The considerable price gap between raw bird's nest and cleaned bird's nest leaves many people unsure when buying. Let's find out with Yến Sào Sài Gòn why this gap exists!
What is raw bird's nest?
Raw bird's nest is the original nest of the swiftlet as harvested. Raw bird's nest still contains impurities, dust, swiftlet feathers and even their droppings. It is given a rough cleaning before reaching consumers, and this type of nest usually takes a great deal of time to clean and prepare after you buy it.
What is cleaned bird's nest?
Cleaned bird's nest is nest from which feathers and up to 99% of impurities and dirt have been removed, bringing convenience and saving you the time of preparing it.
What affects the price of raw bird's nest and cleaned bird's nest
The cleaning process involves the following main factors:
+ Loss from removing impurities: When raw bird's nest is cleaned, the weight of feathers, sand, dust, lime… in the raw nest is lost.
+ Loss from removing young nest strands: Also called the "loofah-like part" inside the raw nest. If this young part were kept, it would dissolve very easily when customers soak and steam the nest.
+ Loss during transport: After cleaning, the nest becomes brittle and breaks more easily. During transport and packing, Yến Sào Sài Gòn removes these crumbled bits.
+ Loss from the time and labour costs of cleaning raw bird's nest.
Normally, to obtain 100g of clean nest, Yến Sào Sài Gòn needs about 110g ~ 120g of raw bird's nest.
Because of these losses, cleaned bird's nest usually costs more than raw bird's nest. And to increase weight and boost profit, many establishments and businesses use "tricks" such as coating the nest with salt, sugar or binders to increase the weight of cleaned bird's nest products.
Things to remember when buying cleaned bird's nest.
Cleaned bird's nest also comes in several types. They are:
Special clean bird's nest: Special clean bird's nest is priced higher than ordinary clean raw bird's nest. Special clean bird's nest is made from top-quality whole raw nests, so it has many of the longest nest strands, which are easy to see when steamed. Special clean raw bird's nest is selected from large, thick nests that are more mature than ordinary clean raw nests. The nests go through a vacuum process to draw out feathers stuck to the nest, so the shape of the nest stays intact.
Because the nest's shape is kept almost intact, when prepared the nest strands swell large, plump and long, making dishes tastier after cooking.
Ordinary bird's nest, crumbled nest…
Other types are cheaper than special clean bird's nest, and usually go by names such as crumbled nest or ordinary clean bird's nest… These are refined and cleaned from broken or cracked nests, so the strands are short and small. When steamed you will usually see fewer strands, and the nest may be somewhat mushy depending on the quality of bird's nest from each region.
To buy quality, safe bird's nest or bird's nest products, you should choose reputable places to buy from. Yến Sào Sài Gòn is committed to putting consumers' interests and health first. Our cleaned bird's nest products are committed to containing absolutely no fillers or bleaching agents.