Velveting

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

Mostly done it Asian cooking.
I fancy some large soft prawns so I’ve been having a little read up on velvetising.
The methods vary from using a type cornflour egg white slurry to sprinkling a little Lye water or Baking soda.
Ordered the Lye water for a bit of experimental kitchen at some point to see which method yields the best results.
The chart below suggests Lye water.

Anyone have any experience of velvetising?

 

[vernplum]

I velvet beef using the technique in this video (though I use less soy sauce and salt than they do as the first time it came out very salty). The key bits are thin slicing across the grain and the critical ingredients that contribute to the tenderness of the beef are the bicarb and cornflour. There's about a kilo of this in my freezer:

For prawns, I do a simple salt and baking soda prep. I don't think this is considered 'velveting' so much? (I think that term is more applied to meats?) and makes the shrimp have some 'snap' in the bite rather than soften them? That's my experience anyway.

For chicken, I don't bother so much as it doesn't need the tenderizing that beef might - for my pre-prepped chicken that I want to freeze ready for just whacking in a stir-fry at short notice, I usually just microwave breasts/boneless thighs for a few minutes till almost fully done, pull it out, slice it and freeze it.

 

[Yorky]

I have tried velveting chicken for chop suey, chow mein and occasionally chicken curry.

For each 250g chicken breast strips or pieces, I tossed with 3/4 tsp baking soda then left to marinate for 20 minutes. I then rinsed well under running water and dried with paper toweling.

I found that (or imagined) the chicken was more solid and less stringy to bite into. The results must have been marginal as I don't always remember to velvetise and I cannot say that it is detrimental to the end product.

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

Defrosted some prawns for a kettle cook and decided as it was a large bag I’d divide it into three and use two thirds to test out Lye water.

Soaked in very cold Lye Water for 30 mins inline with the chart in the first post.

Lye Water purchased from the nearest Asian supermarket.

Top bowl are the normal prawns, underneath the Lye Water soaked ones. I’d say the Lye soaked ones lost a lot more than the 20% suggested by the chart, they even look smaller.

Drained and thoroughly rinsed you can see the distinctly pink hue they have taken on. They feel a lot firmer than the normal prawns.

And cooked. Lye water prawns on the left, normal on the right.
Don’t concern yourself with the black bits, they were pan fried in butter and black garlic which tends to lighten to brown.

As you can see they have quite a different appearance but ended up about the same size. I think the fluid loss from the Lye water prawns meant they cooked faster, the normal prawns higher water content seemed to protect them slightly while they cooked through.

Taste test- did they taste more tender than normal prawns? No they did not. Not only was the texture IMO not better but in spite of copious rinsing the flavour was altered to, and not in a good way.

Perhaps the Lye water ones lower moisture content should translate to a shorter cooking time.
I don’t think prawns having an even shorter cook time than usual is beneficial.
So for me as I suspected the Lye water is out!