Crystal clear broth should look like a bowl of water.
Making clarified broth is a unique skill in Sichuan cooking.
It’s rare in other Chinese cuisines.
It’s the ultimate cooking skill to master.
This is Deng Daiming.
He’s a Sichuan native who helms Deng G Sichuan,
a restaurant in Hong Kong serving up classics from the region.
He’s known for using clear broth in a dish called kaishui baicai,
or “boiled water cabbage.”
That’s because the broth has to be so transparent
it looks like water.
The special thing about boiled water cabbage is how simple it is.
There’s nothing special to its name. The dish looks so plain.
But it tastes good mainly because of the clear broth.
This broth is made with 4 kinds of meat:
Pork knuckle,
hen,
duck,
and Jinhua dry-cured ham.
You can taste these ingredients in the broth.
Without the hen, there’s no umami.
Without the ham, there’s no flavor.
Without the duck, there’s no fragrance.
Deng says the dish was created
during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912).
A royal chef wanted to impress the emperor. And he did.
The emperor loved it so much,
he added it to the royal menu.
Even today, we serve this dish when we hold state banquets.
The broth takes seven to eight hours to make from scratch.
First, we have extra work to do with the ingredients.
Chop the hen, duck, pork knuckle, and ham into big pieces.
We discard the chicken and duck buttocks
because they taste gamey.
Rinse the blood off the meat.
We put all the ingredients in cold water
and bring it to a boil to remove the scum.
Then rinse the meat and put them in a big pot.
Simmer for at least 6 hours.
We turn up the fire and bring the broth to a boil.
We reduce the heat once the broth boils.
The bubbles in the broth should look like fish bubbles.
This pot of broth has about 40 portions.
The broth shouldn’t have any oil or debris.
So while we simmer the broth, we skim off the scum and fat.
When we are done simmering the broth, we sieve it.
Then we add ground pork.
The pork is seasoned with cooking wine, ginger, and scallion.
Making this soup is like making consommé,
without the egg white.
The ground pork contains protein.
As the soup heats up, the protein traps impurities in the broth.
The meat will rise to the surface.
You skim it all off and the soup that’s left is clear.
You have to start with high heat.
We lower it when the scum starts to rise to the surface.
Then we let it simmer for half an hour.
Then it’s time to remove the scum.
The key is to wait for the ground pork to rise to the surface
with the scum, and not be tempted to stir it.
Now we clarify the broth further with ground chicken meat.
Then the broth’s crystal clear.
The second round makes the soup even clearer,
and brightens up its color.
Finally, they add Chinese cabbage.
We use fresh Chinese cabbage.
We only use the inner layers of the cabbage
because they are tender.
These are enough.
The cabbage is blanched for about a minute
before it’s tossed into ice water.
Ice water helps maintain the color of the cabbage.
Then we cut it, shape it,
and cover it with cling wrap and steam it for a minute.
A standard bowl of boiled water cabbage
must have crystal clear broth.
The broth should have a golden hue.
I don’t think this is like, polite in Chinese (culture).
Basically, you can taste.
You can taste every single element. This is incredible.
I want to try the cabbage.
And you're like, okay, it's going to taste like water, right?
Like hot water. And then it's like bursting with flavors.
It's like fireworks in your mouth.
Deng said his master taught him how to make this dish
only after working for him for two years.
I started to learn cooking when I was 16.
But I only got to try making broth at 18.
During my time, when new apprentices started,
you could only do the little jobs.
Your master would never let you
learn how to make broth at the start.
Because broths were made by the pros.
Not everyone can master it.
Making clear broth is the ultimate skill to master.
Up next:
A thirty-year kitchen veteran
shows us how to wield a knife in Huaiyang cuisine.
Stay tuned!