What to add to hot pot oil to enhance flavor

Each region chooses different ways to eat hot pot, but hot pot in Sichuan and Chongqing is the most famous in China. Sichuan and Chongqing both love spicy food, so the hotpot in these two regions is somewhat similar. Using old oil to cook hot pot can make the aroma of the hot pot more obvious. Using old oil to cook hot pot is also the exclusive secret of many hot pot restaurants. What flavor should be added in the process of using old oil to cook hot pot?

Old oil is the hot pot red oil that is slowly refined by using all the ingredients over low heat. It is specially used for Chongqing hot pot red soup. The following spices can be added to enhance the flavor: pepper, Sichuan pepper, chili, cumin, star anise, licorice, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, mace, cardamom, red cardamom, tangerine peel, magnolia, cumin, dill, longan, angelica, senna, sage, thyme, grass fruit, allspice, galangal, oregano, amomum, laurel, costus, costus root, rosemary, amomum villosum, perilla, Elsholtzia, sweet cabbage, fenugreek, etc.

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Why do we need to add spices when frying hot pot base?

First of all, there is the need to present fragrance, enhance aroma and suppress odor. Chongqing hotpot, especially the traditional hotpot represented by "old hotpot", uses butter, chili, pepper, ginger, garlic, and bean paste as the main ingredients. No spices are added, and the chef relies on the heat to determine the aroma of the base, especially the aroma of the butter after maturation. However, butter itself has a fishy smell, and ginger, garlic and other ingredients alone cannot effectively suppress the smell of butter. Therefore, the traditional Chongqing hotpot gives people the feeling of being thick and greasy but lacking in fragrance. Therefore, dozens of natural spices can be organically combined in the hotpot base spices according to scientific formulas and added to the hotpot base spices to play the role of suppressing odor, removing evil, presenting fragrance and enhancing aroma.

Secondly, there is the need for preservation, sterilization and fragrance preservation. Due to the high temperature during the frying process of the hot pot base, most of the bacteria in the material have been killed, but the moisture in the base cannot be completely fried dry. Therefore, after the base is cooled and stored and used, when water comes into contact with air, the base will gradually oxidize, mold, and become rancid, seriously affecting the quality of the hot pot base, and even making it unusable. The ingredients in the hot pot base spices we developed, such as cloves, thyme, cardamom, cinnamon, etc., have strong sterilization and preservative effects. It provides a guarantee for maintaining the quality and aroma of hot pot base and extending its shelf life.

Third, the need for dietary health care. When eating hot pot, diners often eat uncooked dishes due to improper blanching methods, which often leads to diarrhea. Some diners also have diarrhea due to gastrointestinal allergies to spicy foods. Some diners may feel uncomfortable when eating hot pot due to their physical conditions, such as spleen and stomach deficiency, kidney yang deficiency, intestinal cold and diarrhea, colds, etc. According to the principle that food and medicine have the same origin, and medicine and food have the same origin, we have added materials such as cardamom, amomum villosum, poria, and herb to the hot pot spices, which are both food and medicine. They have good effects in removing cold, warming the middle, eliminating dampness, and stopping diarrhea for diners who feel uncomfortable when eating hot pot.