Lazy Seasoning: Young People's "Cooking Artifact"
A bottle of crabmeal sauce I accidentally bought a year ago opened the "advanced culinary art door" of He Yu, a girl born in the 90s.
"At the time I was watching a video of a food blogger. The product description of'getting a bowl of crab noodles in 3 minutes' made me a little bit "top". Then I placed an order and bought a bottle of crab noodles sauce. After the experience, I felt it was really convenient. Heat two spoons of sauce in the microwave and pour it on the cooked noodles. A meal is finished in a few minutes. It tastes quite delicious. Later I tried beef with sour soup, braised pork, boiled fish, and photo. Flavored seasoning packages such as roasted chicken, the operation process is very simple, people like me who are not good at cooking, with these seasonings, can also make a few'hard dishes'." He Yu said.
The crabmeal sauce and seasoning packets used by He Yu in cooking belong to the category of compound seasonings.
The compound seasoning is made from two or more seasonings as raw materials and processed through corresponding processes.
Compared with single seasonings such as soy sauce and vinegar, compound seasonings have more diversified tastes and simpler and more standard procedures, so they are often called "lazy seasonings".
In the past, compound seasonings were mainly oriented to food processing and catering industries, especially chain restaurants with standardized catering.
In recent years, as "cooking white" has entered the kitchen more frequently, the compound seasoning meets the real needs of novice kitchens with "low skills and high requirements", and the usage scenarios have also been gradually expanded from the back kitchen of the restaurant to the young people. Cooking table.
According to the data from Tianyan Check, as of November 2021, my country has more than 4,800 companies related to compound condiments.
Among them, more than 2,800 companies were established within 5 years, accounting for 59%.
For entrepreneurs, the taste bud needs of young people are "opening up" new markets.
The cooking skills are not fine, the seasoning is good
A social networking site has a "fried kitchen" group of 260,000 members, which records the "dark history" of many members who cook.
From green egg custard, "carbonized" ribs to "impressionist" fried rice, the team members refurbished and verified one sentence: cooking is not easy.
Corresponding to the frequently missed cooking level is the young people's enthusiasm for cooking.
"I like the last few steps of cooking, such as picking up a piece of meat from the pot to taste, or using a towel pad to handle the soup pot. They are more ritual and experience than taking out from a plastic bag. There is smoke and fire. It's like life." He Yu said.
According to the "2021 Young God of Cooking Practice Record", 36.6% of the respondents go to the kitchen several times a week, and 12.7% of the respondents cook in the world.
In the "Fried Kitchen" group, there is no shortage of players who have "failed and fought again and again".
Young people who have limited cooking skills and love cooking are looking for a convenient, easy-to-operate, and stable cooking method. Therefore, compound seasonings have a "useful place".
According to Dou Pan, deputy chief physician of the Department of Clinical Nutrition, Peking University First Hospital, the demand for food flavor is also the reason why young people choose compound seasonings. The food tastes cooked and prepared over time, and the compound seasoning has a rich taste, which enhances the freshness of the ingredients and can meet the needs of young people for both taste and speed.”
Nowadays, when you pick up a bag of compound seasonings on supermarket shelves, you can mostly see expressions similar to "one bag of special dishes" and "one-click re-engraving delicious", and the seasoning package will also be accompanied by "intimate" Recommended eating method with pictures and texts.
Taking a certain brand of boiled fish seasoning as an example, the back of the package introduces the 4 steps of making boiled fish, and the cooking time and weight of ingredients required for each step are shown in detail.
Below the production steps, the brand also uses red fonts to highlight "warm reminders" to remind consumers not to pour the fish fillets into the pot at one time to prevent the fish from sticking or breaking.
"Usually I am tired after work. I don't want to use my brain anymore. Use lazy seasoning to cook. Just place an order on the fresh food platform and follow the steps on the seasoning package to make it step by step. There won't be much difference, and the price is relatively cheap." He Yu said.
According to Zhu Danpeng, an analyst in the Chinese food industry, in a sense, compound seasoning has become a "just need" for young people who are not good at cooking.
New opportunities are brewing
After experiencing several compound seasonings, He Yu realized that many brands have already entered her life through e-commerce live broadcasts, social media and other channels. Brand. I really didn’t find out in the past that there are so many merchants making lazy seasoning.”
Behind the active marketing promotion is the booming compound seasoning market.
In recent years, traditional brands in the seasoning industry, as well as companies that cross borders from food and content platforms, have tried to gain a place in the compound seasoning industry.
Companies such as Hengshun Vinegar Industry and Qianhe Flavour Industry, which specialize in single seasonings, have expanded their business scope to the field of compound seasonings; compound seasoning brands such as Tianwei Foods and Yihai International will further refine their products according to different audiences. Sub-brands; Shuanghui, a meat product company, and Diishi, a gourmet content platform, have also launched self-operated compound seasoning products.
The market is hot, and new entrepreneurial opportunities are brewing.
Cutting-edge brands such as Jiaweiwei, Xiaoxiongjiadao, and Chengming Foods are all working hard in the compound seasoning industry.
