Chef James Reacts...To Guga Foods BAKING Soda Steak! 

Hope you guys enjoy it! Thank you @gugafoods for such an interesting video! Become a Patreon: www.patreon.com/chefjamesmakinson

In Chinese cuisine, we would use a bit of bake soda with cornstarch and an egg to marinate the meat (especially the beef) and make it a bit more tender. We usually add soy sauce or oyster sauce too so that their flavor can be absorbed by the tenderized meat. But the amount of baking soda is little. And trust me, even a little bit of baking soda would be very effective. The amount used in the video definitely is a bit on the high side😂

I don't work in a Chinese restaurant, but I am Chinese. And Yes, it is common to use baking soda in Chinese food during meat preparation. Some home recipes will even provide a version for those who want to use baking soda in their meats. However, it is uncommon to cover the meat in baking soda for that long. I did a little research on how to use baking soda as tenderiser in Chinese Internet. Comes out that the meat usually sits in the baking soda for from 5 to 30 minutes depends on how the meat is cut. The suggested proportion is to use 3 grams of baking soda for every 500 games of meat. And it's recommend to put sugar into the baking soda - beef mix to counter the baking soda flavour. And the meat should be rinsed properly after the treatment, before proper marination. Consider the steak is a rather thick cut of meat, the tenderization could last longer, but 4-hour does sound like an overkill. That said, now most professional kitchen in Chinese restaurants are ditching the baking soda and turn to tenderizers. Tenderisers are usually made with Papain (papaya proteinase, a type of hydrolase extracted from papaya). Which I believe does not have leftover weird tasts. Papain works just like Bromlelain(another type of protein hydrolase extracted from pineapple), they hydrolyse the proteins in the meats' muscle fibers which tenderise the meat. Differences are, Bromlelains are said to be a bit more delicate than Papains. So if one doesn't want to use baking soda to tenderize meats for whatever concerns one might have, Freshly made pineapple or papaya juice/paste is always an option. I think Guga tested the pineapple juice/paste route and did yield a quite positive result.

Guga's videos are really well edited. I think that's what really sets him up in the higher tier of RU-vid home cooks.

I don't work in a Chinese restaurant personally, but my ex girlfriend comes from a family of Chinese professional chefs and I had the pleasure to learn from some of them. They definitely use baking soda to tenderise beef. Usually the beef is sliced thinly and then marinated in seasonings and sauces to which the baking soda is also added. This supposedly helps the beef stay tender when stir-frying in a wok at extremely high heat

I don’t work in a Chinese restaurant but my parents have always taught me to use baking soda to tenderize meat. We also sometimes put cornstarch on meat for a “slippery” mouthfeel.

I really love that you always have a chart in your videos to better explain the different ingredients. I always make sure to take screen shots so I can refer back later. 😊

I'm a texture person. I've done this experiment, although with the baking soda in a marinade and there was no discernable negative impact in flavor but I will say the texture was amazing. I used the same marinade that I use for beef stir fry but just left out the egg whites and corn starch.

I feel like it would definitely work better for Asian cooking because all the different flavors and spices would probably cover up the little baking soda used. If I may suggest, I'd love to see some storytime videos about your experiences as a chef! I'm sure viewers would love to get to know you more better, chef! 😁♥️

I generally don't like react videos, but your videos hits me differently. Honestly, I wouldn't really call them react videos. They're more like professional reviews, which to us aspiring cooks is like a gift wrapped in gold. I get why you have to use the word react (algos and all that), but I can't help wishing that you'd give yourself more credit for your work. You sure as hell deserve it!

Also , baking soda is added into the batter for the batter to become more fluffy in dishes like bhajias (fried bengal gram fritters) in india , though the amount has to be absolutely miniscule .

Guga has a ton of content and it's all great. All the things you never wondered about seasoning/aging steaks with he tries, with varying degrees of success lol.

