rebirth from small pockets

Chapter 481 Ideal Cow No. 1 and No. 2

Chapter 481 Ideal Cows No. 1 and 2

In Chinese catering culture, there are actually many ways to cook beef.

Braised, stir-fried, stewed, braised, boiled, steamed, etc.!

Among them, Chen Li's favorite is braised in braised rice and steamed with rice flour. These two ways of eating are Chen Li's favorite.

But these two cooking methods are actually not suitable for making at home.

Braised in soy sauce, it is slightly better. Although there will be some differences in the taste between beef made at home and beef made in restaurants, if the cooking skills are good, the difference is not big.

But steamed rice noodles are different. No matter how you make the steamed vegetables at home, it is difficult to achieve the taste of the restaurants outside.

This has nothing to do with technology, but with the equipment for making dishes.

Steaming vegetables is very particular about the heat, and this kind of heat is basically beyond the reach of ordinary families.

It's just like when you make stir-fried dishes at home, no matter how you stir-fry them, they won't be as tender as those in restaurants.

Because the kitchen utensils at home simply cannot meet the temperature requirements for making these dishes.

To put it simply, the more stringent the cooking requirements for a dish, the taste will be completely different when made at home and in a restaurant.

Of course, if you have professional chef equipment at home, that's a different matter.

Therefore, in addition to the major subdivisions and schools, Chinese cuisine can actually be divided into two categories, one is home-cooked food and the other is non-home-cooked food.

To put it simply, the foods that ordinary people often eat at home are home-cooked meals.

It is only cooked once in a while or can only be eaten when going to a restaurant. It is usually called restaurant food or hotel food.

And beef~for a long, long time in Chinese history~actually did not belong to the scope of home cooking.

In China, except for some ethnic minorities, the real cooking of beef only really started in the past few decades.

This is not to say that no one knew how to cook beef before, but for ordinary people, the opportunities to cook beef are really few and far between.

Because China is an agricultural country, the role of cattle in China's thousands of years of history is not that of a meat provider.

Before the Tang Dynasty, killing a cow was a serious crime, and in the most serious cases, killing a cow might even lead to beheading.

For example, the "Book of Han Gong Sui Zhuan" records: "It is forbidden to kill cattle and horses privately. The cattle are used for plowing the fields. Those who kill for food will be killed without mercy."

There is also a record in "Huainanzi·Shuo Shan Xun" ~ "If you kill an ox, you will surely die." Gao You's note said: "The ox is the one who plants the grain. It is the order of the people. According to the king's law, the killing of the ox is prohibited, and the killing of the people is prohibited.

Those who are killed will be killed, so they are said to be destined to perish."

At that time, killing cattle was really a very cautious thing.

At that time, even if the dignitaries wanted to eat beef, they had to find an excuse for the cow to die of illness or fall. As for ordinary people, they basically didn't have that luck.

Since the Tang Dynasty, through the Song ~ Ming ~ Qing dynasties, although the penalty for privately killing cattle has been reduced, privately slaughtering cattle has always been illegal.

It was not until the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty that this crime was abolished.

Yes, it is no longer illegal to kill cows at this time, but in fact, except for some dignitaries, ordinary people will not kill cows for meat at all.

Because China is an agricultural country, for a long time, the vast majority of cattle in China were farm cattle.

And farm cattle are good helpers for farmers. Unless they die of old age, illness, or accident, no one will kill cattle just for meat.

So in fact, the vast majority of cattle in China are not beef cattle at all.

The beef cattle in foreign countries are different. The starting point of raising these beef is to eat meat.

It can even be said that foreign cattle are born for "steak".

Their feed is mainly based on grains, which contain a large amount of carbohydrates. In addition, they eat and sleep every day, which makes the body fat and the meat is soft and delicate. Such meat can make steaks that are moderately fat and thin and taste good.

Fresh and tender.

Domestic cattle work for a long time, as if they are undergoing physical exercise, so their whole bodies are full of muscles.

In addition, domestic cattle basically eat feed and hay, so the cattle have very little fat and water. They are full of tendon meat and the meat is hard.

Naturally, this kind of meat cannot be used as steak, because the fat content is not enough~ In addition, beef has a relatively high gluten content, so the most common ways to eat beef in China are stewed beef brisket, roast beef, braised beef, air-dried beef, etc.

Another important point is the way the beef is processed.