In the opinion of Xiaoxiongjiadao founder and CEO Junyong, the development and application of the compound seasoning industry in the three areas of snack food, chain fast food, and takeaway pre-made dishes is relatively mature.
"In the past, compound seasonings were'hidden' behind food. Whether it was eating potato chips, eating out, or ordering takeaways, everyone would not think of compound seasonings, but it has actually developed rapidly on the industrial side. In the past two years, young The new demands of people have made more people see the possibilities of this industry on the consumer side, and this track suddenly became hot." Xiao Junyong said.
Zhu Danpeng used "small and beautiful" to describe the market structure of compound seasonings. "There are still entrepreneurial opportunities, but the industry categories are very detailed, and the selection of raw materials and the place of origin are exquisite. The company's industrial chain and overall The challenges of the supply chain are relatively high. Entrepreneurs have to work hard on the integrity of the industrial chain, the stability of product quality, and food safety."
Before he founded Xiaoxiongjia in 2017, the school had been in the spice (single seasoning) business for more than 20 years. In his opinion, the difficulty of developing compound seasonings lies in the word "composite".
"Many people believe that compound seasoning is a simple mixture of single seasonings. The industry has a very low barrier to entry. In fact, this view is not accurate because compound seasonings have a very high degree of reduction in the taste of dishes. In the past dining experience, Consumers have built up the taste memory of a certain dish. If we cannot restore more than 90%, the product will be worthless. This is not like a single seasoning. When cooking, if the soy sauce is not so good, other dishes can be used. For seasoning remedy, compound seasoning has only one chance. How to match various seasonings with the best flavor is a test of the company's R&D capabilities. Since the establishment of our brand, R&D expenditures have accounted for more than 40% of total expenditures. "Xiao Junyong said.
Moderate saltiness
Recently, Xiao Junyong is leading the team to develop snail noodle-flavored compound seasonings. “Each time a new product is developed, the team has to do a lot of research to determine which flavors to reproduce. Relatively speaking, the catering industry is consumer-oriented On the first line, popular dishes such as hot pot, crayfish, snail noodles, and sour soup fish have passed market inspections. We believe that consumers want to reproduce these flavors in greater demand, and there is less risk in reproducing; in addition, supermarkets, supermarkets, etc. The dish data of e-commerce and online communities is also an important dimension for us to refer to."
It is difficult to adjust the taste. In order to reach the latest taste preferences of consumers, each compound seasoning brand is looking for "inspiration" in data analysis and taste screening.
For example, add a little taste to try to find new flavors in catering companies that have a certain user base but cannot be chained nationwide due to supply chain capabilities. Its recently launched "Cantonese style pepper pork belly chicken flavor soup base" is not yet in The "Miaoxin Pork Belly Chicken Hot Pot" deployed outside Guangdong Province is developed based on the ingredients.
Xiaoqi Kitchen analyzes the search keywords on the recipe website and selects popular dishes that are relatively difficult to make at home to replicate the taste.
Faced with a wide variety of compound seasoning products, He Yu will also be a little worried. “Now I have to eat two or three meals made with compound seasonings a week. For a long time, I don’t know whether it’s healthy or not. Sometimes I glance at the nutritional composition table. But I don’t know how to watch the densely packed."
In Dou Pan's view, the key to using compound seasonings is proper amount.
"Appropriate use of compound seasonings can enhance the pleasure of eating, but special attention should be paid to the control of salt intake. The daily salt intake of the human body should not exceed 6 grams, which is the amount of a beer bottle cap. It seems that this is not difficult to do. Yes, but salt is everywhere. 10 grams of bean paste contains 1.5 grams of salt. In order to stimulate people’s appetite, some compound seasonings will also sprinkle a lot of salt. People often take it before they know it. Excessive salt content.” Dou Pan said.
So, how to identify the amount of salt in food?
Fan Zhihong, an associate professor at the School of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering of China Agricultural University, once said that you should pay attention to the sodium content in the nutritional composition table. Choose it".
Fan Zhihong also recommends using light foods to match strong foods. “If you want to eat salty sauces, pickles, dried plums, pickled mustard, etc., use original unsalted dishes to match. For example, family members like to eat shiitake mushroom sauce and chili sauce. For the meal, then make a braised green cabbage leaves in water and oil without adding salt at all, and let them dip their own sauce to avoid over-salty.”
In the long-term diagnosis and treatment observation, Dou Pan found that “old age diseases” such as hyperlipidemia and hyperuricemia have become younger. “The incidence of obesity in children and adolescents is getting higher and higher. Their parents I’m not very young. When I ask my family’s eating habits, they are basically heavy sugar, heavy salt and heavy oil. In fact, people who are constantly pursuing heavy flavors will have red lights on their bodies sooner or later. This has nothing to do with whether or not compound seasonings are used. Health needs to be managed by itself for a long time."
(At the request of the interviewee, He Yu is a pseudonym)
Photo by Li Xuanwen, trainee reporter of China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily Source: China Youth Daily