Baking soda on steak seems cool the closer you look at it. I’m always fascinated by other chefs’ cooking techniques. Seems like they have a broad knowledge when pulling off recipes similar to this one in particular. Honestly, I find Chef James’s insights rather useful. I hope he continues to work hard.

In France we called this technic "steak du truand" meaning "thief steak". Because some chef would use baking soda on a tough and cheap cut, make it tender and sell it as a good cut. Obviously it doesn't make it as good as a good cut but it makes it tender. You don't want to put the baking soda directly on the meat, dissolve one large spoon of baking soda in 2 cups of water and let the steak in this for one night . A lot of countries use tenderizer, butter milk, onion, pineapple, Asian pear or kiwi works pretty well. Be careful not to overdo it you'll end up with a mushy piece of meat.

Baking soda and salt brine. The amounts have to be pretty precise and has to be rinsed off thoroughly. Results in very tender meat that is great for absorbing marinades for stir fries. Some places use egg white and corn starch which is milder and harder to screw up but I feel that it requires more effort.

There's a reason that the Chinese places that use this technique use it for dishes with a flavorful sauce like Beef and Broccoli.

What guga did here is very similar to how my mom taught me how to tenderize steak as beef here can be so tough to eat, however the amount of ingredients we use to cover that flavor from the baking soda may be too muh for someone who doesnt love a strong flavor, great vid once again chef much love.

I've heard that a little baking soda can help accelerate the mallard reaction, for instance when carmelizing onions a tiny pinch can speed it up if you're in a rush. Granted it's not as good, but I had wondered if it would work with steak too and was surprised there was no discussion about it.

I really like Guga's experiments. It's nice to have someone that will try stuff so others don't need too 😅 Good info. And I like his methods like having a control and trying dif combos. I'm always interested to see how things turn out

This is what a 'react' video is supposed to be! An expert being insightful. Only just starting watching your videos and I am enjoying them.

An interesting thing I learned is that they didn't use baking soda in traditional Chinese marinades, they used egg whites. Egg whites are apparently alkaline which tenderizes the meat as we've seen in the video. Baking soda is used as an easier substitute to get that alkaline marinade, but only in small amounts compared to the whole marinade. You don't usually put baking soda directly onto the meat either since it'll require an inordinate amount of baking soda to evenly coat the whole meat, and we saw how that turned out.

I often use baking soda and bottermilk to tenderize chicken overnight (throw in some garlic, herbs, etc.). The next day I pan-fry them in a cornflakes crust. It is way better then KFC. I love it!

I never knew there are several ways to tendering meat 😮 I used to covering the meat with papaya leaves tightly and wait for 4-5 hours. I will try using baking soda later.

It is true that baking soda is used in Chinese cooking to tenderize meat. The technique is called velveting and it's great, you do it by: - Thinly slicing the meat, ant kind. Can be chicken, pork, beef, even fish- - Wash the meat to remove the myoglobin, though be careful not to overdo it. - Marinate the meat, this is where the baking soda comes in. You use a small amount of it alongside salt, corn starch, and any particular flavouring components, sometimes the baking soda is substituted with egg white (since both are alkaline, which is what tenderizes the meat). - Briefly deep fry or boil the meat to form the outer starch coat. After that it's ready to use, generally on stir fries but I've gotten creative with it in the past.

Love your videos James keep them coming… I watch all Gugas stuff, he does some crazy experiments… but unlike most of the ones you review he doesn’t make many errors … I always tell my wife I don’t want to know what’s going on in a kitchen as I would never eat out again 😂

I've used baking soda and cornstarch on chicken before when making Chinese inspired dinners. It was an Aha moment the first time I did it as to how Chinese restaurants get such softness in their dishes.

Hi James, as many people mentioned in the comments that Chinese restaurants do use a lot sauce and marinades to cover the baking soda taste. I had something like this as a thinner steak but it was marinated heavily and more closer to a stir fry. As far as rareness in my steak it really comes down to the cut. For rib eye for instance, I want it in between medium rare to medium as I want the fat to be at least at little bit rendered.

