While choosing ingredients, the principles of "choosing ingredients as per the dish", "making the best use of everything" and "food safety" are to be observed.
"Choosing ingredients as per the dish" means that to make a specific dish, the high-quality main ingredients, auxiliary ingredients and seasonings should be strictly selected in accordance with the quality standards of the dish. "Making the best use of everything" means to minimize the consumption of ingredients in the process of cooking and to benefit the dish-making. "Food safety" means to ensure the food safety from the ingredients, the source of the dish, and make sure the ingredients selected will not harm or poison the human body.
When choosing food ingredients, in addition to adhering to the above three principles, there are also the following points:
The types and nature of ingredients are varied. Even the different varieties of the same type can show great differences. For example, bream can be divided into triangle bream, Changchun bream and Wuchang bream. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the variety of the ingredients when choosing. In addition, the same variety of different origins can be in different nature, which will have an impact on the flavor of the dish. As a result, the origin is also to be taken into consideration when the ingredients are chosen.
Most of the ingredients are animals and plants from nature, which show the best edible performance only in a certain period of time during the growth. Therefore, the best edible season of ingredients is to be considered when choosing the ingredients, so as to yield the best quality. For example, there is a saying about aquatic products in Hubei Province, which goes that "silver carp in spring, ricefield eel in summer, carp in autumn, crucian & mandarin fish in winter, hilsa herring at Beginning of Summer and crab at White Dew". Once the chefs master the seasonal characters of ingredients, they can make excellent cuisine for people to enjoy.
Different parts of the ingredient have different flavors, because the structure and the nature vary a lot with the parts. For example, chicken breast is tenderer than chicken thigh; streaky pork, tenderloin and ham are different in nature. Depending on the parts of ingredients, different cooking methods are selected, such as stewing and stir-frying. Only in this way can the ingredients conform to the principle of "making the best use of everything".
The selection of ingredients is the first step to ensure the quality of the dishes. Only by selecting the best ingredients can the quality of the dishes be guaranteed. Next, the taste of the dishes really depends on whether the chef's skills are superb!