Old vinegar stings, cold stung skin... Crisp and delicious jellyfish that everyone loves to eat. But how did it get out of the sea to the table? What are the unknown processes that have been experienced in the meantime?
Please follow me to the museum table in a serious manner. But before that, we have to start from the ground up in a reverse narrative.
Jellyfish catchers
The jellyfish on the table all looked similar. In fact, they may come from different kinds.
How many types of jellyfish are there?
The most classic and delicious is the jellyfish. Yes, the name of this species is called "jellyfish". Fishermen prefer to call it a "face sting" or "cotton sting". Its "umbrella cover" is smooth and crispy, but it is not too large, usually the size of a washbasin.
There is also a sand jellyfish, which fishermen call "sand stings", and its umbrella cover has a lot of sand-like protrusions, and the taste is not chewy, slightly inferior. But it was big, bigger than a table, and it took two people to pull on the boat. And there are far more than stings, so most of the cheap jellyfish on the market are sand stings.
In addition, China's edible jellyfish also have leaf wrist jellyfish, leaf-like wrist jellyfish, and macular jellyfish. They are caught in small quantities and the market is still dominated by face stings and sand stings.
Why don't jellyfish erupt and eat?
In recent years, the news has often reported the flooding of jellyfish in the sea, and many people wonder: if you send fishing boats to catch and eat, how can it still be a disaster?
I think the person who asks this question should not be agitated, you have to think about it, the fishermen are not stupid.
First, flooded jellyfish are not necessarily suitable for consumption. Even if it is a edible jellyfish, fishermen do not necessarily catch it. Because jellyfish must be disposed of immediately when they are caught, otherwise they will deteriorate. Therefore, fishermen generally only fish in the coastal waters, and immediately return to the shore to unload the goods after fishing.
No matter how many jellyfish there are in the open sea, it does not cost more oil money to go back and forth, and the jellyfish will deteriorate. And handling jellyfish requires special skills, and only a few fishermen are engaged in this profession. Ordinary fishermen will throw them back into the sea when they catch fish, because they can't handle it and occupy the place.
Fishermen have to transport jellyfish back to the shore in small quantities and many times, and if they catch too many jellyfish at one time, they can easily crush and deteriorate.
Although jellyfish look transparent, you may not be able to catch it
Every year in July and August, when it is hottest, it is the best time to catch jellyfish. The coastal areas of Liaoning, Shandong and Zhejiang are all hot spots where jellyfish appear.
Fishermen put down a "jellyfish net" and gradually put together the jellyfish floating in the sea, and then not all of them were caught, so that the jellyfish were squeezed to pieces. It is necessary to fish it up one by one with small nets. Some jellyfish weigh hundreds of pounds, and it takes two strong men to catch them.
There are two high tides and two low tides a day, and the high and low tide periods are the best time to fish for jellyfish, that is, you can catch jellyfish 4 times a day. But fishermen go to sea at most 3 times a day, go to sea for 2 hours, unload goods for 2 hours, work for more than ten hours, tired and sunburned, and often stung by jellyfish, very hard.
Raise jellyfish
Since fishing jellyfish is so hard, and the sand slugs that are often caught are worthless, it is better to raise them yourself. At the end of May, we made a special trip to Dandong, Liaoning Province, and Cui Zi, a local enthusiastic boy, took us to a jellyfish farm in the suburbs. All the people here are face stings.
Each pond in the culture pond is home to small jellyfish of different stages
Although it is the end of May, Dandong in the north is still quite cold. We stood in the courtyard with our hands folded and looked around, there were only some bungalows, no large pools of water as imagined. But there was a slight mist coming out of the door of one room, and we pushed the door in, and it was spacious and dark inside, with an aisle in the middle and a concrete pool on both sides. It turns out that the pool is in the house!
The wang gong in the field came over. He said: "Jellyfish are raised in the house when they are young, so that they can survive the winter. When you grow up, you put it in the outdoor pool. "He took us to the first pool. Inside was a lot of plastic corrugated board, strung together with rope.
Wang Gong lifted a string: "These small bumps attached to the board are flea-like juveniles." "I took a closer look, and sure enough, there were a lot of hydra-like creatures attached." Every September, we put fifteen or six pounds of wild jellyfish into a pool and let them mate and spawn. The eggs hatch into "floating wave larvae" and soon attach to the plate, becoming hydrate as larvae. In the spring, the workers will heat up the house, and the larvae will wake up and begin to grow rapidly. Wang Gong said.
Hydra-like larvae and transverse fissures attached to the plate.
There are also some juveniles on the board that grow larger, like a stack of plates, which is the next stage: "transverse split bodies", these plates fall off one by one, each of which is called a "dish-shaped juvenile", and each dish is a small jellyfish that swims on its own.
From top to bottom, small jellyfish grow from saucer-shaped juveniles to juvenile stings the size of ping-pong balls.
