The Ultimate Guide to Odorless Meat: A Simple Trick for Perfectly Fragrant and Delicious Boiled Meat Every Time

BEEF

A simple way to boil beef without the unpleasant smell is to roast a ginger root until it’s cooked, then scrape off the burnt skin, crush the ginger, and rub it on the beef. Rinse the meat with cold water, then boil it, and slice it according to your preference before serving.

Veal is essentially young beef, so you can use the same method to boil tender veal.

GOAT MEAT

According to many people’s experience, you can reduce the goat-like smell of the meat by marinating it in a mixture of a little vinegar or the juice of two lemons, some cooking oil, and leaving it in the fridge for a few hours.

Alternatively, you can use cinnamon to reduce the smell, or skim off the fat when boiling. Some people also use a mixture of crushed ginger and white wine to marinate the meat, then rinse it with cold water. Others use beer for this purpose. You can also blanch the meat in boiling water with a few stalks of lemongrass or a couple of sugarcane pieces.

DUCK MEAT

After butchering a duck, rub salt all over its body and inside its cavity to clean it thoroughly.

Remove the oily glands at the duck’s tail, as they tend to have a strong odor. Next, marinate the duck with some crushed ginger, and optionally, a bit of white wine, for about 30 minutes. Rinse it afterward, then boil it with a piece of crushed ginger or lemongrass in the pot to eliminate any remaining foul smell. Your duck dish will be delicious and appealing this way.

CHICKEN

Place the chicken in a pot and cover it with cold water. Turn on the heat and bring it to a gentle simmer. Avoid a vigorous boil, as it may cause the chicken skin to crack. Skim off any foam that rises to the surface, and continue simmering for about 7-8 minutes.

Roast a ginger root and an onion, then crush them and add them to the pot (you may skip this step if you don’t want to use onion or ginger). For a young chicken, boil it for an additional 5 minutes, and for an older one, boil for 10 minutes more. Afterward, turn off the heat, cover the pot, and let the chicken sit in the water for another 5 minutes.

To check if the chicken is cooked, pierce it with a skewer; if it goes through easily and the juices run clear, it’s done. For crispy skin, plunge the chicken into cold water immediately after removing it from the pot, then let it cool completely before serving. This process also helps to firm up the meat, making it easier to handle without falling apart.

To make the chicken look even more appetizing, crush a small piece of fresh turmeric and squeeze out the juice. Mix this with some melted chicken fat, and brush this mixture over the chicken skin. This will give the skin a beautiful golden color and make it look shiny and taut.

PORK

The best cuts of pork for boiling are usually belly, trotter, or shoulder. Before cooking, rinse the meat and soak it in water for a while to remove excess blood, resulting in clearer and more fragrant broth.

When boiling, add a crushed onion to the pot to help eliminate the pork’s odor. Additionally, pouring a few drops of white wine into the pot after the meat is cooked and before removing it from the heat can further reduce any unpleasant smells. Regularly skimming off the foam also helps to improve the meat’s smell and appearance.

PIG’S EARS

Use a razor blade to carefully remove any hair and dirt from the surface and inside the pig’s ears. To get rid of the distinctive smell, rub the ears with lemon or vinegar, then soak them in cold water to prevent discoloration.

Next, place the ears in a pot of cold water with a squeeze of lemon juice and boil them until they are just cooked.

To make the ears crisp and easy to slice, chill them in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour after boiling, then use a sharp knife to cut thin, even slices. Alternatively, you can blanch the ears and then immediately plunge them into ice-cold water until they are completely cooled. This method will also result in white, crisp ears that are easy to slice.