What is the best way to soak sea cucumbers?

Sea cucumber is a very good and precious food ingredient, so you need to be very careful when preparing it. Most sea cucumbers are dried, so they need to be soaked before cooking. There are very particular techniques for soaking sea cucumbers. If the soaking step is not done well, the taste of the soaked sea cucumbers may be affected.

1. Soaking :

Take a clean, oil-free container, fill it with an appropriate amount of mineral water (or purified water), and soak the sea cucumber in it for 48-72 hours until it becomes soft. Change the water every 8 hours.

2. Cleaning :

The incision for the sea cucumber is usually on the abdomen. Cut it along the midline of the abdomen from the tail to the head, remove the sand spout, clean the impurities in the belly of the sea cucumber, and pick out the tendons attached to the inner wall of the sea cucumber.

3. Pot cooking :

Fill a clean, oil-free pot with mineral water (or purified water) and put the washed sea cucumber in. Bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer for 30 minutes (up to 50 minutes in winter). After turning off the heat, cover and let it cool naturally for about 3 hours. Pick out the softened sea cucumbers, leave the hard ones in the pot, change to cold mineral water and cook again until all are softened.

Sea cucumbers vary in size and thickness, so the time it takes to swell is also different. The swelling time of small and thin sea cucumbers can be shorter, while the swelling time of solid and thick sea cucumbers should be longer. When the same size, thickness, and variety are expanded, some will expand first and some will expand later. The ones that expand first should be picked out first, while those that have not expanded should continue to expand until they are fully expanded.

4. Soak :

Fill a clean, oil-free container with cool mineral water and put in the cooked sea cucumber. Then place it in the refrigerator's fresh-keeping room and soak it for another 48-72 hours, changing the water 3-4 times during this period, and it is ready to eat.

Precautions

The utensils used in the soaking process of sea cucumbers (pots, basins, chopsticks, etc.) must be cleaned and must not be stained with grease. Sea cucumbers stained with oil will deteriorate and rot. The soaked sea cucumbers should be eaten as soon as possible and should not be soaked in water for a long time or placed in the refrigerator's fresh-keeping room for a long time with water. Use purified water throughout the entire process of soaking sea cucumbers.