Qianjiang Evening News hourly news reporter Shi Wen
Every autumn season, countless foodies are thinking of the mellow crab yellow, dense crab paste and tender crab meat of hairy crabs.
In the last issue, we said that the hairy crab has just been listed on the market, and the price before the Mid-Autumn Festival is really a bit unaffordable! (Click to read the previous related report "Tanban just listed hairy crabs: this year's big, 4 two female crabs sold for 120 yuan / jin")
Last week, the small partners of the Hangzhou aquatic products market told the Qianjiang Evening News hourly news reporter that because they had never sold hairy crabs in Yangcheng Lake, they wanted to visit Yangcheng Lake and cooperate with the Suzhou Crab Industry Association to introduce Yangcheng Lake crabs.
After returning from the visit, everyone's unanimous feeling is that this year's crabs are particularly large.
However, these days the market is not the Hairy Crab of Yangcheng Lake.
When to come? Always wait for the Yangcheng Lake official to announce the arrest! It is said that this year's fishing time is the end of September, and the price is special! other! expensive!
Hairy crabs have been eaten by many people, but Yangcheng Lake is the most famous, and the crabs produced in this lake are really so fragrant?
A few years ago, the Qianjiang Evening News hourly news reporter was introduced by the Zhejiang Freshwater Fisheries Research Institute and got acquainted with the hairy crab research team of the Jiangsu Freshwater Fisheries Research Institute, the hairy crab species cultivated throughout Jiangsu, the Chinese river crab Yangtze River No. 1 and No. 2, and the Chinese river crab Noah Noah No. 1 were all selected and bred by this team.
Regarding the hairy crabs, the team experts basically know everything, and we would like to ask a question today.
This chapter is pure dry goods, there is no fancy picture, the content is quite brainwashed, patient may wish to read it carefully.
1] Yangcheng Lake hairy crab, not necessarily the most delicious
Hairy crabs are the fame of Yangcheng Lake, but experts say: "Don't be superstitious about the six words 'Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs'!" Of course, this suggestion is mainly a suggestion to the local tycoons who can afford to buy hairy crabs in Yangcheng Lake.
What do you mean by that? The situation is a little more complicated, and listen to us slowly.
In Jiangsu, where the plains are densely packed with river networks, Yangcheng Lake is actually not large, with only 12,000 mu of hairy crab farming natural waters.
But now In Jiangsu, in addition to Yangcheng Lake also breeding hairy crabs in the lake area, crabs from other production areas are farmed in ponds, this situation is somewhat similar to Sanmen green crabs in Zhejiang, although wild blue crabs mainly live in the sea, but the green crabs we eat are basically artificially farmed in the sea pond.
Do you know why hairy crabs are called lake crabs?
That's because the wild Chinese fluffy crab is native to natural lakes like Yangcheng Lake, where the aquatic grass at the bottom of the lake is fertile and the natural bait is abundant, which breeds delicious hairy crabs.
The fame of hairy crabs in Yangcheng Lake actually began in the distant era when crabs were not farmed and only wild crabs were eaten.
The current Yangcheng Lake is a hairy crab cultured by artificial purse seine, the breeding density has become higher, coupled with the change of the water environment, the taste of crabs is naturally different from that of wild fishing hundreds of years ago.
Hairy crab is not delicious, and its species, feeding environment, breeding level and climatic conditions are related, the expert's view is: "Pond crab farming is not necessarily worse than lake farming, and may even surpass it." ”
To sum up: the crab in the current Yangcheng Lake Area is different from the tradition, and the taste of crab is not necessarily the best in Jiangsu.
2] Jiangsu hairy crabs listed in September are usually Xinghua crabs
Jiangsu people pay attention to "nine females and ten males" when they eat crabs, that is to say, eating female crabs in the ninth month of the lunar calendar and eating male crabs in the tenth month of the lunar calendar has the best taste.
The reason for eating the female crab first and the male crab later is that the female crab's ovaries, that is, the development of crab yellow, develops earlier than the white crab paste of the male crab.
