Why Beijing cabbage is bitter in the salad and is it possible to fix it?

Most people consider a bitter taste tasteless, repulsive, and even dangerous. Although many natural bitters are beneficial.

The reason is that it depends on our sense of self-preservation. After all, spoiled and poisonous products taste bitter.

In this article, you will learn why Chinese cabbage may be bitter and what other ingredients may produce an unpleasant taste. And also we will open the secrets of how to get rid of bitterness and in a timely manner understand that Chinese cabbage has gone bad.

Why is this happening?

Beijing cabbage is an early maturing, dietary and healing product. Crispy juicy leaves as they grow longer do not get rude. In the heat, with a moderate lack of moisture, do not accumulate bitterness, they are not calorie and pleasant to taste. Why is Peking (Chinese) cabbage in a salad bitter?

The main reasons for the bitterness of Beijing cabbage:

• An unpleasant taste, it happens, appears when there are errors in cabbage growing technology.
  Reference! Bitterness can occur if the harvest period is missed, the plant has already managed to release a flower arrow.
• In a very dry and hot summer, if the plant grows all the time on the sunny side. If there is no regular watering, at least two or three times a week. Because of the so-called stress plants.
• It happens that poor-quality goods fall on the shelves for sale, in the green mass of Beijing cabbage an excess of nitrates accumulates. Usually, it is a sulfur-containing substance. The presence of chemical compounds gives a bitter taste to the tender leaves of the peking.
• Sometimes bitterness is a feature of the variety (hybrid). Early cabbage varieties, such as the Khibinskaya variety, which are grown in open beds, ripen in 40 to 45 days and usually do not have a bitter taste.
• Improper storage or transport. Vegetables may have been thawed during storage. On the leaves appeared rot, but the cabbage still went on sale.

How to determine the true cause of bitterness?

• If bitterness is present, and there is a suspicion that the concentration of harmful substances in the head is exceeded as a result of enhanced and unbalanced mineral nutrition, you can contact the sanitary laboratory and conduct chemical analysis of the product.
• If an overgrown head of Chinese cabbage got into the food. It can be defined by appearance. Streaks on the leaves collect something similar to the milky juice, the taste of the plant becomes unpleasant. Neither in salads, nor in summer soups, nor in hot dishes, the same cabbage rolls, such a product is no good.
• After inspecting the Peking Beak, we can find traces of decay or other diseases associated with a violation of the plant storage technology. This head is better not to use for food.

What can give bitterness in a dish besides Chinese vegetable?

Peking cabbage is stewed and boiled, used in salads and soups along with other vegetables, spices and fruits. Peking cabbage has an unforgettable light taste.

Attention! The bitter taste of some vegetables and seasonings is natural and natural. If a dish with the addition of Peking cabbage is bitter, then perhaps this savory taste is given to food by radish or horseradish, mustard or grapefruit. The list of truly bitter food can be continued.

And if the bitter taste in the dish was not provided according to the recipe? It happens that some vegetables acquire an unusual bitter taste. It can appear due to onions or lettuce, spinach, other cabbage varieties, such as Brussels sprouts or kohlrabi. For example, there are some varieties of leaf lettuce, which themselves are bitter. Record for bitterness - the usual fresh cucumber.

Sometimes the bitterness in the salad, where peking was added, can only appear the next day.

What should be done to eliminate the unpleasant taste?

If the plant is with bitter leaves, then you can remove the unpleasant taste in one of the following simple ways.:

• We take a head of cabbage, drop it into a wide and deep container (bowl or pan), filled with water and salt. Water should be cold. You can put ice for more cooling. Pekinki forks dipped in water and let it stand for half an hour. Then the cabbage should be pulled out and spread out on a towel so that the water is glass.
• Cabbage forks boil on low heat for a short time, no more than two minutes.
• Liberally sprinkle Peking cabbage with lemon juice. Or soaked in water with vinegar or citric acid.
• Carefully chop the cabbage, knead by hand, salt, then again mnem. Let stand for a few minutes so that she releases juice. Juice drain.
• You can also prevent bitterness by preparing a dish with Chinese cabbage for one meal. The cabbage left the next day can give bitterness.

Important! When cooking and soaking in water with bitterness, vitamins (ascorbic acid) and other useful substances also get into it. Cabbage no longer bitter, but for health benefits in it less.

How to understand that the vegetable is spoiled?

Beijing cabbage is a delicious and healing product that diversifies our table. To understand that the cabbage is spoiled it, carefully inspect:

1. Whether it is competently sealed in food wrap, there is no damage.
2. Whether there is rot on the leaves or traces of insects, trampling.
3. The forks of the plant should be evenly colored on all sides, taut and dense.
4. A head of cabbage should be healthy, without damage, unwashed, dry, cleaned from damaged and weak leaves. With excessive moisture, it will quickly rot.

For food it is better to choose cabbage a little flattened on top.. If the stalk in the place of the cut with a crack, cabbage will be juicy and not bitter.

Bitterness in Chinese cabbage, unlike cucumbers or leaf lettuce, is an unpleasant phenomenon, but infrequent. Methods for removing it are not difficult. Do not deprive yourself of the pleasure of pampering yourself with a dish of juicy and healthy peking!

Watch the video: Know How to Take out the Bitter Taste in Vegetables (May 2024).