How to choose the best deer antler

As a precious medicinal material, deer antler needs to be identified when purchased to avoid buying fake and inferior deer antler. When buying antlers, you can find that there are several states of antlers, including whole branches, flakes, and powder. In general, it is better to buy whole branches, because the more complete the antlers are, the harder it is to fake.

Six tips for selecting high-quality velvet antlers

1. Buy whole branches instead of slices if you can, and buy slices instead of powder if you can cut.

There are many different techniques for counterfeiting deer antlers, but the more complete they are, the harder it is to counterfeit or adulterate them. It is best to buy them from the source. There are many varieties of antlers, among which the better variety is the "flower two bars". As the antler grows, it will have more and more branches and the degree of ossification will continue to increase, so it is best to pick it when it is at the "two bars".

2. Buy up, not down

When antlers are processed, they are dried upside down, so the higher the part is, the better the quality will be. From top to bottom they are wax flakes, semi-wax flakes, red powder, blood flakes, and bone flakes.

3. Look at the appearance

If you really have no choice but to buy slices, you can first look at the outer layer of the antler. The outer layer of a good antler has dense hairs, and you won't feel any obvious protruding bone spurs.

4. Look at the honeycomb

The surface of real antlers will have dense and fine honeycomb-like pores, which are difficult to fake. Except for wax pieces, fake antlers generally do not have honeycombs. Also, please note that there is blood on the antler slices but it is not all over the piece. It is usually concentrated in the center. The one in the left picture looks a bit bloody.

5. Taste

Real deer antler slices should smell fishy, ​​feel salty when the tip of the tongue touches them, and be hard and light.

6. Cook for a long time without breaking

Real antlers are a whole unit, with bones and skin connected together, while fake antlers are often made by splicing together other animal raw materials and are easy to separate after cooking.

How to eat deer antler for the best effect

1. Grind into powder and take orally

Deer antler is not only a nourishing food ingredient, but also a Chinese medicinal material. When people take it, they can grind it into fine powder, put it into capsules, and take it directly with warm water. This can allow the deer antler to exert its best medicinal effect, and also allow the human body to absorb the various nutrients it contains, so as to achieve the most ideal health care effect.

2. Cook porridge

Deer antler can also be used to cook porridge. When cooking porridge with it, you need to boil the prepared deer antler with clean water in advance, put it into the pot after the medicinal liquid is boiled out, add the porridge ingredients you prepared, and cook them together into porridge. When boiling the deer antler with water, you can also add appropriate amounts of ginseng and wolfberry. This will make the nutritional value of the prepared deer antler higher, and the porridge will have a soft and glutinous taste, which is easy for the human body to digest and absorb, and will not increase the burden on the stomach and intestines.

3. Soak in wine

Usually, drinking wine soaked with deer antler has very good health effects, and this is a common method of taking deer antler in ancient China. When soaking deer antler in wine, you can pair it with appropriate amounts of ginseng and wolfberry, as well as Chinese medicinal materials with nourishing effects such as Rehmannia glutinosa. This will make the health effects of the wine even better. In addition, do not throw away the deer antler slices after soaking in wine. You can take them out and take them directly orally. You do not need to take too much each time, and it is best not to exceed three grams.

4. Stew

Deer antler is a traditional Chinese medicinal material with nourishing effects. If you just stew it with nutritious meat ingredients and eat it, you can also achieve good health-preserving effects. It can relieve physical weakness, nourish yin and strengthen yang, and delay aging. When stewing common ribs, chicken and duck meat in life, you can add an appropriate amount of velvet antler. Eating the meat and drinking the soup after stewing is most conducive to the body's absorption and utilization of the nutrients in the velvet antler.