Hank Hill - "Bobby, what do we do if someone asks for their steak well done?" Bobby Hill- "We ask them politely, yet firmly to leave dad!"

Glad you liked guga, his videos are fascinating haha

Cracked black pepper on the service side up, at last turn! It’s my little trick, it helps to bring out the aroma and oils! If you don’t believe me crack black pepper over melted cheese wait ten seconds and the smell! Pepper may be dried but adding it to moisture and heat wakes it up and it comes to play

Guga has a great channel. His experiments can be a little wacky but they are interesting and his side dishes are always money comfort food

When I use ground beef (hamburgers, chili, meatballs), I add maybe 1/8 tsp to 2 lbs ground meat. It helps with browning by raising the pH too

I remember this episode.... Can't say I would use baking soda. I'd do the pineapple juice though. Great tip on trimming the meat. internal temp, for me, depends on the cut really, I find sirloins to be best at medium, while most others mid-rare.. oh, and it's not a steak without black pepper LOL. Great video buddy!

I (well a lot of people) use baking soda for Kebab (the minced meat version, like mitetei). It helps make the meat fluffier. But then again this dish is seasoned with a lot of cumin and other spices.

Awesome, I love guga foods (and his other channel Sous Vide Everything)! They are like the Top Gear of cooking youtube 👍 Can't wait for more of your reactions to their content! EDIT: You should react to the absolute monstrosity titled "1 Month Brisket" on the sous vide everything channel! (it's guga's other channel). Basically he sous vided a whole brisket for a whole month lol

The mechanism behind why baking soda is that as it penetrates the cut of meat, the rising pH makes it more difficult for meat proteins to maintain their bonds, causing them to go "slack" or break and imparting a greater tenderness. A similar process happens in the other direction with acids (which are extremely common in marinades as you know) where these bonds are directly broken down instead of being degraded. Both directions will tenderize meat but the reason most people use acidic brines and marinades is due to the fact that acids tend to taste better and be less dangerous than alkaline compounds. A notable exception is hominy. The highly alkaline lye used to make hominy is part of why it has texture it does.

Most Chinese recipes that use baking soda use thinly sliced beef, about 1/8 inch thick, about 1/2 to 1 tsp of baking soda for a pound of meat, and recommend marinating for no more than 20 minutes. It gives the meat a soft, spongy texture, and there is usually a strongly flavoured sauce involved, such as black bean or pepper.

Worth noting that dry brining only works well if your meat is fairly thin, the thicker it is the less the salt will penetrate and the longer it will take. For anyone interested in trying it. And if you don't have a meat mallet you can use the rim of a dinner plate. But if you are going to tenderize your meat with a plate maybe put the meat in a plastic bag to keep it from splattering everywhere.

I must say, my last video I watched of you, I didn't like, but this one I really did!!! I have been watching Guga Foods for a while now, and he has helped me with my sous Vide recipes!!!

"Guys, let me know what your favorite temp for meat is". I thought about this a lot, actually. And I looked at my smoker and it hit me. I like my meat around 205 F. But for a plain steak, I'd go about 135 F to 140 F.

I have found baking soda does wonderful things for stir-frying meat. for stir frys, I take thin sliced beef and aggressively massage in corn starch, baking soda, maybe half a teaspoon for a pound of thin sliced beef, and a bit of soy sauce. 15 minutes later it is cooked, and importantly no acidic sauces are added until after cooking. It makes a huge difference preventing the meat from toughening up. not sure I would do it for a steak though, but I think after adding a sauce that inevitably contains acid, the remaining baking soda gets consumed and converted into a sodium salt, leaving no offputting flavor behind. This method also works for sliced chicken, and can be improved by blanching the chicken before stir frying.

Excellent video. I usually order my steak to be medium rare and will happily accept medium. A few months ago I ordered a medium rare steak at my local pub but they had delivered a well done steak. I had sent it back as it was way past medium.

