What is a clam? In fact, it is what we often say. Gecko? Many places call it fairy toad. Geckos mainly live in subtropical areas, such as China, Guangdong, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Guangxi. They like dry environment, especially living in cliffs or tree holes.
Why add clams? 1. to prevent the brine from turning sour and smelly.
In the traditional craft, a pot of good old brine soup can be said to be priceless, and some people estimate that it can exceed one million, which shows the preciousness of old soup. However, due to the humid heat in the south, it is easy to breed bacteria, and even the precious old soup will turn sour and smelly.
Gecko contains a protease that inhibits bacteria, which can prevent the old soup from becoming sour and smelly and prolong the storage time of the old brine soup.
Second, expel mosquitoes.
In the early days of nature, geckos were natural enemies of mosquitoes. There are many mosquitoes affected by the weather environment in the south. Once the soup is polluted by these mosquitoes, it is easy to deteriorate and stink. This is because we can prevent mosquito pollution by adding processed clams to broth.
Third, pharmacological effects.
Gecko is a traditional Chinese herbal medicine. As early as Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica, it was recorded that gecko can replenish lung qi. Even at present, many people use clams to soak wine, which shows that clams do have certain pharmacological effects.
But after all, business is business. How can they give up using the pharmacological effects of clams as an opportunity to promote the health of brine?
But is the function of adding clams really the three points summarized above? Imagine if there is a century-old brine soup. In any case, many spices and ingredients have antiseptic effect when added to brine soup alone. Is the antiseptic effect of clams really so outstanding? So the living gecko is indeed the natural enemy of mosquitoes, but the gecko added in the old brine soup has been processed. Can you really get rid of mosquitoes?
The real reason is that we can trace back to history. There are many kinds of brine processes, such as Chaozhou brine and Cantonese brine. The traditional Cantonese-style brine production process needs to add oil drums, spices, crystal sugar, dried tangerine peel, licorice, carved wine and so on. Its main characteristics are salty, fragrant, sweet and fresh, and it is deeply loved by local people. However, it was later found that after eating Cantonese-style brine, it was easy to have phlegm in the throat, which was particularly uncomfortable. The business of Cantonese-style brine was slowly affected and the number of customers dropped sharply.
Later, after continuous improvement and innovation, the masters found that adding clams to brine can effectively alleviate the salty or sweet taste without producing too much phlegm. The improved products are once again loved by customers and slowly consumed by other brine production processes.
Therefore, the real reason for adding clams to brine is to alleviate and adjust the taste of brine.
The above is the experience I want to share with you, thank you!