In the few remaining pools, each with a stage of jellyfish, each larger than the other, with the water created by the pump, the small jellyfish fly up and down like dumplings in a pot. There are also many knotless larvae of the shrimp in the water, which are live feeds to jellyfish. By the last pool, there were already baby stings the size of ping-pong balls. Such individuals can be placed in the outdoor open-air pool.
Stocked in the open air, the next time we meet is a table
Farmers prepare to put the small jellyfish in their bags into open pools
Just a few workers were going to release the seedlings, and we hurried to go with them. Fishermen call the open-air pond "circle" (pronounced "persuasion"), which is larger than the ordinary fish pond, and the seawater inside. There were many plastic bags full of small jellyfish piled up on the ground, and several uncles and aunts would put them in the water. I fished one in the locket, and it was very energetic, "grunting" and swimming non-stop, and several "small tails" had grown at the end of the mouth and wrists—rod-like appendages. This means that it is more mature and strong.
I put it in the water and said, "Please grow freely, you don't have a few months to live anyway, and you should be fished up and eaten in the summer." It's so sad
The jellyfish put into the open pool are about the size of these two jellyfish.
The fishermen picked up a small jellyfish and showed us that, even though it was out of the water, it was still "grunting" and trying to swim. When you grow up, it must taste good.
"Dismembered" jellyfish
First, let's get to know the body structure of the jellyfish:
Drawing: Zhang Yu
Fast forward to mid-to-late July, and the jellyfish are big enough. Farmers catch them and process them on the shore. Jellyfish can easily deteriorate after coming out of the water and must race against the clock.
First of all, wear gloves to remove the "jellyfish whiskers "filamentous appendages, rod-like appendages)", which are rich in thorn cells and sting, and must be removed.
Then there is the cutting and classification of the various parts of the jellyfish. Many people know that the umbrella part of the jellyfish is commonly known as "sting", and the mouth and wrist are commonly known as "sting", in fact, fishermen have a finer division.
They first cut off the mouth and wrist and put it in the bucket. This part is the "sting", but fishermen like to call it "jellyfish claw" because it has many branches and it does resemble a claw. Their fate is to make "old vinegar stings".
Then cut off the part between the mouth and wrist and the umbrella, which looks like a large piece of pure jelly, called the "jellyfish brain", which contains reproductive glands, has a special umami taste, and is the most abundant part of amino acids.
Now the jellyfish are only left with the umbrella. The next step is to remove the "jellyfish coat", that is, a film on the inside of the umbrella, which tastes like beef brisket after cooking, but has the umami taste of the sea. But the fishermen themselves are reluctant to eat it, because it is the most expensive part of the jellyfish's whole body. Be sure to peel it fresh, and after a little time, the jellyfish coat will not be peeled off.
The cut jellyfish brains and jellyfish coats should be immediately blanched with boiling water so that they become tight and easy to transport. The acquirer waited by and quickly transported the parts he wanted. The rest of the parts are treated with alum.
Scalded jellyfish coat
Marinated jellyfish
Marinating jellyfish with alum and salt is a traditional Chinese practice. The role of alum is to coagulate jellyfish's proteins and accelerate dehydration. In addition to dehydration, salt can also prevent microorganisms from multiplying and has an antiseptic effect.
Jellyfish skin and jellyfish heads should be pickled separately because the amount of alum and salt used is slightly different. But the general steps are the same, to use alum pickled three times, after doing it is called "three alum jellyfish":
Sprinkle alum on jellyfish and marinate.
First alum
Generally only alum is used, not salt. The alum water is soaked in jellyfish and soaked for 4 to 6 hours.
Dium
Drain it, put it in another pool, place a layer of jellyfish, sprinkle a layer of salt alum mixing powder, and so on, after filling the pool, "capped" with salt alum mixture powder, and marinate for about a week.
Three alum
Drain the jellyfish after the alum, put them in another pool, and repeat the steps of the alum, but use less salt and alum. After capping, marinate for another 8 to 10 days, and it will be successful. Jellyfish are now water-peeled off and become very compact, which can be stored for a long time.
In this way, the jellyfish skin and jellyfish head can be preserved for a long time.
Finally ready to eat
After much testing, the jellyfish, which became unknown to even its mother, finally came to the market. After buying home, you should pay attention to the jellyfish marinated with alum, you must rinse it several times, alum contains aluminum, and eating too much has a chronic harm to the body (but now there are jellyfish that sell that kind of instant food, and also give you a good seasoning, people who are too lazy to go to the kitchen can try).
After washing, jellyfish skin can be mixed with shredded cabbage, jellyfish head and cucumber or with fishing sauce. If you're at the beach, you should also try an unused, healthier jellyfish brain and jellyfish coat. Simply stir-fried with eggs and cabbage to maximize their deliciousness. If it is stewed with hu moss into a bowl of sour and spicy soup, it will be fresh and fresh, and the aftertaste will be wrapped around the beam.
Written by | Canaan
Drawing | Zhang Yu
Photography | Canaan Ye Zhehan
WeChat Editor | Small cakes
Thanks to Cui Congmin and Dandong Yuda Aquaculture Co., Ltd. for their help in this article.