Cooking cannot be separated from oil. When stir-frying dishes on a high heat, there are often flames coming out of the edge of the pan as soon as the ingredients are put in, or when stirring and flipping in the high heat, flames often come out of the edge of the pan. Chefs call this phenomenon "fire flying". In TV dramas, those so-called super chefs play with pans and spatulas, and there will occasionally be flames coming out of the pan, and people seem to think that only this "fire flying" is a display of superb skills and greatly appreciate it. Chefs often consider "fire flying" as a normal phenomenon when cooking, and some housewives also appreciate it as a kind of superb skill. Male cooks in families are more skilled at "fire flying" stir-frying, making their female counterparts envy.
Although "fire flying" enhances the aesthetics of cooking, from the perspective of nutrition, "fire flying" cooking is harmful to human health. Because dishes cooked by "fire flying" often have a burnt taste produced by the combustion of oil, although the appearance of the dishes is more attractive, the burnt residue consumed by people will have adverse effects on health, including affecting normal growth and development, reducing fertility, and possibly causing cancerous changes in certain organs and tissues in the body, the harm to the body is immeasurable. The more severe the "fire flying", the more burnt parts of the dish, and the more residue produced, the greater the impact on human health.
Therefore, in our daily cooking, we should try to avoid the occurrence of "fire flying", recognize the harm of "fire flying" to health, and should not consider "fire flying" as a unique and superb skill to greatly appreciate. Once encountering the phenomenon of "fire flying" in cooking, there is no need to panic, calmly think of a solution, and immediately try to extinguish the "fire flying". At this time, simply move the pan away from the heat, cover it tightly with a lid to cut off the oxygen in the air, and the "fire flying" can be extinguished.
In addition, in order to minimize the generation of oil smoke during cooking, the oil temperature should be controlled below 200℃. It is not advisable to use oil with excessively high temperature to cook dishes, and the oil pan should not be left on the heat to burn. Because there is always a layer of water vapor on the surface of the oil layer in the pan, which can to some extent isolate the air. The oil temperature in the pan will not rise sharply, and it will protect the oil from the high temperature. If the temperature in the pan has reached the desired oil temperature and the ingredients are not added in time, the oil temperature will rise rapidly in a short time, and a large amount of oil smoke will be generated. The excessively high temperature will change the internal structure of the oil, make the quality of the oil deteriorate quickly, and harm human health.
When stir-frying dishes, do not turn the gas switch too small. In order to save gas, some people often turn the switch very small when cooking, but in fact, this practice not only does not achieve the goal of saving gas, but also wastes more gas. When the gas switch is turned to the minimum, the combustible elements in the gas are in a non-incandescent state, resulting in insufficient combustion. This not only wastes gas, but also produces more carbon monoxide dispersed in the room, affecting the health of oneself and family members.
Editor's Reminder
Frying and deep-frying cooking methods cause serious damage to the nutrition of food, and one of the many harms is the volatilization of iodine in table salt, resulting in a difference in the iodine content between iodized salt and the actual amount ingested by the body. Because iodine, as an element, is easily volatilized at high temperatures. Therefore, the loss rate of iodine in table salt processed by deep-frying at high temperatures can reach 40% to 50%, which cannot meet the normal requirements of the human body. Therefore, even if iodized salt is widely promoted, people still cannot achieve sufficient intake if they do not change their cooking habits.
When cooking food in the kitchen, try to use steaming, boiling, and stir-frying cooking methods. Even when frying and deep-frying food, use non-stick cookware as much as possible. Non-stick cookware can reduce the amount of edible oil used, ensure that the oil temperature does not get too high, and cause minimal damage to the nutritional components of the food. It also generates less oil smoke during the cooking process.
In addition, frying and baking cooking methods not only damage the nutritional components of food, but also produce various harmful substances. The oil temperature for frying and baking is relatively high, usually between 180℃ and 300℃. At high temperatures, a series of changes will occur in the internal components of the food: protein-rich foods produce carcinogenic heterocyclic amine substances, fat-rich foods produce carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and cyclic, polymerization, and oxidation products of unsaturated fatty acids, and carbohydrate-rich foods produce a large amount of acrylamide substances. These are potential carcinogens and have a great harm to the body. Scientific research has confirmed that the higher the cooking temperature of food, the more carcinogenic substances are produced, and the more difficult they are to be digested, absorbed, and metabolized by the human body. Low-temperature cooking methods such as steaming, boiling, and simmering are the most beneficial to human health. Because the processing temperature is around 100℃, no harmful substances will be produced. Therefore, we should vigorously promote the use of steaming and boiling methods to cook food, avoid using high-temperature cooking methods. This not only reduces the harm of carcinogens but also benefits digestion and absorption.
