LATEST HOME LIFE ONE THOUSAND QUESTIONS 1000 Little Tricks in Daily Life

Author: Li Yonghong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-12-01
Features:
1. Food Selection and Identification
"Food is the first necessity of the people," and the nutritional and health benefits of food are undeniable. However, all of this is based on consuming high-quality food. Therefore, how to properly select and identify high-quality food has become a crucial issue.
How to Select and Identify Meat
1. Fresh Pork, Beef, and Lamb
Whether fresh meat is fresh can be determined through simple identification methods such as looking, smelling, and touching.
- Color: Fresh meat has a bright luster, even red color, and neatly arranged fat; sub-fresh meat has a slightly darker color and lack of luster in fat; spoiled meat has a dark, dull color and grayish-green fat.
- Smell: Fresh meat has various fresh, normal odors; sub-fresh meat has an ammonia or sour smell; spoiled meat has a foul odor.
- Stickiness and Elasticity: Fresh meat has a slightly dry or moist surface, is not sticky, and has elasticity; sub-fresh meat has a dry surface, a moist cut surface, poor elasticity; spoiled meat has an extremely dry surface, a sticky cut surface, heavy stickiness, and no elasticity.
2. Frozen Meat
High-quality frozen meat has an even red color, white and glossy fat, and no mold spots. The meat is dense, feels firm to the touch, and has a slightly moist surface and cut surface that is not sticky and has no odor. After thawing, the meat turns white, loses juice, and is not suitable for long storage. It should be cooked and eaten as soon as possible.
3. Ground Meat
There are four methods to select ground meat: looking, pressing, pinching, and smelling.
- Looking:
- Color: Fresh pork ground meat is light pink, glossy, and translucent; unscented ground meat is dark red and dull.
- Appearance: Fresh mixed ground meat has red and white stripes; fresh lean ground meat has light pink stripes; ground meat mixed with lungs, roots of the tongue, etc., has dark red granules.
- Pressing: Fresh ground meat is elastic; unscented ground meat lacks elasticity; the ground meat of an old sow will form a hole when pressed and cannot recover.
- Pinching: Fresh mixed ground meat and leg ground meat are pure; while ground meat mixed with pig lungs, roots of the tongue, thyroid, adrenal glands, etc., will have foreign particles when pinched.
- Smelling: Fresh ground meat has no odor; unscented ground meat has a foul smell, such as meaty or fishy odors.
4. Poultry Meat
Fresh poultry meat appears yellowish, has a shiny eye, and does not turn black or smell foul at the anus; spoiled poultry meat is dark yellow, purplish-yellow, or dark yellow, with cloudy or closed eyes, a gray-black anus, and a foul odor.
There are also tricks to distinguish whether poultry is killed alive or slaughtered after death:
- Alive-killed poultry: Good bloodletting, with fresh red blood clots, uneven incisions; smooth, fine, dry, and shiny skin, tight and pale red; creamy or light yellow fat; dry and glossy muscle cut surface, rich in elasticity, rose-colored or white with red;
- Slaughtered after illness or injury: Almost no bloodletting or poor bloodletting, so the slaughtered poultry appears dark red, with flat incisions and no blood clots; rough, dull skin, loose and dark red skin with bleeding spots or purple dead spots; dark red fat; blood remains in the vessels in a purplish-red color; the muscle cut surface is greasy, dark red, with a small amount of purplish-black blood droplets seeping out.
How to Select and Identify Vegetables
1. Tremella
- Looking: High-quality tremella has large flower clusters