How To Handle Spices To Fully Release Their Fragrance?

Before making a good pot of brine or base, we need to understand the properties of various spices and how to handle them in order to constrain, coordinate, and complement each other, fully utilizing the fragrance of spices for our use. Some spices have off flavors, off flavors, etc. that need to be pre treated before being used in combination, which many people overlook, resulting in the finished product not having a rich and mellow taste. How should we proceed? Let's elaborate on a few points below.
Different spice pretreatments are also different. According to the characteristics of spices, they can be roughly divided into four categories: sweet aroma, sweet aroma, pungent aroma, and bitter aroma. Among them, sweet aroma is similar to sweet aroma, and pungent aroma is similar to bitter aroma.
Removing seeds can be a source of odor for some spices, even affecting the overall taste of the dish. Therefore, it is sometimes necessary to remove seeds, such as grass fruit, white pepper, and Sichuan peppercorns. If you have time, you can experiment by boiling Sichuan peppercorns separately from the seeds. You will find that the soup made with seeds is very bitter. Of course, removing seeds from Sichuan peppercorns is more complicated. If the ingredients to be made are not so particular, there is no need to waste time.
Soaking, the sweet and sweet aroma types mainly enhance the fragrance, which can be achieved by soaking in cold or warm water to remove their own odors and impurities, such as fragrant leaves, fennel, etc. Soak in room temperature water for 20 minutes, then remove and drain before proceeding to the next step of treatment; Spices with high oil content and slow fragrance, such as cinnamon and star anise, can be soaked in warm water before further processing.
The pungent and bitter flavor types are generally soaked in Baijiu or rice wine due to their heavy bitterness and miscellaneous flavor, so that the pretreatment can make them give full play to the flavor in the later use. For example, for grass fruit and nutmeg, first clean their surface with water to remove impurities and odors, then beat them to remove seeds, and then soak them in wine for about an hour before the next step of use.
After simple pretreatment, although impurities and odors are removed from the spices, they cannot be used for braising. They also need to be stir fried over low heat, otherwise their fragrance cannot be fully exerted. Due to the different sizes and thicknesses of each spice, it is not advisable to stir fry them all at the same time, otherwise they may be burnt or covered by the slow aroma. Spices with thick skin and slow aroma, such as cinnamon and star anise, can be stir fried first, followed by fragrant leaves and fennel with thin skin and fast aroma. It is better to separate the types of incense and bitter incense when stir frying.