If it is converted to the Gregorian calendar, it is the female crab eaten after mid-October, and the male crab after mid-November.
In addition, the expert also quietly told me: "We found that if it is the 'Yangcheng Lake Crab' listed in September, it is basically Xinghua Crab transported to Yangcheng Lake to impersonate." ”
this...... What's going on?
Don't worry! Let's first popularize the concept of individual production areas, Jiangsu hairy crabs are divided according to the production area, there are two major areas in northern Jiangsu and southern Jiangsu, and the traditional production area of Yangcheng Lake belongs to the southern part of Jiangsu.
The southern Jiangsu production area includes Suzhou Yangcheng Lake and the surrounding area, Nanjing Gaochun District Gucheng Lake (the same latitude as Yangcheng Lake), Changzhou Huanghu Lake and the surrounding area of Taihu Lake, but does not include Taihu Lake, because Taihu Lake has been permanently closed to fishing a few years ago.
The characteristics of crab farmers in southern Jiangsu are that the breeding area is very small, usually each family contracts more than ten acres to dozens of acres of water, and the 100 acres of farmers can be regarded as super large households.
It is also because of the small area that the management of crab farmers in southern Jiangsu is relatively fine, and the quality of crabs is generally better than that of northern Jiangsu.
Located in the central part of Jiangsu, Xinghua can be classified into the northern Jiangsu production area, which has a large breeding area, and the contracted 1,000 acres of water in Xinghua can only be regarded as a small household.
It is also because the crab pond in northern Jiangsu is too vast, and the crab farmers are not as fine as in southern Jiangsu in management, such as insufficient feeding of bait, which will affect the quality of crabs.
Statistics show that at present, there are 4 million mu of hairy crab breeding area in jiangsu, of which the largest head is Xinghua, and the breeding area of 800,000 mu accounts for 20% of the province, but the actual breeding area is larger.
Just as we said, the northern Jiangsu crab is often inferior to the southern Jiangsu crab in terms of quality; then, in order to take advantage of the strengths and avoid the shortcomings, such a large production area as Xinghua will choose to catch in advance in September every year to seize the head of the Mid-Autumn Festival consumer market; because the more later, the crab is often more and more difficult to fight in the quality of the southern Jiangsu crab.
Of course, listing before the Mid-Autumn Festival can also sell at a good price. Attention! At this time, the crab is only good in price, and the quality of the crab itself is actually not ideal.
3】 Hairy crabs will be astringent in the morning, and it is best not to eat bitter
At the beginning, we said that this year's Jiangsu hairy crab is relatively large, and experts have also analyzed the reasons, that is, this summer's rainy season is not long, there are not many high temperature days, and the overall climate is more suitable for the development of hairy crabs than in previous years.
Judging from the current situation that some production areas in Jiangsu have just begun to catch, the size of the crab is indeed not small, but the follow-up situation is not so optimistic, experts believe that it depends on the next weather conditions.
In the market, everyone can actually eat hairy crabs as early as August, but these crabs are not produced in Jiangsu, but are farmed in Shandong and Liaoning, especially in Shandong, and the breeding area of hairy crabs has increased rapidly in recent years.
Hairy crabs have to go through more than ten molting shells in their lives, and each molting shell will gain a circle, because the temperature difference between day and night in the north in the summer is larger than that in the south, the crab molting will be more frequent, and the northern crab can indeed be listed 1-2 months earlier than the south.
Although foodies want to taste early, the attitude of experts to eat crab is very strict: "Jiangsu hairy crab, we do not recommend that you eat in September." ”
Why? Experts have made an analogy of unripe fruit, the fruit is too raw to eat there will be astringency, in fact, hairy crabs that have not grown up, the meat will also have astringency, and the taste is not good.
In addition, the experts specially instructed the Qianjiang Evening News and hourly news reporters to remind the vast number of foodies in particular.
If you eat hairy crab yellow has a bitter taste, it means that the crab is not yet mature, its nutrients and flavor substances have not been completely converted and precipitated, everyone still does not eat it!
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