When you velvet meat too long the meat will become to soft and gooey.
The longer the velveted meat sits the more tender it becomes but when left too long it becomes too tender and gooey or mushy.
You don't have to rinse meat after velveting unless you want to prevent clumps in your stir fry.
It's best to rinse the meat after velveting to remove the baking soda slurry so it does not clump up.
You should pat the meat dry after rinsing if you do rinse the meat after velveting.
The meat that is best for velveting is chicken, beef and pork.
Velveting is most commonly done with chicken but beef and pork can also be velveted.
Meat velveting is a process whereby proteins are coated with a simple mixture which usually consists of egg, cornstarch and a bit of liquid.
The coating during velveting the meat helps protect the protein and keep it tender during cooking.
The velveting process gives the protein a unique and very silky texture.
The velveting technique in cooking is very easy to do and gives amazing results.
To velvet the meat you simply coat strips of chicken, turkey, pork, beef, (or scallops, prawns etc) in a mixture of egg white, cornflour, sesame oil and salt before deep-frying in hot oil or poaching in simmering water.
You can velvet meat and make it melt-in-your-mouth tender by quickly tossing chunks of beef or chicken in about ¾ tsp of baking soda for about 15 minutes before your next stir fry, then rinse and pat the meat dry before putting in the pan.
"With water-velveting, you marinate the meat just as you would if it were being oil-blanched.
But instead of briefly cooking it in hot oil, you blanch the meat in boiling water with a little bit of oil added to it."
With water-velveting, you marinate the meat just as you would if it were being oil-blanched.