Hey there, I actually do this with baked baking soda (sodium carbonate) since it's much more basic, you can use less of it for the same effect witouth imparting any weird flavors. It is also excellent when roasting chickens and ducks to get crunchy skin

As for Chinese restaurant, yes they use baking soda and potato/corn starch for stir-fried dishes. It makes the meat tender and has slippery, somewhat slimy texture.

Many places do what is called velveting, where they marinate the meat in egg white and cornstarch before giving it a quick dip in hot oil to par cook before the final actual cook.

Arm and Hammer makes a baking soda tooth powder that is very effective. When I shared it with a friend, their emphatic response was "This tastes like punishment!"

Guga is great for saving you the costs of doing these experiments, any experiment I thought of, and even things tha would never come to my mind, he did it, and had taste testers to try it. he learnt a lot, and plenty of RU-vid food channels did like his food, he is the steak expert, but he shines the most with his experiments.

yes, its true that Chinese restaurants use baking soda to tenderize sliced beef such as mongolian beef or beef stir fry. its called meat velveting by term. but they use it for a short amount of time in a tiny amount of soda and rinse off every bit it from the surface. mongolian beef or stir fries usually have some acidic wine or soy vinegar to cover up the alkaline taste of the baking soda.

So, I have a theory on the "weird taste" thing, based on what they were saying, "It's taking away the beef flavor", it might be because baking soda is a deodorizer. A lot of people forget that our sense of taste and smell are linked, so that beef flavor may also come from something that smells bad. This would also explain why you should use herbs and spices when cooking beef, or there can be a bad smell coming from it.

Medium to Medium rare is my favorite temp Favorite cooking method: Sous Vide 137 for 3 hours put in freezer for 5 mins sear on cast iron pan for 1.5 mins per side in some beef tallow bathe in butter to finish Rest for ~5 mins

Another use for baking soda is to neutralize acids. So if you going to deal with any acid that can cause a skin irritation, it is good to have a high concentrated baking soda solution ready nearby. In case of any accident you can use that solution instead of rinsing with water. We generally season meat with salt for 2 purposes. Salt drives some water content out of the meat. That gives us 2 advantages. As salt drives the water out of the meat, 1st some of the blood that trapped inside of the meat also comes out, which reduces any irony aftertaste, 2nd water is one of the best solvents (well it is after all the main actor of water soluble world) and as it takes out the water the meat become more dense in flavors.

That is why it is used in Chinese cuisine or Saucy dishes. The soapy taste is covered by the sauce. But on steak it needs rinsing beforehand but while rinsing you can feel the beef is getting very soft and prone to break.

I believe the Chinese technique of using baking soda is called velveting. RU-vid channels Kenji Lopez Alt, Chinese Cooking Demystified, and Cooking with Lau all discuss it in their videos like in their beef with broccoli recipe.

guga's voice is so satisfying I wonder if all the food channels ever called him... nice video chef! I also heard that baking soda preserves the green color of vegetables in Chinese cuisine...

The world is discovering our little round Brazilian steak master. I have been hearing his name a lot lately.

I was taught to use cornstarch and Shaoxing (Chinese cooking wine) to tenderize a cheap cut of meat for Chinese cuisine.

Yep called "velveting". It's how they make the meat tender in chinese cooking. Sometimes uses egg white instead of baking soda.

I think the control steaks will be the best. I've read using baking soda to speed up onion caramelization leaves them tasting of baking soda.

I don't work in a Chinese restaurant but I do cook. I've been taught to tenderize meat with corn starch and touch of soy sauce or other marinade.

the question of "better flavor but worse texture or worse flavour but better texture" is basically just "ribeye or filet mignon" lol

Velveting meat as is done with a dish like beef and borccoli, is done with baking soda and corn starch mixed with savory sauces like soy sauce or oyster sauce. That way the meat absorbs those flavors instead.

i work at a chinese restaurant and i have also worked thai and japanese. i can confirm that a basic marinade consists of baking soda starch eggs and oil (additional seasonings if you want.) but, the meat is sliced thin first. noone just throws baking soda on a whole steak.

Welcome to the Guga video rabbit hole. So much crazy content from this guy.

bicarb is also good for removing or preventing stains and I believe it helps with relieving cramps

3:15 As a chef of two decades, if there is one thing I've learned working in all these kitchens, It's that I never wish to go out to eat for the rest of my days. It's horrific what so many companies will allow or turn a blind eye to back of house.

I work in mining in Australia and yes this is a common practice among camp chefs

Chinese restaurants also use a little bit of baking soda to tenderize calamari

Well done Chef! Enjoyed the information and the technique used by the Chef in the video. Your comments and insights were spot on. Keep up the great work! Looking forward to your next video.

love guga as he kind of reminds me of a mad scientist and he has some guinea pigs too to test his experiments on - then again what else is food for if not for experimenting and finding different combinations and techniques

I worked in a fast chinesee food restaurant, i don't remember using bicarbonate or the powder had bicarbonate, but we used something named "meat tenderizer powder", and the way to use it was directly pouring when meat was cooked in the wok, after that we mixed rest of veggies, sauce, etc.

Not baking soda, but in Japanese restaurant we use Koji, which is a soybean paste, and use it for marinating fish and other proteins. It does tenderize the meat and adds salt to The dish.

I don't know anything about just sprinkling baking soda on steak, but I "velvet" chicken and pork for stir fry all the time and it definitely makes it way more tender. Velveting though involves cutting the meat into slivers and vigorously mixing it up with small amounts (like 1/2 tsp per pound of meat) of corn starch, baking soda, salt, pepper, sugar, cooking wine, and an egg white (maybe a little fish sauce, and maybe a little sesame oil too), then letting that sit for like 30 minutes to a couple of hours (you don't need to do it overnight).

Great video, and reaction! Muchas gracias from Santa Cruz California

I reverse sear my steaks, for 1 to 1 1/2 hours in the bullet smoker at 100ºc and then sear to medium

I use baking soda only, rubbed in, and stand for about an hour (more than double the amount of bicarbonate they used)… then rinse off with water… then massage the meat with (malt) vinegar and stand for ~5 mins and drain… then cook, grill or marinade. The vinegar (acid) cancels the baking soda (alkaline) and removes that slightly “funny” flavour. It gives the benefit of tenderness with the full meat taste. I do this to ALL my meats, it works.

Guga has a couple of great channels. He’s willing to do any experiment so matter how crazy it may seem.

Baking soda is also wonderful for neutralizing stomach acid, easing reflux

I remember decades ago being taught about using TSP to tenderize the meat, in the same vein as baking soda... I never tried myself, I've used starch+soda when making Chinese style stirfry dishes, also usually with tough strips of beef

Finally! Although I'm not a chef, I do love cooking and for half a century I've been advocating that you do not season a good piece of meat. you just don't. only salt. period. It is a pleasure to see a proper chef in agreement. Sick and tired of watching renowned chefs literally destroying the most beautiful steaks with all sorts of herbs and crap.

I am from Hong Kong, I don't work in a kitchen but some small restaurants or cha chaan tengs do use baking soda for beef when stir frying (with vegetables). Small slices of leaner beef would be used for stir frying, and the meat is fried until med-well/well done. The meat from these places would not be of very good quality as well so baking soda is usually used by these restaurants to keep the meat tender. They'd also marinate the beef with stuff like soy sauce, black beans, garlic, etc. to cover up the taste of the baking soda. They don't just do this for stir frying as there are other dishes that involves beef prepared in similar ways. I'd consider this method quite old school and there are modern establishments that do not use this method. It is usually not used for home cooking or in upscale Cantonese/Chinese restaurants as well. A popular dish around here would be Stir-fried Beef with Bitter Melon, usually with black bean-garlic sauce or some kind of savory sauces.

I've worked in Chinese restaurants before and the use of baking soda is a regional thing. Every region within China has their own standardized way of tenderizing meat, most of it involves corn starch & egg whites, but baking soda isn't unheard of.

