How to Make Dried Shrimp, Scallops and Mushrooms

This is a special video/post. I am making the dehydrated ingredients and I will link to different videos that use these dried ingredients.

Today I am going to show you how to make dried scallop, dried shrimp, and dried mushroom at home. These are widely used Chinese ingredients and they can be difficult to find in some countries. If you look up online, the price can scare you away. Especially for the dried scallop, it could be 100 dollars per lb. But it is very easy to make it at home and it will be way better quality plus I will also talk about tons of recipes that you can use with these dried ingredients. So let’s get started.

Why used dried ingredients?

We all know fresh ingredients are great but why do Chinese people use dried ingredients. Scallop and shrimp are high in glutamic acid, a type of amino acid. If we season it with salt, it becomes monosodium glutamate, a sodium salt of the glutamic acid, also known as MSG. Yes, we are making our own MSG. The drying process will enhance the reactions between the salt and amino acids, which makes the flavor richer and more savory.