Chapter 1429 - 558: Traditional Sweet Potato Drying Method! Lin Xu: Asking Mom Solves Everything! [Please Subscribe]

Chapter 1429: Chapter 558: Traditional Sweet Potato Drying Method! Lin Xu: Asking Mom Solves Everything! [Please Subscribe]

"Eating such a big goose should be quite enjoyable, right?"

Shen Jiayue came into the kitchen, first looked at the pumpkin inside the roasting machine, and then leaned beside the brining pot, gazing at the almost twenty-pound goose, starting to imagine its taste.

Lin Xu said:

"It’s not just enjoyable to eat; the brining process is quite satisfying too."

To make Chaoshan brined goose, you not only need the technique to prepare the brine but also enough physical strength.

This is because during the brining, you need to repeatedly pull the goose out of the brine, let it drain, and then put it back into the brine to enhance the tenderness and firmness of the goose skin.

This process demands significant arm strength, not only to lift the goose but to do so steadily, as the meat becomes quite tender when the brined goose is nearly cooked, and being too forceful can cause the goose’s body to break or the neck to snap.

After saying this, Lin Xu picked up a knife and chopped off the goose wings and feet.

Like roasted goose, brined goose shouldn’t have wings or feet, because the cooking times differ, and by the time the goose meat is brined, the wings and feet are usually overcooked.

After finishing these tasks, he started boiling a pot of clear water on a nearby stove.

Once the water boiled, he lifted the goose by the neck and put it in the pot, blanching the entirety of the lion-headed goose.

Following the cooking principle of "raw meat not entering the brine," fresh goose meat cannot go directly into the brine but needs to be blanched first.

Blanching the goose also effectively prevents the skin from cracking during the brining process.

While blanching, you need to follow the "three dips and three lifts" technique used for plain chicken and salt water duck, placing the goose into the pot, filling its cavity with hot water, then lifting it to drain the water.

After repeating this three times, the goose skin becomes firm and shiny, and impurities like congealed blood in its cavity can be washed out.

After about half an hour of simmering the brine, Lin Xu scooped out the fat chunks from it and poured the simmered goose oil into the pot, then stuffed some sliced good ginger, crushed dried onions, and soaked mushrooms into the cavity of the blanched lion-headed goose.

He placed it into the brine, officially starting the brining process.

Out by the sink, Zhang Chunsheng had already cleaned the goose entrails thoroughly.

The digestive organs like the goose intestines and gizzards had been washed clean, even processed several times with salt and flour.

Standing at the door, he asked:

"Xiao Xu, how do we plan to eat these goose innards?"

Lin Xu replied:

"Let’s brine them together; it’d be wasteful to use the brine just once. We’ll brine a lot now, even if we don’t finish it today, we can eat it tomorrow too."

In the Chaoshan region, brining goose is about family togetherness.

It means brining the goose head, body, feet, wings, liver, gizzards, intestines, blood, and even including goose eggs together.

It symbolizes reunion and happiness.

Today’s dishes are quite numerous, and we can’t attend to the goose or duck innards, might as well brine everything; this way even the day after tomorrow, everyone can still eat without it spoiling.

As for goose eggs, although we don’t have them at home, we can brine some chicken eggs.

This good brine needs to be maximized in use.

Lin Xu ladled quite a bit of brine over the goose, covered the pot, turned down the heat, and slow-brined it.

Then he poured out the water used for blanching the goose skin, placed some eggs inside to boil, and, once cooked, peeled the shells to brine them.

"This brine smells so fragrant."

Chaoshan brined goose’s broth, because it’s primarily made with sugar and Nanjing, smells of ginger candy.

Shen Jiayue sniffed, she loves eating this kind of sweet and savory dish; today’s brined goose will surely satisfy her cravings.

With the goose brined, others went out to keep busy, but Lin Xu couldn’t wander around; he had to stay by the pot and frequently turn it over to prevent the brined goose from sticking to the pot or cooking just one side and causing skin damage.

Chen Meijuan looked at the washed sweet potatoes outside and asked:

"What do you plan to do with these sweet potatoes?"

Lin Xu pointed at the working oven:

"I was thinking of making sweet potato dry, but these pumpkins are taking up space, so can’t use it."

Chen Meijuan listened and said:

"No need to use the oven to make sweet potato dry, just use the ancestral methods."

Oh?

Did our ancestors like eating sweet potato dry too?

Chen Meijuan went outside to pick two baskets of relatively uniform sweet potatoes, asked Xiaoxun and Chen Shaokang to help bring them to the kitchen, and then washed them again, placing them one by one onto steaming trays.

After arranging them, she put these steaming trays into a steaming cabinet to start steaming.

Steam first?

"Pumpkin dry is generally made during the peak of autumn’s heat, when the weather is dry and sunny, and can be dried in a day or two, but sweet potato dry doesn’t follow such methods."

Chen Meijuan closed the steaming cabinet door and set the steaming time properly.

She told Lin Xu:

"In the past, sweet potatoes were dug starting at frost, and the harvested sweet potatoes couldn’t be eaten immediately, but stored in a cellar until winter, making them sweeter and crisper... sweet potato dry is also made in winter."

Lin Xu was taken aback, then he realized.

Right, making sweet potato dry in winter makes sense, as now the sun isn’t intense, temperatures aren’t high, and they can’t be dried like sweet potato dry.

So they need to be steamed first?

He previously thought pumpkin dry and sweet potato dry were similar and directly applied the method for pumpkin dry, not realizing he made a fundamental mistake.

Although the two snacks are quite similar, one is made in summer, and the other in winter, there must be significant differences in technique.

Thus, it’s indeed wise to ask mom when in doubt.

Even though he’s almost climbed the top of the culinary pyramid and has become the supervisor of two nationally renowned restaurants, he’s still no match for mom.

Chen Meijuan said: