Maowu is one of the most popular ingredients in hot pot. Especially in Sichuan and Chongqing, eat hot pot not point MAO Belly, always feel incomplete.
Rinse method about MAO belly, widely circulated is “so anxious ”, a total of about 15 to 20 seconds, considering there are plenty of time MAO belly is not in the soup, so the real heating time shorter.
Is this safe? A paper “rumours ” gives the answer (figure 1), a “so anxious ” time is not enough to kill bacteria and parasites, and then gives a suggestion is “basic control in 3-5 minutes ”.
“Three to five minutes, that’s not a hairy belly, that’s a rubber band,” joked a netizen on the Internet.
Indeed, as anyone who has shampooed it knows, it is as tough as a rubber band when it is put into a tumbling soup, let alone for three minutes.
From “delicious ” perspective, the vast swathes are summarized the “so anxious ”, is about to obtain good taste “optimal time ”.
The central question here is: Are those few seconds long enough to kill bacteria and parasites?
Relative to the bacteria, parasite life more “senior ” – it is more strict to the requirement of living environment. They are less resistant to heat than bacteria. Simply put, the heating conditions that kill the bacteria are also sufficient to kill the parasites. So, in our daily life, we will not go to consider how “heated to kill the parasite ”, but simply to consider “sterilization ”.
Bacteria are more resistant to heat, but have little resistance to high temperatures. In general, temperatures above 60 °C make it difficult for bacteria to multiply. The higher the temperature, the faster you die.
Of course, there are always some hardy bacteria that can survive the harsh heat. Usually, we use “high temperature + time ” to deal with them. The hotter and longer the temperature, the fewer bacteria will survive.
In fact, if you want to “completely ” kill the bacteria are not easy. In food processing, it is usually necessary to heat to 120 °C for more than 20 minutes, or to heat to 135 °C for more than a few seconds before the bacteria (and bacterial spores) are considered completely wiped out.
But bacteria need to be measured in order to be dangerous to health. So, we don’t need to make the bacteria in food completely disappear, as long as for the most part “ ” kill bacteria, it is safe to eat. In food safety, eligible normal ingredients, can kill bacteria to one over one hundred thousand only, also can accept that, is the food safety of “bacteria number five down on numerical ”. Pasteurized milk, for example, is heated to a temperature of 72 ° C and stay for a few seconds, realize “bacteria number five down on numerical ”. In fact, the bacteria in pasteurized milk can reach tens of thousands per milliliter and still qualify. Even the coliforms, they don’t have to be zero.
And MAO belly rinse only a few seconds, can achieve “bacteria number five down on numerical ” goal?
The answer is: Absolutely.
Actually for a variety of meat, as long as “center temperature ” up to 75 ° C, you can rest assured to eat. It’s just that meat is usually thicker and has to be kept in boiling water for some time for the heat to reach the center of the meat to reach a safe temperature. And MAO’s belly is very thin, into tumbling soup, is almost instantly to reach the “safe temperature ”, also can be safe to eat.
For other meats, the thinner the cut, the shorter the time it takes for the center to reach a safe temperature. Of course, there’s no way to measure the temperature in the center of the meat while eating hot pot, but there’s an easy way to do it: cut the meat apart, and as long as the center changes color, it’s safe.
One may ask: in that case, why many processed foods require “ultra high temperature long time ” heating?
This is because, pasteurized milk, for example, is not completely kill the bacteria, can grow up in the process of storage, also will “overweight ”. So pasteurized milk must be kept in the refrigerator to slow bacterial growth, and it can only be kept for a week or two. And normal temperature milk or other normal temperature preservation of food, need for months or even longer, even if only a few bacteria after heating (or bacterial spores), will slowly grow up finally “prairie fire ”. So, foods kept at room temperature either kill bacteria completely and keep them sealed, or use preservatives or refrigeration to inhibit bacterial growth, or reduce the amount of water in the food to a level where bacteria cannot multiply.
Since hot pot is about eating as soon as you finish shabu, just consider killing most of the bacteria while shabu – a few seconds is more than enough to achieve this goal. One caveat, of course: when rinsing, the area where the chopsticks are holding does not touch the soup, so it cannot be heated. So, in rinse process can loosen chopstick to change a place to clip to rinse again again, also can assure safety.
May the world diners rinse safely, eat happily!
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