Pounding
Using a meat mallet (or kitchen mallet) to pound steaks helps soften and tenderize the meat. Simply place the meat in between pieces of plastic wrap or wax paper and pound it prior to cooking. If you don't have a meat mallet, you can also use a heavy kitchen tool such as a skillet, saucepan or rolling pin.
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.
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.
Besides velveting the meat prior cooking, the meat in restaurants may be marinated with chemical meat tenderizers. The active ingredients are usually papain or bromelain, which are enzymes extracted from fruits.
Yes, Meat Tenderizer Can Actually Make Your Steaks More Tender.
To better understand this, let's look at the three main methods of tenderizing meat: mechanical, thermal, and enzymatic.
Work Faster with Baking Soda
Tenderizing with a baking soda solution is faster than using a saltwater brine. Meat only has to sit in a baking soda solution for 15 to 20 minutes, but a brine solution can take at least 30 minutes to start working.
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.
Cola's high acidity and caramel flavor makes a surprisingly good meat tenderizer. Cola typically has a pH of about 2.7—for comparison, lemon juice has a pH of 2—making it acidic enough to break down some proteins without dissolving your meat.
The salt breaks down the muscle fibers and connective tissue to maximize the tenderness and texture of the steak. Being a coarse variety, it also draws out and dissolves some of the juices of the meat. This brine is then reabsorbed, tenderizing and enhancing the flavor of the steak.
Marinating your meats in apple cider vinegar can work to tenderize them, as long as you don't add too much vinegar and don't marinate them too long (it's very acidic, so prolonged exposure can break down the fibers in the meat and turn it to mush).
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).
Typically, tender cuts of meat (such as tenderloin or striploin) can be cooked quickly with a dry method, like grilling or broiling. For example, the high fat content in a well-marbled rib-eye steak means you can sear it on the BBQ and, unless it's cooked until charred, it will likely remain tender and juicy.
Cook It Slowly
This is certainly true when it comes to notoriously tough cuts of meat like beef brisket and pork shoulder. Cooking these cuts of meat slowly, either by braising, stewing or grill roasting, is the best way to get these tasty cuts of meat meltingly tender.
Pierce meat with fork at 1/2-inch intervals. Cook immediately. When preparing thicker cuts of meats, let stand 30 minutes before cooking.
Are There Any Side Effects of Powdered Meat Tenderizer? Besides containing active enzyme agents, most meat tenderizers also have sodium and monosodium glutamate (MSG), resulting in high blood pressure, nausea, headaches, or flushes on the body if you overuse it.
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.
You may have wondered how Chinese restaurants come to have such soft, silky textured meat in their dishes? Rather than stir-frying the meat and searing it all over until browned, they use a special technique called velveting.
The Aging. Most fine restaurants age their beef to intensify the flavor and improve the tenderness of the cut. Aging is done by letting the meat sit (in very controlled conditions) for several days or weeks.