Whether hosting a holiday cookout, serving up some stir-fry or tackling game meats, baking soda is the go-to meat tenderizer to help make your steak, chicken or turkey silkier, juicier and yummier.
There are different ways to tenderize meat, including slow cooking, marinating, and pounding. While you can tenderize meat at home using a meat mallet or rolling pin, some manufacturers handle the process by using mechanical tenderization, which involves breaking down the meat's connective tissue with sharp blades.
In Chinese cooking, proteins like beef, pork or chicken are velveted first before stir-frying them. There are several ways to velvet, but at its most basic level, it involves marinating meat with at least one ingredient that will make it alkaline. This is what tenderizes the meat, especially cheaper, tougher cuts.
Briefly soaking meat in a solution of baking soda and water raises the pH on the meat's surface, making it more difficult for the proteins to bond excessively, which keeps the meat tender and moist when it's cooked.
Most fine restaurants age their beef to intensify the flavor and improve the tenderness of the cut. Wet aging is done by vacuum packing the meat and letting it age in its own juices. Wet aging is done by more than 90% of fine steakhouses.
ANSWER: I found several sources that recommend using baking soda as a tenderizer for tougher cuts of beef, but not baking powder. You can also use baking soda to tenderize chicken and pork. But baking powder has an effect on poultry skin (more on this later).
Velveting is a simple process of using baking soda or a mixture of egg whites, cornstarch and oil to marinate and tenderize economical cuts of steak, chicken and other meats before cooking. Velveting meat softens fibers to reduce toughness and enhance juiciness for maximum flavor and tenderness.
This is how to tenderise beef with a Chinese restaurant method called “velveting beef”. Also used for chicken, it's a simple, highly effective technique using baking soda that transforms economical beef so it's incredibly tender in stir fries and stir fried noodles.
When meat (such as steaks and roasts) is mechanically tenderized, needles or blades pierce the meat to make it more tender and easier to chew. Meat suppliers and sellers, restaurants, and even home cooks do this. The needles or blades may also add flavour, like marinades.
Soaking meat in a marinade made with lemon or lime juice, vinegar, buttermilk or even yogurt can help tenderize tough proteins. The key is to not leave the meat in the marinade for too long, as acids can weaken the protein structure of the meat too much, making it too soft and mushy.
Deep-fat frying
This method is only used with very tender meat. Usually, meat to be deep-fat fried is coated with egg and crumbs or a batter, or it is dredged in flour or corn meal (breaded).
It's milk.
But the acid in milk is so mild that you can soak beef in it long enough to tenderize it effectively, without damaging the proteins on the surface. The calcium-rich properties of milk react with enzymes in the meat to gently soften the proteins.
Ever notice how the chicken in stir fries at your favourite Chinese restaurant is incredibly tender? It's because they tenderise chicken using a simple method called Velveting Chicken using baking soda. It's a quick and easy method that any home cook can do, and can also be used for beef.
Pear juice or puree is traditionally used in Korean meat marinades—the juice not only adds sweetness but also works to tenderize the meat. I've watched Korean friends and mothers use pineapple juice, apple juice, and even soda in lieu of pear juice, but I prefer the pear.
The answer is yes—to an extent. When collagen and muscle fibers, the connective tissues in meat that make it tough, are tenderized and broken down, it helps the meat retain all of its juices. Acidic ingredients like vinegar, lemon juice, yogurt and wine weaken collagen and protein in meat.
Velveting meat is a common practice in Chinese stir-fries: By marinating strips of meat with egg white and cornstarch, then dipping then in a hot oil bath before finally stir-frying them, the meat develops a texture that is tender, silky, and smooth.
Combined with egg, cornstarch is an important ingredient in meat and fish marinades. When passed through the oil, cornstarch helps to seal in the juices of the protein and make it crispier.
Adding butter to steak adds extra richness and can also soften the charred exterior, making a steak more tender.