wouldn't cooking the meats for an hour make the meat very tough? i
@scott: cooking the meats for an hour is definitely not long enough. You probably missed the step about simmering until meat is soft and tender, and meat flavor is extracted in the broth. This is why good pho broth takes time to make. Quoc viet soup base can help cut simmering the bones, but you still have to tenderize the meats.
Can anyone tell me if this soup base has any clove in it? I do not like the flavor of clove in my pho and have had that in some restaurants.
Thanks!
@Jung: Wow you must be very sensitive to even detect clove in the broth; most people don't even know what clove is and what it may taste like. It is not known if the spice bag in the Quoc Viet soup base has any cloves. You may want to contact the company directly at http://www.quocvietfoods.com/contactus.html
so the flank and/or brisket is to be sliced and served into the PHO broth when it comes time to serve ? Should it be cooled off first so it doesn't crumble ?
@Moonrock: By definition, pho is mostly served to a group even at home. Therefore the meat is normally sliced to serve many portions at the same time. The sequence traditionally follows the order of blanched banh pho into the bowl, then meat and chopped onion/cilantro, then the hot broth. Some people like to dip/soak the meat in hot broth first so they get their bowl hotter when the broth goes in; otherwise the broth would lose heat due to the cold meat in the bowl.
I think your second question has to do with meat coming out of the broth at the end of the brewing cycle. If your meat crumbles then you probably overcooked it. In any case, wrapping it tight with food wrap will help when it comes time to slice it. Hope this helps.
what if the spice bag is ripped open while cooking? Can you still eat the soup or should it be throw away?
@LovePho: It may not be a total loss. Assuming the spice bag content is finely ground, powdery particles, what you may try is let the broth sit (maybe after done cooking) to allow everything to settle to the bottom as much as you can. Then pour the broth through a filter (as in large coffee filter paper.) This way you strain out as much of the rest of particles still floating around in the liquid as possible. After that, the broth may not look as good as it could be, but it will probably taste fine.
Thanks a lot Cuong! I was afraid I might have to throw the whole pot out once the bag was broken! Thanks again!
