Shocking! The mushrooms in the hot pot not only don't cook well, but you will also poop them out after eating them

We often see "warm tips" about hot pot meat on the table in hot pot restaurants:

Boil the fat beef for X seconds, the tripe for X seconds, the fish fillet for X seconds, the beef balls for X minutes...

Chaoshan beef hotpot divides the cooking time of different parts of beef to the extreme, just to let customers taste the most tender taste.

Not to mention vegetables. Everyone knows that vegetable leaves will turn yellow if cooked for too long, and the taste will be very different from fresh ones.

But why haven’t I ever heard of anyone overcooking mushrooms?

Even when we used a pressure cooker at home to cook chicken and mushrooms, the chicken was cooked through but the mushrooms were not.

Mushrooms that never get old

A foreign chef named Dan Souza conducted a special experiment.

Image source: Internet

He cut a piece of beef, a piece of portobello mushroom and a piece of zucchini, put them in a steamer, and then used an analyzer to measure the "bite resistance".

After 5 minutes, it took 186 grams of force to bite into the beef, 199 grams of mushrooms and 239 grams of force respectively, and at this time people felt that they all tasted tender.

But after steaming for another 5 minutes, the taste of the ingredients changed drastically:

It only takes 109 grams of force to bite into the zucchini, which has become too soft and mushy;

It takes 524 grams of force to bite the beef, which is very hard to eat, like chewing leather;

The changes to the brown mushroom are minimal, requiring 195 grams of force to bite it, and the texture is still tender and smooth.

Image source: Internet

Until the end, the beef was steamed harder and harder, and the zucchini became softer and softer;

Only the brown mushrooms had little fluctuation in hardness and the taste was almost the same as when they were just cooked.

Why are mushrooms so resistant to cooking?

The main component of mushroom cell walls is a high molecular weight substance called chitin.

Chitosan, also known as chitin, is a structurally homologous polysaccharide formed by the polymerization of N-acetylglucosamine through β-links.

It is widely found in the shells of crustaceans, the carapaces of insects, and the cell walls of fungi;

It also exists in some green algae, mainly used to support the body skeleton and protect the body.

A Japanese marine research institute once heated the polysaccharides extracted from snow crab shells and found that the chitosan only began to decompose when heated to 390 degrees Celsius.

Image source: Photo Network

The research team conducted the same experiment with Enoki mushrooms, and when heated to 200 degrees Celsius, there was no obvious change in the structure of the mushrooms;

Image source: Photo Network

But above 250 degrees Celsius, the cells of the enoki mushroom begin to shrink rapidly and eventually completely decompose at around 380 degrees Celsius.

However, we do not reach such high temperatures in daily cooking, so foods like mushrooms will not become mushy no matter how long they are cooked.

Meat becomes tough if cooked for a long time because of its main ingredient - protein.

When the meat is first heated, the surface will quickly become cooked, and the surface protein will shrink, locking the water and fat inside, making it tender.

As the heat continues, the protein continues to shrink and a large amount of water in the meat flows out, and you will feel that it is difficult to bite.

Continue heating, the protein continues to shrink, and the water and fat of the meat flow out in large quantities, but the water's penetration has begun, the connections between the fibers are beginning to become less firm, and the taste begins to become soft and rotten.

Image source: Photo Network

If the heat is continued, the protein will continue to shrink and the osmotic effect of water will begin to fully play out;

The connections between the meat fibers become weaker and weaker, the fat and nutrition of the meat become less and less, and the whole piece of meat begins to become fibrous. At this time, it will feel stuck in your teeth and have no flavor.

The reason why meat slow-cooked over low heat is tender and juicy is that the temperature is maintained at the critical point of protein denaturation, reducing their shrinkage and allowing the meat to fully lock in moisture.

Are mushrooms easy to digest?

Some friends may ask, since the cell walls of mushrooms are so stable and will not become mushy no matter how they are cooked, can they be digested when eaten?

Chitin has a very strong structure and is indeed difficult to digest.

If they are not chewed thoroughly, the mushrooms (especially enoki mushrooms) will not have time to fully mix with the gastric juice, and will pass through the digestive tract and meet us directly in the toilet the next day.

Image source: Photo Network

Although chitin is very heat-resistant, it is not indestructible.

Studies have shown that humans and other mammals are able to produce acid chitinase, which breaks down chitin in the acidic environment of gastric juice.

If you don’t want to “See you tomorrow”, you can also chew the enoki mushrooms carefully when eating them, and swallow them after they are chewed thoroughly. This will increase the contact area between them and the chitinase in the gastric juice and promote digestion and decomposition.

Chitin is everywhere in our lives

In addition to the mushrooms we eat daily, chitin is also widely found in the shells of marine crustaceans.

For us, although these chitins are not eaten directly, they still exist in our daily lives in various forms.

The presence of a large amount of free ammonia in the molecular structure of chitin gives it unique functions and is widely used in food, medicine, agriculture, environmental protection, textiles, papermaking and other industries.

For example, to make the fruit juice we usually drink clear and transparent, in addition to filtering out the sediment, it is more important to remove the pectin, protein, etc. that make the juice look turbid.

Image source: Photo Network

Chitin molecules have a positive charge and interact with the negatively charged anionic electrolytes in the juice;

It can destroy the stable structure of the colloid and cause it to precipitate. After filtering, clear juice can be obtained.

Many scholars have used chitin to clarify kiwi juice, apple juice, etc. The light transmittance of the clarified juice can reach more than 90% to 95%.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of chitin's uses in the food industry.

In other fields, it can also be used to make cloth, clothing, dyes, paper, and water treatment; in agriculture, it can be used as pesticides and plant antiviral agents;

Used as fish feed in fisheries; used as cosmetic beauty agent, hair protectant, moisturizer, etc.

It also has great uses in medicine, and can be used to make artificial skin, sutures, artificial dialysis membranes and artificial blood vessels.

But then again, mushrooms have the blessing of the "uncooked buff", which makes them quite suitable for kitchen novices. After all, the meat may be overcooked, but the tender inner part of the mushroom remains the same.

Reprinted from: Science Popularization China

Author: Chunhua Popular Science Writer

Editor: Guru