Generally speaking, the steaks that everyone eats, whether they are cut raw or whole, are not actually pure raw meat. Instead, they have been acidified once and then dry-aged.

In China, there is no need to go through this process, because even for fresh beef, there is no shortage of markets.

Yes~ In fact, having said so much, the market is the real reason why domestic beef cannot be produced.

This market is not a vegetable market, but a large market for the entire livestock industry.

When talking about this topic, you must first know one thing.

That is, although China has a vast land and abundant resources, the price level of many things is actually relatively high because of the large number of workers.

For example, the most important fodder and grains in animal husbandry are often imported from abroad.

The animal husbandry industry in foreign countries is different. Many countries have vast territories and sparsely populated areas, and their feeding costs are relatively low. Therefore, the starting point for the development of their animal husbandry is much higher than that of China.

And what situation does this lead to? By the same standard, the cost price of beef cattle raised in China is much higher than that of beef cattle raised abroad.

Don't underestimate this gap, it is precisely because of this gap that it directly leads to the failure of China's own beef cattle brand.

In his previous life, Chen Li paid attention to a little bit of information in this area. For the same grade of beef, the price of domestic beef is much more expensive than that of imported beef.

Moreover, due to factors such as cattle breeds, the meat output of domestic beef cattle cannot even meet foreign standards.

This gap between import and export makes it difficult for domestic beef to compete with imported beef.

Fortunately, foreign beef strives for the word "tender", so although their beef is suitable for making steak, it is very inappropriate if it is processed using traditional Chinese cooking methods.

In addition to steak, other parts of a cow are in excess sales to foreigners, so they can only be dumped at low prices.

Therefore, in my previous life, I could always see some very low-priced imported beef on the Internet, and the prices were simply provoking the bottom line of Chinese beef prices.

Fortunately, these beefs are not suitable for Chinese cooking methods.

In his previous life, Chen Li bought it once and made a casserole of braised beef. Then, there was no more.

But it is precisely because of this that even though imported beef in the previous life dominated the domestic beef market, Huaxia beef can still occupy a place.

Of course, the Chinese people have not given up on cultivating beef cattle breeds.

After all, with economic development, China has gradually become a big beef consumer.

Although China once lagged behind in the cultivation of beef cattle breeds, this backwardness was only temporary.

Chen Li didn't know when in the original timeline, China caught up with the international level in beef cultivation.

But in the current timeline, due to the appearance of Chen Li, this time is locked at the end of August 1999!

Chef Gong can prove this.

"hiss!"

"Brother, isn't this the A5 Wagyu beef you got from the island country?"

“I’ve also eaten A5 Wagyu beef, doesn’t it taste like this?”

“To be precise, A5 Wagyu beef is not as fragrant.”

"When you take this bite of beef, your mouth will be full of flavor."

"Fragrant~soft~tender~smooth. It's also greasy. To be honest~it feels a bit wrong!"

"Could it be that the A5 Wagyu beef I ate before was fake?"

“Is this the real A5 Wagyu?”

"Shouldn't it?"

"The last time I ate this thing, it was when the chef association of the island country invited us there. There is no reason why they would fool me with a fake one?"

"But...you can't be A6 Wagyu, right?"

"You don't have this level either?"

"So, I can't quite understand you."

As a professional chef, Chef Gong naturally has his own opinions on the quality of ingredients.

If based on the requirements of traditional Chinese cuisine, then the steak he just ate definitely failed.

Because the fat content is too high!

This kind of beef, to put it mildly, is actually no different from eating a piece of fat.

Of course ~ the taste of this kind of steak is definitely much better than eating fat, and you definitely can't eat too much of this kind of thing, otherwise you will definitely get tired of it.

But if it was simply a matter of high fat and oleic acid, Chef Gong wouldn't be so surprised.

What surprised Chef Gong the most was the aroma of the beef.

It was really a mouthful of beef, and my mouth was filled with the aroma of beef.

Hmm. This seems to be nonsense, but it does fully reflect the quality of this steak.

Although the taste is a bit greasy, Chef Gong knows this greasy taste. It is actually a combination of fragrance and tenderness. Of course, the greasy taste produced by the fat itself is also present.

Before this, Chef Gong always felt that the island country’s A5 Wagyu beef had almost reached an extreme in this regard.

But now, Chef Gong suddenly tasted a piece of beef that surpassed the A5 Wagyu beef he had tasted before, which really made him a little confused.