You mentioned a couple of times that salt extracts moisture. You are correct, but what you might not realize is that after the moisture is extracted, it mixes with the salt, creating a saltwater solution, which is then, through the osmosis process, re-absorbed back into the meat. It essentially salts the inside of the steak. Where Guga messed up in this video (it's an old one of his, he has since corrected his method) is dry brining on a plate. Gotta use a wire rack of something to elevate it. Otherwise, you get that little pool of juices like you saw.

Been a Guga fan for a long time. He tested the black pepper question in one of his videos. Worth watching.

I’ve used bicarb with potato flour, soy, etc, marinating the beef for a while. It was very good at tenderising.

In Chinese restaurants, they often use egg-white and cornstarch mixture for tenderizing. Baking soda/water is often used too. My mother used a mallet to do brief pounding, then baking soda + water paste to tenderize pork or beef for 1 hr, then she would rinse it out and then coat it in a marinade for 5-10 minutes and cook it shortly afterwards. Because Chinese marinades are thick and flavorful you do not need to need to leave it in the fridge for a few hrs - like you would with say a European dish. Also, if you are doing a stir-fry you would always create a cornstarch slurry and mix with condiments like soy, oyster sauce or hoisin sauce, sherry or cooking wine, some sugar to flavor the sauce before serving. That is why your beef and broccoli is so incredibly tender and tasty. For Indian cooking, they would normally use yogurt instead for several hours to overnight. It seriously tenderizes the meat and tastes fabulous vs not using the yogurt for several hours. (I've done the experiment with both).

After washing the baking soda off as well as you can, you put the steak in an acidic marinade to leach out the last of the soda.

In China we use baking soda not only for restaurant cooking also use for home cooking as well

I usually use baking soda to clean pots or pans. It tenderizes the dirt overnight and the next day you don't need to scrub them, tender sponge is enough and voila, pots and pans are clean and shiny again.

Growing up, making beef or pork or chicken, we would always use cornflour with it. Never used Bicarb with them though.

The quality of the beef also matters a lot. Choosing the leanest cuts with no marbling is not a good idea. Baking soda can tenderize the meat. Ideally, the best is to educate ourselves about cuts. Different cuts are ideal for different purposes. Baking soda won't work well if the cut is of horrible quality. It will make the meat less chewy, but still chew if it's the wrong cut, or bad quality.

It's true that in many chinese preparations they tenderize the meat with baking soda, but at the same time they don't just grill it on charcoal, those soda tenderized meats usually go into recipes that include sauces, stews, even soups. They wash the meat thoroughly before cooking too, not just rinse.

Most Chinese restaurant uses a lil bit of baking soda in their meat stir fry, be it chicken, pork or beef. Most folks working or worked in Chinese restaurants usually stay away from those dishes, as they tend to use a over powering sauce to cover up the flavour of the baking soda and it tastes like nothing but the sauce. That being said most of my friends loves those dishes😂😂😂 when we hang out at Chinese restaurants. All things aside, I’d say for a full 4” 1/2 Hotel Pan of sliced meat, Chinese restaurant usually puts in a certain amount of eggs, oil, starch, baking soda (roughly 1-2 teaspoon).

I recently found your channel, and it has already become a favorite. I chuckle as I watch your expressions for the comments that will follow. I was raised in a culinary family, so tricks, remedies, and secrets of cooking are vast. I started working the family business as a garde manger at 9 (Papa taught us knife skills early), then progressed to meat and fish. Putting any artificial substance like baking soda is sacrilegious to an Italian. We honor our food too much to ruin it with this sort of ingredient. I like Guga a lot, and I am glad he experiments for his viewers so that they may learn. There are many ways to tenderize and flavor beef, but sodium bicarbonate is NOT one !! Here's one secret ingredient from Sicily: Blood Orange rind and anchovies. Thank you for your videos. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I will be waiting for your next video(s).

