7-1% of the weight of the ingredients, and the saltiness is more appropriate. The total amount of ingredients in this dish is about 300-350g, so a total of about 2-3g of salt is needed. To achieve this amount, it is enough to put 1g of salt directly, because soy sauce generally uses about 10-15g, which is 1 to 1 and a half spoons, which depends on the amount of pickled peppers.

4

Ingredients

The main ingredient of fish-flavored shredded pork is of course shredded pork.

When it comes to shredded pork, everyone is concerned about how to make it more tender, and how to fry it without sticking to the pan, and how to use as little oil as possible. First of all, in terms of the parts, I choose tenderloin, sirloin and hind leg - the tenderness of these three parts decreases. Wash the pork and observe the texture. The tenderloin should be cut into strips. The sirloin or hind leg can be cut diagonally.

The most important step in slicing is to sharpen the knife first. Slice horizontally from the top, then arrange the meat neatly and cut it into 3mm square strips, which is called "two thick strips" in Sichuan cuisine. In fact, for home-cooked dishes, uniformity is more important than thickness. Just cut it into thinner strips within your ability.

If you like the texture of extra tender meat, you can try using alkali to treat it. Use 1-2g of edible alkali or baking soda for every 100g of meat and marinate for 5 minutes, then wash it clean.

How to improve the tenderness of shredded meat without using alkali?

The first thing is to add water. The principle is that after adding salt, the muscle can hold more water. We selected the same amount of shredded meat and tried four methods: no water, 10g of water, egg white and broth. After frying, it can be observed that the version without water will quickly undergo the Maillard reaction, and the shredded meat will easily become dry. It is much better after adding water. Egg white does not have the advantages of flavor and texture, but it is easier to color. Broth also does not have a significant flavor addition.

The second step is starching. The principle is to use starch paste as a buffer to separate the shredded meat from the hot oil. Corn starch must be used for starching. If potato starch is used, it is easy to stick together. I tried 5 different starch dosages. 2% of the weight of the shredded meat can well preserve the taste of the meat. The more the more tender, but more than 10% will make the meat taste too light and make the meat stick too much. 200g of shredded meat requires about 4g of starch, that's it.

When frying shredded pork, many people are afraid that it will stick to the pan or not slide out, so they have to add more oil, but adding too much oil will make it very greasy. In fact, sticking to the pan is related to the choice of pan, the amount of oil and the oil temperature.

I used two kinds of pots to do the experiment. Preheating is very important for iron pots. Only when the temperature reaches 180 degrees Celsius can the iron pot form a non-stick effect, and the shredded pork is relatively tender when fried. However, at 120 degrees Celsius and 150 degrees Celsius, the shredded pork will stick to the pot, and the shredded pork will be relatively tough when fried. What surprised me was that the cold pot and cold oil made the shredded pork less sticky and tasted good. It may be similar to the effect of slow cooking at low temperature. This is the same principle as sealing the shredded pork with oil to make it slippery - novices can try it. In addition, if the shredded pork is taken out of the refrigerator, be sure to return it to the temperature before frying, otherwise the temperature of the pot will drop rapidly and it will easily stick to the pot.

I also experimented with the amount of oil, and found that 20g was needed to make 50g of shredded meat non-sticky . The amount of oil will affect the cooking time (and thus the taste), but it has no direct effect on the taste.

In comparison, the effect of the non-stick pan is very superior. When 3g of oil is sprayed, there is still a slight sticking problem. As long as there is 10g of oil, it will be completely non-stick. The oil temperature requirement is not that high, 150 degrees Celsius is no problem at all.

Therefore, it is indeed difficult to stir-fry pork shreds in an iron pan. It is recommended to use a high oil temperature and a larger amount of oil. However, it is very simple to stir-fry pork shreds in a non-stick pan, with a success rate of nearly 100%. It saves oil and is particularly friendly to novices. It is highly recommended.

In addition, I also tried two methods: pure lean meat and adding about 15% fat shreds. Personally, I still like the taste of pure lean meat in fish-flavored sauce. You can also choose according to your personal taste.

