The smell of mutton mainly comes from fat, which is related to dozens of components such as "medium and short chain volatile fatty acids". It is recognized that 4- methyl octanoic acid, 4- ethyl octanoic acid and 4- methyl nonanoic acid are typical, of which the first two play a major role.

These fatty acids are not produced by sheep themselves, but by microorganisms in their rumen, so they are also found in cattle, horses, deer and other animals, but not as obvious as mutton.

In addition, phenols, sulfides, pyridine and pyrazine in mutton have been proved to be related to the smell of mutton. There are many factors that affect the smell of mutton, including origin, feed, variety, age, location, fatness and so on.

How to smell mutton?

1, don't rinse with clean water, use rice washing water. Tap water is rich in minerals, and the mutton washed with it is more fishy. Taomi water is alkaline, which can help decompose the impurities in mutton, while Taomi water contains starch, which can adsorb the dirty things on the surface of mutton and make the washed mutton fresher and cleaner.

2. soak in salt water. Soaking mutton in light salt water can remove blood from mutton, thus improving its smell.

3. Knead with flour. You can clean the mutton with water, then pour in a proper amount of flour, let the mutton be covered with flour, let it stand for 15 minutes, let the flour absorb all the garbage in the mutton, and then rinse it with clear water several times, which can also reduce the smell.

4, green onions, cooking wine, aniseed, these are actually released, which will make the mutton taste heavier.