Making meat tender: These are the best tips and tricks
If you want to make meat tender, there are a few simple tips and tricks to help you do it. The extra steps are worth it because tender meat tastes better. We will explain how you can prevent it from becoming tough.
Making meat tender: steps before preparation
With the right technique, you can make any kind of meat tender. The steps before the actual preparation are particularly important:
- Cutting: To make your piece of meat quicker and not chewy, cut it into smaller pieces. It is important to set the knife across the meat fiber.
- When cutting, you shred the meat fibers, which changes the structure. As a result, the meat is not tough after the subsequent preparation, but tender.
- Knocking: Before frying you should knock the meat softly to loosen the meat fibers. It is best to use a metal meat tenderizer. This is heavier than one made of wood and breaks the meat fibers faster.
- If you don't have a meat tenderizer on hand, a small pan is also suitable for the treatment.
- Place the piece of meat on a cutting board. Take the meat tenderizer and pat the piece of meat well from both sides.
Soften meat with marinade
With the right marinade, you can make tough meat tender and soft. The main element of such a marinade is acid . This breaks up meat fibers and makes the food particularly tender. Some fruits contain a lot of acid. These include in particular fruits such as kiwi, lemon, papaya or pineapple.
- Puree the fruits with a heavy duty or hand blender. If you do not have such a device, simply cut the fruit into small pieces.
- Add the puree or pieces to the meat and mix the two well. Make sure to squeeze the meat a little. This loosens the fibers and the fruit acid can work better.
- If you don't have fruit, but onions do, it works just as well. Buttermilk, kefir or yoghurt are also perfect for a marinade thanks to the lactic acid .
- Especially when roasting in the oven, you should first put the meat in a marinade so that it does not become too dry.
How to prepare tender meat
Once you have processed and prepared the meat according to the two points above, it is time to prepare it. There are two variants here:
- Cooking meat tenderly: Fill a saucepan with water and put the piece of meat in it. Let the water boil. Then add a few halves of onions to the water.
- Let the meat simmer for a few hours. The cooked onions are there to make the meat tender.
- It is important to cook the meat over low heat, but for a longer period . For example, goulash is usually left to simmer for 2 hours to make the beef as soft as possible.
- Tender meat from the frying pan: Put some oil in a pan and sear the piece of meat. The temperature should be about 70 degrees.
- Add some water to the pan and let it simmer a little more. The pan should be covered with a lid.
- You can also put it in the oven to cook the seared meat. The meat feels good at around 90 degrees . Depending on the thickness of the piece, let it cook in the oven for up to an hour .