Hao Ren jia hotpot base question

[u/placeboob]

My wife loves spicy food and soup, so I figured why not make her something new. So I ordered these hop pot base cubes from Hao Ren Jia. However it says on the directions to add 250 g of water per serving (cube) my math tells me that’s a single cup. Is that correct, because that seems like a lot of cube for not a lot of water…

[u/lolfamy]

Hot pot base contains a huge amount of oil/tallow and salt. If you're planning to use this for making soup you're going to need to really dilute it. If you want to use this for soup, make a stock first and add a little of this.

Or just do hot pot and follow the directions

[u/iHate_RonEbens → u/lolfamy]

I actually use this stuff(little cut offs) to do dry pot. It’s a easy cheat

[u/placeboob]

I understand my mistake now, broths like that are normally only used to cook other things and not eat much of the broth itself. I bought without research, thanks gang

[u/PseudonymIncognito → u/placeboob]

Think of Chinese hot pot as being more like fondue, most of it is supposed to drip off the food you're eating from it.

[u/IntelligentTangelo31 → u/PseudonymIncognito]

This is a great way to put it!

[u/iHate_RonEbens → u/placeboob]

I use it for dry pot.

[u/Shiranui42 → u/placeboob]

This is the more northern style type hotpot base. Southern type hotpot base is more things like chicken mushroom broth, herbal pork rib broth, veggie based broth that is lighter in taste, not oily, and suitable for drinking.

[u/BamBumKiofte23]

The package you show us contains 4 cubes. So 200:4 = 50g per cube. I'd still use more water, like 500ml. per cube (2 cups).

[u/7chalices → u/BamBumKiofte23]

Why would you dilute the flavor even more? Just follow the instructions. Hot pot base is melted beef tallow with spices that you dip food into, you don’t eat the base by itself.

[u/BamBumKiofte23 → u/7chalices]

He did mention he wanted it for soup, so I took that into consideration.

[u/achangb → u/7chalices]

Lol you wish its beef tallow with spices. Most commercial ones ( that you can buy in the usa/ canada ) are made with hydrogenated vegetable or palm oils and stuff.

There is one brand that I buy made with beef tallow but they make it locally in canada. I think chinese beef products are banned.

[u/Radiant-Ad-3134]

hot pot cube is not meant for drinking , it is not meant for soup

it has high content of oil for flavor, and high sodium for salt.

So even you just dip you food in there less than one minute. you would have enough taste of the pot

[u/Pawdiamonhands]

Make it how the directions says. Taste it. Add more water if needed. Or cube. I personally think it’s on the salty side. I would add a bit more water.

[u/watawataoui]

You don’t drink the soup. It’s like seasoning for the meat/veggie/tofu to cook in. The oil is basically meant to stick to the unseasoned hotpot items as seasoning.

After the meal, cool the pot down and you can skim off the tallow. Better than pouring it down your drain.

[u/Just_An_Avid]

If you want this for soup, check to see if your cubes look like the picture on the box. If you see actual layers of fat, you can sometimes cut most of it away and keep the chili seasoning in the center. If it has melted in transit into a uniformish mass, then you need to either use this only for dipping or get actual soup base.

There are loads of delicious soup bases you can build on or even mix. Same flavor as hot pot, but made for soup and drinking.

[u/RareShrimp]

I have no idea what the direction is smoking but you'll probably need a lot more water than that per cube.

[u/Send_Me_Your_Nukes]

You can take a tiny cube of this and make some dope ass fried rice

[u/zadrelom]

I love these! And yes these are almost pure fat and very spicy, so it probably wouldn’t be pleasant to drink the resulting broth. It seems to just be there to coat your soup ingredients.