What role does citronella play in braised dishes? Why do you say that?

In our daily life, we often eat braised dishes, and we will find that braised dishes are delicious only in some old-fashioned braised pork shops. No matter what we do at home, we can't taste what they sell. Why? In fact, this is related to the brine in the braised pork shop.

When we cook braised dishes at home, the most commonly used seasonings are fragrant leaves, cinnamon, star anise, pepper, tsaoko and so on. But for some experienced marinated vegetable chefs, they will add such a spice to the marinade, that is citronella. Speaking of citronella, some people who have studied spices may be familiar with it. As the name implies, citronella tastes like lemon.

If no one has studied the spices in braised dishes, they will simply think that the use of citronella as spices will be simpler. In fact, this idea is wrong. As long as you have some experience in spices, citronella can play a finishing touch in braised dishes. First of all, there are two kinds of citronella: dry citronella and wet citronella, and the difference between them is also great. Although the taste of the two States is similar, the taste of wet citronella is a little fresher than that of dry citronella.

Therefore, in view of this feature, people apply these two kinds of citronella to different brine production, which can not only maintain the fragrance of brine, but also increase the mellow feeling of brine. First of all, in our daily life, if we stew meat or make brine, cooking wine is probably the most used. Onion and ginger use these three materials to deodorize. In fact, citronella also has the function of deodorization, and its deodorization effect is more powerful than these three materials.

Citronella can also enhance fragrance, but it can only be used under the guidance of an experienced master, because if you don't have experience in making brine, just blindly using citronella can't give full play to the fragrance of citronella and may spoil a pot of brine.