Mutton warms and tonifies qi and blood: which season is best to eat it, what not to eat it with, and which vegetables to pair with it to remove the gamey smell
Mutton is tender and highly nutritious. It can both ward off wind-cold and nourish the body, and it has therapeutic and tonic effects on general wind-cold cough, chronic bronchitis, body weakness and fear of cold, and all such deficiency conditions. So which season is best for eating mutton? What can it not be eaten with? How do you remove the gamey smell?
Which season is best for eating mutton?
Mutton is warm in nature. Mutton includes goat meat, sheep meat, and wild mutton. In ancient times, mutton was called gu meat, di meat, and jie meat. It is most suitable for eating in winter, so it is called a winter tonic and is deeply welcomed by people. In winter, the body's yang qi is stored inside, so the body is prone to cold hands and feet and poor qi and blood circulation. According to traditional Chinese medicine, mutton is sweet in flavor without being greasy, and warm in nature without being drying. It has the effects of tonifying the kidney and strengthening yang, warming the center and dispelling cold, warming and tonifying qi and blood, and stimulating the appetite and strengthening the spleen. Therefore, eating mutton in winter can both resist wind-cold and nourish the body, truly achieving two benefits at once. Because mutton has an unpleasant, strange gamey smell, it is shunned by some people. In fact, if 10 grams of licorice and an appropriate amount of cooking wine and ginger are added to one kilogram of mutton and cooked together, the gamey smell can be removed while the flavor of the mutton is preserved.
What can mutton not be eaten with?
1. Do not eat it with tea
Tea is the "nemesis" of mutton. This is because mutton is rich in protein, while tea leaves contain a relatively large amount of tannic acid. Drinking tea while eating mutton produces tannic acid protein, which weakens intestinal peristalsis and reduces the water content of stool, thereby inducing constipation.
2. It is not suitable to eat it with vinegar
Sour vinegar has an astringent effect, which is not conducive to the generation and rising of yang qi in the body. Eating it with mutton will greatly reduce its warming and tonifying effect.
3. Do not eat it with watermelon
Eating watermelon after eating mutton easily “injures vital qi.” This is because mutton is sweet and hot in nature and flavor, while watermelon is cold in nature and belongs to raw and cold foods. Eating it not only greatly reduces the warming and tonifying effect of mutton, but also harms the spleen and stomach.
4. People with certain conditions should avoid eating mutton
People who often have mouth and tongue sores, red eyes, bitter taste in the mouth, irritability, dry and painful throat, or swollen and painful gums, or people with diarrhea, or people whose Chinese herbal prescriptions contain banxia or shichangpu should all avoid eating mutton.
5. It is not suitable to eat it with pumpkin
Ancient Chinese medical texts also record that mutton should not be eaten with pumpkin. This is mainly because mutton and pumpkin are both warm and hot foods. If eaten together, they very easily cause “internal heat.” By the same principle, when cooking mutton, one should also use less chili, pepper, clove, fennel, and other pungent, warm, drying, and hot seasonings.
What ingredients is mutton best paired with?
1. Tofu and radish
Tofu and radish not only supplement various trace elements, but the gypsum in tofu can also clear heat, purge fire, and quench thirst. When mutton and radish are cooked together as a dish, the radish can also play a role in reducing food stagnation and resolving phlegm-heat.
2. Black beans
Mutton is rich in animal protein, and black beans are rich in plant protein. The two can exactly complement each other and promote comprehensive absorption of protein. Black beans contain more plant sterols and unsaturated fatty acids, which can reduce the body's absorption of cholesterol and saturated fatty acids in mutton and help lower blood lipids to a certain extent. Black enters the kidney, so black beans can also enhance mutton's effect of tonifying the kidney and warming the body.
3. Ginger
Mutton nourishes the blood and warms yang, while ginger relieves pain and dispels wind-dampness. When paired together, ginger removes the fishy and gamey smell of mutton and helps mutton exert its effect of warming yang and dispelling cold; mutton with Chinese yam nourishes the blood, strengthens the body, and promotes bowel movements; with cilantro it stimulates the appetite and strengthens yang.
4. Mutton has a warming and tonifying effect, but mutton is warm and hot in nature, and eating it often easily causes internal heat. Therefore, when eating mutton, pair it with cool-natured and sweet-neutral vegetables, which can have a cooling, detoxifying, and fire-clearing effect.
Cool-natured vegetables generally include winter melon, loofah, rapeseed, spinach, napa cabbage, enoki mushroom, mushroom, lotus root, wild rice stem, bamboo shoots, choy sum, and so on; while sweet potato, potato, shiitake mushroom, and others are sweet-neutral vegetables.