In fact, Chef Gong doesn’t really like the island country’s A5 Wagyu. Comparatively speaking, he actually prefers the taste of Australian Wagyu.

Compared with Australian wagyu and island country wagyu, the muscle fibers of Australian wagyu are more balanced and more detailed, so it has a more beefy feel.

However, this does not prevent the island country’s A5 Wagyu beef from becoming famous in the industry!

But the piece of beef he just ate, in terms of color, aroma, taste and texture, almost surpassed the A5 Wagyu he had tasted before.

Therefore, Chef Gong needs to take a breather now.

If Chef Gong were an ordinary person, then his feeling about this piece of beef would be whether it tastes good or not.

But he is a professional chef and his knowledge of ingredients far exceeds that of ordinary people.

It was precisely because of his expertise that he was quite shocked by the steak that Chen Li brought over.

"Brother Gong, don't be anxious!"

"Don't just think about it~ You should taste the meat first before talking about it."

In fact, based on his age, Chen Li has to call Chef Gong uncle, which is what Chen Li actually called him before.

After all, whether it was based on age or Zhou Xiaoli's father's side, he had to call Chef Gong uncle.

But Chef Gong is a bit of a jerk.

He is a person who likes to make friends~ Once he sees someone right, he will call them brother or buddies without caring about their age.

And there are many types of his eyes for each other.

For example, they have similar temperaments, and another example is that they each have their own needs. But Chen Li is somewhat consistent with both.

So after getting along for a while, Chef Gong and Chen Li became like brothers.

Although this matter was strongly opposed by classmate Zhou Xiaoli, Chef Gong dismissed it by saying that everyone should discuss their own opinions.

However, Chen Li is also quite sensible and usually only gets along with Chef Gong and his brother in private.

Like now~!

Obviously what he brought was two portions of steak~ As a result, Chef Gong started muttering about it after tasting one portion, while the other portion was put aside and ignored.

This left Chen Li speechless!

In fact, frying steak is not a technical job. In his previous life, Chen Li also bought steak and cooked it himself.

But what can I say~ Chen Li is really not familiar with the heat and aging of steak.

The synthetic steak he bought online in his previous life didn't matter. Even if it was fully cooked, the taste was not much different.

But these two steaks were the orders he placed in the system mall. The sources of these two steaks were none other than Chen Li’s upcoming Ideal Beef No. 1 and Ideal Beef No. 2!

According to Xiaomeng, this is a beef cattle breed developed by China later. It is said that it draws on the breeding cattle genes of island country Wagyu and Australian Wagyu and combines the breeding cattle genes of Chinese cattle.

Ideal Beef No. 1~The meat quality is more like Japanese Wagyu from Japan.

As for Ideal Beef No. 2, the meat quality is more like Australian Wagyu beef!

In the future, these two kinds of beef cattle will also directly enter overseas markets, and even once affected the status of the island nation's wagyu.

Especially for Ideal Beef No. 1, I heard from Xiaomeng that if the island country hadn’t taken direct measures to protect the status of the island country’s wagyu, otherwise Ideal Beef No. 1 would have absolutely wiped out the market for the island country’s wagyu.

In fact~ At that time, Ideal Beef No. 1 had already surpassed the island country Wagyu in many aspects of evaluation.

Although the island country has taken sanctions against Ideal Cow No. 1, many wealthy people from the island country still choose to go to China to experience gourmet food tours for a steak dinner.

It makes sense~ This suddenly felt familiar to Chen Li.

You must know that the reason why the island country's Wagyu beef is famous all over the world actually has something to do with their marketing.

Before the 1990s, only island countries in the world had so-called Wagyu beef.

At that time, if people wanted to eat real Wagyu beef, they could only eat it in island countries.

But when people go to an island country, you can’t just eat Wagyu beef, right?

Accommodation ~ travel ~ hotels, all of them are expenses!

Of course, ordinary people will not go to the island country just for a steak, but they have no intention of making ordinary people's money.

This may be the reason why Wagyu beef from the island country is sold so expensively. They do it to make money from the rich.

As for the Ideal Beef No. 2, the meat quality is more like Australian Wagyu beef, and it is more suitable for Chinese people’s needs for steak.

Because of the lessons learned from Shennong Beer before, Chen Li planned to directly start breeding two types of beef cattle this time.

Therefore, he needs Chef Gong to give his real opinion.

"Oh oh~ good, good!"