Minichan

Braising chicken is a science in itself.

That’s according to an 80,000-word doctoral dissertation by a 34-year-female PhD candidate in China’s Shanxi Province, written in an effort to find out how spices impact the taste of meat.

Sun Lingxia, a student at Shanxi Normal University, conducted a two-year study on braised chicken to help pave the way for standardizing production of traditional food on a large scale, she told the Southern Metropolis Daily, a local newspaper in Guangzhou.

By comparing differences between chicken braised with star anise and those braised without the popular spice, she was able to control taste by quantifying the temperature, time and power needed to make braised chicken taste the most delicious.