Why does mutton have a gamey smell?
The taste of lean meat is different from that of fat. Lean meat provides the meaty aroma people experience when eating, while fat provides the animal's own characteristic odor. Analysis of some chemical elements that make up mutton fat found that fatty acids in mutton are the key factor producing the gamey smell.
The fatty acids in mutton are also divided into many types. Based on analysis of mutton from different sexes and age groups, and unlike beef and pork, the content of 4-methyloctanoic acid and 4-ethyloctanoic acid in mutton is several times that in pork and beef. It can basically be proven that short-chain fatty acids and stearic acid are important fatty acids causing the gamey smell of mutton.
How do you remove the gamey smell of mutton?
1. Remove the gamey smell with radish
When boiling mutton, add some white radish with holes poked in it and cook together. The gamey smell will be absorbed by the radish, and the radish can be thrown away after cooking.
2. Remove the gamey smell with rice vinegar
Cut the mutton into pieces and put them into a pot of boiling water. Add a little rice vinegar: for every jin of mutton, add 500 milliliters of water and 25 grams of rice vinegar. After bringing to a boil, take out the mutton, and when cooked again it will have no gamey smell.
3. Remove the gamey smell with spices
First wash the mutton with hot water, cut it into large pieces, add an appropriate amount of fennel, cassia bark, pepper, and shiitake mushroom, and so on (it is best to choose more than two kinds), and put them into the pot to cook together with the mutton. After cooking, take out the mutton. Or wrap crushed hawthorn, clove, amomum, and perilla in gauze and cook them together with the mutton. This not only removes the gamey smell, but the mutton also has a unique flavor.
4. Remove the gamey smell with orange peel
When boiling mutton, put in a few pieces of orange peel and cook together, which can effectively remove the gamey smell.
5. Remove the gamey smell with tea leaves
Before stir-frying the meat, brew a cup of strong tea. The method of stir-frying mutton is the same as stir-frying pork. When the mutton has been stir-fried dry and makes a crackling sound, sprinkle some strong tea onto the mutton. Do this 3 to 5 times in a row, and the gamey smell of the mutton can be removed.
6. Remove the gamey smell with fresh bamboo shoots
Add half a jin of fresh bamboo shoots to every jin of mutton, put them into the pot at the same time, stir-fry first, then add water and stew, and the gamey smell can be removed.
7. Remove the gamey smell with garlic
Add 25 grams of garlic to every jin of mutton, put them into the pot at the same time and stir-fry for several minutes, then add water and stew, and the gamey smell can be removed.
8. Remove the gamey smell with green garlic
Add 100 grams of green garlic to every jin of mutton, put them into the pot at the same time and stir-fry for several minutes, then add water and stew, and the gamey smell can be removed.
9. Remove the gamey smell with sucrose
When boiling mutton, add 25 grams of sucrose to every jin of mutton. This removes the gamey smell and also makes the mutton more delicious.
10. Remove the gamey smell with walnuts
Poke a few small holes in each of two or three walnuts and stew them together with the mutton in the pot to remove the gamey smell.
11. Remove the gamey smell with hawthorn
When stewing mutton, put a small amount of hawthorn slices in the pot to remove the gamey smell.
12. Remove the gamey smell with curry powder
Stew one jin of mutton with 5 grams of curry powder to remove the gamey smell.
The nutritional value of mutton
Mutton is warm and hot in nature, tonifies qi and nourishes yin, warms the center and tonifies deficiency, and stimulates the appetite and strengthens strength. In the Compendium of Materia Medica, it is called a warm and hot tonic that tonifies original yang and benefits qi and blood. Its main nutritional values are as follows:
(1) Mutton contains rich fat, vitamins, calcium, phosphorus, iron, and so on. In particular, the content of calcium and iron significantly exceeds that of beef and pork, and the cholesterol content is low, making it an excellent food for nourishing the body.
(2) Mutton is tender and easy to digest. At the same time, mutton can also increase digestive enzymes and protect the stomach wall and intestinal tract, thereby helping the digestion of food.
(3) Mutton has the effect of tonifying the kidney and strengthening yang. It is suitable for people with body weakness and fear of cold, and it can also promote blood circulation.
(4) It has good effects on conditions such as consumptive emaciation, soreness and weakness of the waist and knees, weak spleen and stomach, poor appetite and nausea, dizziness, insufficient kidney yang, qi and blood deficiency, impotence, cold hernia, postpartum cold deficiency, and insufficient lactation. It is especially suitable for the elderly, men with body weakness, and postpartum women.