What five kinds of plants do the five spices refer to?

Spiced? Usually refers to the five main spices used in cooking food, such as fennel, pepper, star anise, cinnamon and clove, but it is well known? Spiced? There are not only five kinds of spices, but also many spices, such as purple nutmeg, Amomum villosum, nutmeg and angelica dahurica. Its function is to make the food with fishy smell, bad smell and unpleasant smell have no peculiar smell, and then make the food fragrant.

Spices can deodorize for two reasons:

Physical Deodorization Mechanism: Can there be spices? Eliminate differences? One of the important reasons for its function is that it can release outstanding fragrance to stimulate people's sense of smell and taste, divert, disperse or blur our attention to the smell of edible materials, thus covering up the smell.

Mechanism of chemical deodorization: As we all know, some spices are rich in some organic chemical components, which can react with some chemical components in ingredients, and then combine ingredients with ingredients. Smell? These components are transformed into new substances with no or almost no odor, thus achieving the purpose of removing fishy smell and foreign bodies.

After knowing the principle, let's take a look at where these spices with special smells and organic chemical components come from.

No. 1

fennel

The fennel introduced this time is the fruit of fennel, which is often used as a seasoning for cooking fish stew and making braised dishes. Because they can remove the smell of meat and increase the flavor of meat. Fennel? .

Foeniculum vulgare herb with grayish green or light-colored stems; The outline of the leaf is a broad triangle with 4-5 pinnate divisions; Compound umbels are terminal, lateral, with yellow petals, obovate or nearly obovate. The fruit is rectangular, with 1 tubing in each ditch and 2 tubing on the joint surface. The flowering period is May-June and the fruiting period is July-September.

Fruit is a condiment, and its leaves are often used as fillings for steamed stuffed buns, jiaozi and other foods.

second

Sichuan pepper

Zanthoxylum bungeanum can remove the fishy smell of various meats and promote saliva secretion; Increase appetite, dilate blood vessels, thus lowering blood pressure.

Zanthoxylum of Rutaceae, a small deciduous tree, 3-7 meters high; The thorns on the stem often fall off early, the thorns on the branches are short, and the thorns on the branchlets are wide, flat and straight in the shape of the Yangtze River Delta. Leaflets are opposite, sessile, ovoid, oval, with finely divided teeth at the leaf margin. Inflorescence terminal or born at the top of lateral branches, inflorescence axis and pedicel densely pubescent or glabrous; 6-8 perianth segments, yellow-green. The fruit is purplish red, and the diameter of a single mericarp is 4-5 mm; The seeds are 3.5-4.5 mm long. The flowering period is April-May and the fruiting period is August-September.

When the fruit is ripe, the red or purple peel is called pepper red, and the seeds are called pepper orders, all of which are Chinese herbal medicines and are often used as seasoning in families.

third place

Eight angles

Illicium verum is mainly used in cooking processing such as boiling, frying, marinating, sauce, roasting, etc. It is often added to dishes for making beef and rabbit meat, which can remove fishy smell, increase aromatic smell, adjust taste and increase appetite.

Illicium verum of Schisandraceae is10-15m high. Leaves irregularly alternate, leathery, obovate-elliptic, oblanceolate or elliptic. Flowers pink to deep red, 7- 12 single leaf axils or near terminal perianth segments. Aggregate fruit, 3.5-4cm in diameter, full and straight, with eight peaks, is octagonal, with a length of14-20mm, a width of 7-12mm, a thickness of 3-6mm, and a blunt or sharp tip. Coarse fruit blooms in March-May, ripens in September-65438+1October, blooms in spring in August-65438+1October, and ripens in March-April of the following year.

It should be noted that only Illicium verum can be used as flavoring agent, and Illicium verum belongs to other kinds of wild Illicium verum fruits, most of which are highly toxic, and serious poisoning leads to death. The development of poisonous wild Illicium verum is often irregular and not octagonal. The shape is different from that of cultivated Illicium verum, and the epidermis shrinks. The top of each star anise is pointed, often pointed, and the fruit is not as sweet as star anise, or it tastes light, stinging or slightly sour and spicy, or slightly bitter.

fourth

cinnamon

Cinnamon bark is the dry bark and thick branch bark of cinnamon, which has a fragrant smell. It was used as a spice in ancient western countries and used to flavor stew in Chinese food. The original plants of commercial Cinnamomum cassia are quite complex, and there are about ten species, all belonging to Cinnamomum genus of Lauraceae, such as Cinnamomum cassia, Yinxiang, Ye Gui and so on.

Cinnamomum camphora of Lauraceae; Bark grayish brown, old bark thickness 13mm. Leaves alternate, oblong to sub-lanceolate, leathery, always rolled. Panicle axillary or terminal, with white flowers. Fruit elliptic, dark purple when ripe. The flowering period is from June to August, and the fruiting period is10-65438+February.

Cinnamon bark can be used as aromatic condiment, and cinnamon oil can also be extracted. It is an important spice in food industry and one of the earliest spices used by human beings.

Fifth place

light purple

Cloves used as seasoning are actually buds of cloves. After drying, there is still a thick strange fragrance. Putting a little while cooking will make people feel spicy.

Small trees of Syzygium of Myrtaceae; Leaves opposite, leathery; Flowers bisexual, cymes arranged in panicles, petals 4-5, glued together and falling off; Berry or drupe-shaped, with residual annular calyx eaves at the top; There are usually 1-2 seeds, and the seed coat is attached to the inner wall of the pericarp.