a good tip for getting rid of the baking soda is using something acidic (if you hit the perfect ratios you should not feel neither the soda nor the acid) on the finished product (by finished I mean finished marinating before the main cooking process, not finished dish), it neutralizes the soda (soda is basic, acid is acidic, duuh... hehe and both cancel each other out, taste included and that is from personal experience also chemistry 101) so maybe a splash of lemon or a wine based souse or a tomato based one maybe... covering it with other strong flavors as Ryan in the previous comment said works too but I think neutralizing (removing it in general) works better and I guess wine, tomato, lemon, vinegar work way better for western cuisine than soy or oyster souse.... yet again... acid tenderizes protein too, so.... yeah... take it as you may.... (yes it toughens it at first but if you give it time the protein gets broken down after the initial toughening phase) Also, taste is KING!!! I'd prefer taste over texture EVERY SINGLE TIME!!! And to be perfectly honest I love me some chew and resistance (not too much tho) but I'm that guy that loves me some cartilage to crunch on and love gnawing on a bone to remove every single strand of meat and taste..... so I'm not the perfect example of normal standards.....

As a bit of science, adding baking soda will increase the surface pH of the meat. This will speed the Maillard reaction, which will improve the flavour and look of the steak.

Baking soda is used in Asian cuisine to tenderize the meat and produce a "velveting" effect, 100% correct. Quantities are little and always combined with soy sauce and other spices so it goes unnoticed.

You mention that you don't want to know what goes on in some kitchens, just a point to add that this doesn't necessarily correlate to price. I've worked in the food industry a lot when I was younger and some of the most expensive restaurants will do things that would make you question their sanity while some more affordable places are extremely hygienic. I've worked in one of the more expensive Texas BBQ restaurants which I won't name and their method for making "chopped beef sandwiches" was to take a red bucket and place it on the floor next to the chopping block with a bench scrape and any chunks of anything they were cutting that didn't end up on the plate went into the bucket, then that bucket was emptied into a warming tray and chopped aggressively and smothered in sauce and served on bread. This was later explained to the owner to be "unethical" and "probably illegal" and they stopped. In particular I explained to him that many people have allergies and cutting everything on one block with the same knife was bad, additionally that many people can't eat say pork and don't want it in their chopped beef sandwiches. This was after myself and other employees explained how unhygienic it was to sit a bucket on the floor and scrape all of the meat into it and then let it sit out for far longer than is safe at room temp. The place was extremely nice, high end. (the walk in cooler was 4 rooms and about 4,000 square feet.) And the employees there were passionate and didn't want to screw the customer, the meat was good and you would have never known something so awful was being done to save money. Other places don't regularly clean their equipment, don't properly mark their food or cause cross contamination. Now it's much more tightly regulated and you are less likely to see a health code violation, that said the job I had immediately before this at a fast food place was incredibly anal about their cleanliness standards. We bleached our cutting boards every day, we did a once a week deep clean involving taking a magic eraser and cleaning every square inch of grout between the tiles on your hands and knees, we even kept the sidewalk in front of the business perfectly white by scrubbing it with a brush every third day. My point being that don't think that all cheap food, street or truck food is unsafe or bad or that all high end expensive food is impeccable.

This technique is called 'velveting'. I do this to chicken breast when I make stir-fry at home.

Sometimes my family uses soda for boiling venicine, it works pretty fine.

I'm actually Filipino-Chinese. When I was little, I remember my grandmother would add a little bit of cornstarch and baking soda to the meat and let it sit for a few minutes before adding the marinade. She do this when the cut of meat she's using was tough. The marinating would not take more than an hour because according to her, the baking soda will make the meat absorb the marinade fast aside from tenderizing it. She said she learned this method from my grandfather who is originally from China. Usually, she would use this method for stir fried dishes because as you know, stir frying in a hot wok should be done fast to prevent the ingredients from burning. Therefore, the ingredients need to be cooked fast. This is also the reason why the meat in stir fry dishes is cut thinly. But then again, only a small amount of baking soda should be added so it does not affect the flavor of the dish. From what I can recall, my grandmother would use not more than half a teaspoon sometimes less (depending on the amount of meat).