Delicious, succulent, and tender boiled meat – the secret to getting it right!

Effective Ways to Prepare and Eliminate Meat Odor

Boiled meat is a simple yet delicious dish that often appears in family meals. Boiled pork can be seasoned with salt, lime, chili sauce, shrimp paste, fish sauce… and can also be used in many other dishes such as rolled meat with rice paper or salad with fresh vegetables.

However, many people still find it difficult to cook meat properly because it has a strong and bland odor. To solve this problem, you can apply the following tips:

Wash the meat with saltwater to kill bacteria and reduce the meat’s odor. Choose meat with lean meat and fat for better boiled meat. Meat from the leg or belly… usually tastes better than meat from the loin or rump when boiled.

Prepare some additional ingredients such as vinegar or lime, a small piece of ginger, a dried onion, soft thread or soft rubber bands to enhance the flavor of the boiled meat. By applying these tips, you will be able to enjoy delicious, tender, and odorless boiled meat.

Using Soft Thread or Rubber Bands to Tie the Meat Securely

To have a beautifully shaped piece of meat when sliced, you can use soft thread or rubber bands to tie the meat tightly before boiling. By tying the meat along the length of the meat fibers, you will create a round and beautiful piece of meat, and after boiling, you can slice it horizontally along the meat fibers. The tighter you tie the meat, the better the meat’s shape will be.

If using thread, choose colorless white thread. For leg meat, it should be tied tightly before boiling to have a rounder shape when sliced. As for the belly meat, it can be boiled without tying. However, if you don’t have thread or don’t want to use it, you can still put the meat directly into the pot to boil.

Why should you boil the meat twice?

To make the boiled meat flavorful and odorless, you can boil it twice. In the first round, put the meat into a pot, pour enough water, and bring it to a boil for about 2-3 minutes. Then, add a few drops of vinegar or lime juice to remove the odor and make the meat look whiter. Next, pour out the boiling water, rinse the meat with warm water, and prepare for the second round of boiling.

For the second round, prepare a pot of boiling water and put the meat in with a few pinches of salt, a few thin slices of ginger, and a peeled dried onion. Simmer the pot on low heat and continue boiling the meat until it is fully cooked. When cooked, the meat will have a faint white color and a delicious aroma, ready to be enjoyed.

Add Salt, Ginger, and Onion

Salt helps distribute heat evenly, ginger eliminates odor, and the onion adds a delicious flavor to the boiled meat. To cook the meat, you should simmer the water over medium heat until it is fully cooked. To check, you can use a fork to poke the meat. If the meat releases pink-colored juice, you should simmer it for another 5 minutes. If the meat is cooked, the fork will easily penetrate it, and there will be no pink-colored juice coming out.

When the meat is fully cooked, take it out and soak it in a bowl of cold water with a few ice cubes. The cold water will help the meat shrink and maintain its shape, avoiding dryness and discoloration. After the meat has cooled completely, you can slice it for immediate use.

If you want the meat to be evenly and neatly sliced, you should leave it in the refrigerator for a few more hours. Before wrapping it up, tightly wrap the meat with plastic wrap and leave it in the refrigerator for a few hours to make the meat firmer and easier to slice.