What is braised food, and what are the common varieties?

Braised food is the general term in culinary science for cold dishes; it is a familiar home-style dish in every region and also one of the important components of our country's food culture. Our country's braised food has a long history, a wide variety and different flavors, and has always, in its own unique form, been constantly surpassing itself and developing, and it has a very large influence in Cantonese, Hunan, Anhui and Sichuan cuisines. So what varieties of braised food are there?

1. Red braise

Red braise means adding some fried sugar (the sugar turns red after frying) or soy sauce when making the braising liquid, so the food produced by braising is red. Red braise is one type of braised food; it is a dish made by cooking ingredients that have been preliminarily processed and blanched in a prepared braising liquid.

2. Salt baking

Salt baking is a technique in which ingredients that have been processed and marinated to absorb flavor are wrapped in tissue paper, buried in roasted red coarse crystal salt, and heated to become a dish by making use of the heat-conducting property of salt. It is mainly used to make salt-baked river eel, salt-baked prawns and salt-baked chicken.

3. Mala (numbing and spicy)

Mala is one of the flavors commonly used in Sichuan cuisine. Its characteristics are a thick numbing-and-spicy taste, salty, fresh and aromatic. It is widely used in cold and hot dishes made with poultry, livestock, organ meats, as well as dried and fresh vegetables, beans and soy products, such as boiled pork slices, Mapo tofu, mala beef shreds, beef tongue with lettuce, mala chicken slices and tripe hot pot; it is mainly made by blending chili pepper, Sichuan pepper, Sichuan salt, MSG and cooking wine.

4. Sauce aroma

Sauce aroma mostly refers to a category of aroma in the food of a dish. Sauce aroma is generally based on a mixture of braised flavor and seasoning sauce. It is mainly used in the preparation of cold dishes, though in Chinese cuisine the terms used for eating sauce-aroma foods can differ greatly. Besides cold dishes, there are also specialty foods such as beef and duck named after it. Among them, soy-braised beef and sauce-aroma duck are the main food categories.

5. Cold tossing

Cold tossing refers to a cooking method in which cooked food or vegetables and fruit are cut and then mixed evenly with seasonings. Common cold-tossed dishes include: cold-tossed wood ear mushroom, cold-tossed shredded kelp, cold-tossed bitter melon, cold-tossed cucumber and cold-tossed pig ear, among others.

The above is an introduction to the varieties of braised food. In fact, braised food is divided into 9 major series: the red braise series, the salt-bake series, the mala series, the pickled chili series, the roast duck series, the sauce-aroma series, the five-spice series, the seafood series and the cold-toss series. The above are only the five common varieties we often see. The most important thing in braised food is the braising liquid; if you want to make braised food delicious, the braising liquid is the key.

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