What Details Should be Noticed when Cooking Traditional Chinese Medicine
Cooking traditional Chinese medicine is a profound knowledge. There are countless things to learn, and many small details. If these details are ignored, it will lead to the failure of cooking the medicine, and even transform the beneficial ingredients for the disease into harmful substances.
1. Soaking the herbs before cooking
The herbs must be soaked before cooking. This is because most of the plant-based Chinese medicines are dried products. Soaking them in water can soften the herbs, make the tissue cells expand and restore their natural state, and facilitate the extraction of effective ingredients during cooking. Generally, for herbs mainly consisting of flowers, leaves, and stems, the soaking time is about 1 hour. For herbs mainly consisting of roots, seeds, rhizomes, and fruits, the soaking time can be 2-3 hours. In summer and autumn, the soaking time can be appropriately reduced according to the situation.
2. Cooking the medicine multiple times
Generally, the medicine should be cooked 2-3 times. If the cooking times are too few, the extraction is incomplete and the loss of herbs is large. If the cooking times are too many, not only labor and fuel are wasted, but also impurities are increased in the liquid. Generally, the effective ingredients contained in a prescription are greatly reduced after cooking twice, so it is best to cook it twice. However, for prescriptions with large dosage or tonic herbs, there may be more residual effective ingredients after two cooking times, and it can be cooked for a third time, changing to three times a day to save Chinese medicine resources and improve the efficacy to a certain extent.
3. Pay attention to the temperature of cooking
The temperature of cooking is called "fire" in Chinese medicine, which is generally referred to as "gentle fire" or "strong fire". Gentle fire means low heat, slow temperature rise, and slow water evaporation. Strong fire means high heat, fast temperature rise, and fast water evaporation. If the fire is too strong during cooking, water evaporates quickly, which affects the extraction of effective ingredients and may cause the pot to burn. On the contrary, if the fire is too weak, the cooking effect will be poor. Generally, strong fire is used before boiling, and then gentle fire is used after boiling to maintain a simmering state, which slows down the evaporation of water and is beneficial for the extraction of effective ingredients.
4. Pay attention to the cooking time
It mainly depends on the nature of the medicine and the disease, as well as the situation of the medicine. Generally, the first cooking starts from boiling and takes about 20-30 minutes, and the second cooking takes about 15 minutes. For treating cold-related diseases, the first cooking takes 10-15 minutes, and the second cooking takes 5-10 minutes. For tonic herbs, the first cooking takes 30-40 minutes, and the second cooking takes 20-30 minutes.
5. Pay attention to the amount of the liquid
Generally, it refers to the amount of liquid obtained by combining the two cooking times of a prescription. For adults, take 400-600 milliliters and take it twice a day. For children, take 200-300 milliliters and take it two to three times a day or in small amounts frequently. After cooking the medicine, the liquid should be filtered out in a timely manner while it is still hot, so as not to affect the filtration and the content of effective ingredients due to the decrease in temperature. When filtering the medicine, squeeze the residue to filter out as much liquid as possible.
6. Cooking special medicines
There are also some traditional Chinese medicines that require special cooking methods, such as decocting first, adding later, decocting and dissolving, and wrapping and cooking. We will not go into too much detail here. In the future, when we have the opportunity, we will explain them one by one to everyone.
7. Other precautions
During the cooking process, it should be carried out carefully, paying attention to fire prevention, poison prevention, carbon monoxide poisoning prevention, and preventing excessive vitality from causing the medicine to overflow, etc., to avoid drying or burning the medicine. For herbs that are not easily dissolved, stir them clockwise from time to time. If it has dried, it is advisable to add new water to cook again. If it has burned, it should be cooked again with a new batch of medicinal materials. The improved electric sandpots have made it convenient for many people, but some patients still find it troublesome to cook the medicine at home. They can choose to have the pharmacy or hospital cook it on their behalf. In recent years, granules processed by modern technology have also been a good choice for Chinese medicine.
Well, that's about cooking traditional Chinese medicine.