5

Excipients

Finally, let's discuss the side dishes. Since the green onions were added at the end and were not fried with the ginger, garlic and chili, I tend to think of them as side dishes rather than seasonings. The amount used in each recipe is relatively large. When I watched the video to learn, I found that both large and small green onions were used.

It is worth mentioning that the green onions mentioned by many Chongqing bloggers in the video are very different from the green onions in the north. My friend from Sichuan told me that this is called green onion yellow . The diameter is close to that of shallot, but the ratio of white to green is like that of shallot. Green onion yellow tastes spicy and less sweet. We used equal amounts of green onion yellow, Shandong green onion and shallot to make fish-flavored shredded pork. We found that due to the very firm texture of green onion yellow, it has a strong presence in the dish, like a bursting bead of onion flavor, which is very interesting. If green onion yellow is not available, it is a matter of opinion whether to use shallot or green onion.

The common side dishes such as black fungus, green bamboo shoots and winter bamboo shoots are mainly used to enrich the taste without affecting the core flavor. Black fungus is chewy, while green bamboo shoots and winter bamboo shoots are crispy. In the past, there were few kinds of vegetables in the north, so carrots and green peppers were used to provide crispness. I think this is understandable and does not affect the essence of the fish flavor. Everyone can do it according to their own habits. It should be noted that the amount of side dishes should not be too much, the total amount should not exceed 100g, and attention should be paid to the water released by the vegetables, which will affect the thickening.

6

Final Solution

Okay, next is my favorite way to cook shredded pork with fish flavor:

Cut 180g tenderloin into strips, add 1g salt, 5g soy sauce, mix well, then add about 20mL of water in small amounts several times. Add 5g corn starch, 20mL of water, and finally 5mL of oil.

Cut 15g of shallots, 40g of black fungus and winter bamboo shoots into shreds. Remove the stems and seeds of the soaked jujube, chop them into pieces and mash them into a paste, about 50g in total.

Chop 30g garlic and grind 15g ginger into paste. Add 20g sugar, 16g mixed vinegar, 2g concentrated soup stock, 50mL water, 8g soy sauce, and 7g water starch, stir well and set aside. Add the juice of pounded ginger and chili at the same time.

If you cut your bamboo shoots and black fungus too thickly, you can consider blanching them in advance. I prefer the crispy texture, so I don't blanch them.

Heat a non-stick pan and add about 30g of rapeseed oil, just enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Heat to 180℃, add the shredded pork and quickly scatter it, but don't rush to turn it over. Stir-fry after the oil temperature comes up. When the shredded pork changes color, immediately add the pickled chili, ginger and garlic to release the aroma. After about 15 seconds, immediately add the side dishes. Stir-fry for another 15 seconds, stir well with the starch, and add slowly in two or three times to prevent the pan temperature from dropping too quickly. When the starch sauce is thick, add chopped green onions, turn off the heat immediately, and serve on a preheated plate. The finished dish is bright red in color, and the starch sauce is thick, covering the shredded pork with all the seasonings. This version uses much less oil than the traditional version, and the taste is more refreshing. The sauce is sweet, sour, and spicy. It is the most perfect home-made fish-flavored shredded pork in my mind.

Although cooking is not like doing chemical research, which requires the use of a very precise analytical balance to weigh the various substances to be "put into the pot", through this small attempt, we can still see that by quantifying various ingredients to conduct experiments, we can more efficiently figure out how to make them more delicious, and the results obtained can also be more conveniently used by other friends.

Finally, I would like to explain that the main purpose of this article and the purpose of the test is to clarify the elements of the flavor of fish-flavored pork shreds and how to obtain a recipe that satisfies oneself. Therefore, this article does not constitute any nutritional advice. Delicious food is important, but healthy eating is equally important.

Planning and production

Author: Yang Guang, a cooking enthusiast

Review | Ruan Guangfeng, Deputy Director of Kexin Food and Health Information Exchange Center

Planning｜Xu Lai

Editor: Ding Zong

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