What makes meat tender

Classic Bread Stuffing Recipe. Some cuts are naturally tougher than others All meat—be it beef, pork, lamb, or chicken—consists of muscle, connective tissue, and fat.

The anatomy of tough and tender Listed below are some of the most common tough and tender cuts; along with those that are neither exactly tough or tender but somewhere in between. Tough cuts : Chuck roast Shoulder roast Shank Brisket Rump roast or steak Top round Bottom round Eye of round Short ribs Tender cuts : Rib-eye steak Standing rib roast Tenderloin filet Strip steak Strip loin T-bone steak Porterhouse steak Sirloin steak Tri-tip Neither tough nor tender cuts : Flank steak Chuck steak Top blade steak Skirt steak If you want to know whether a cut of beef is naturally tough or tender, you need to know two things: how much connective tissue the cut contains, and how much exercise the muscle received.

Match the cut to the cooking method By its very composition, meat poses a challenge to cooks. Private Notes Edit Delete.

Comments Leave a Comment. Thank you for the detailed explanation. Great list of the three categories of meat cuts! Leave A Comment Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Member ID. Featured Review. What We're Cooking Now.

Menu A Cozy Fall Brunch. Find the inspiration you crave for your love of cooking. Videos View All. Fine Cooking Magazine. All Rights Reserved. Sign Up Log In Follow. Double Check Do you really want to delete the list,? Cancel Delete. You must be a registered user to access this feature. Please log in or create a free account. Log In Sign Up. This feature has been temporarily disabled during the beta site preview. Got it. Double Check Are you sure you want to delete your notes for this recipe?

The calcium in yogurt and buttermilk reacts with the protein in the muscle and breaks it down to produce juice. This juice moisturizes the meat preventing it from drying.

Soy sauce or fish sauce can add flavor to the meat with its saltiness and also tenderizes it. This can be added as a barbeque sauce or as a marinade before smoking.

This is a traditional tenderizer used in Filipino cuisine. Citrus is naturally acidic and helps to break the protein bond in muscle fiber. This releases juice from the meat that helps to keep it succulent even after smoking.

Beer and wine contain tannins and acids that loosen the proteins in the muscle fiber to tenderize the meat.

Also, they flavor the meat and can be used as a marinade or brine. Mere tenderizers may sometimes not be enough to get succulent and juicy steaks, especially if the meat is lean. This requires some quick-fix that we share here. Cook low and slow: Food Smoking is a prolonged process that should be done at low temperatures to prevent drying the meat. For instance, smoking pork butt will require to degrees F Use a pro food smoker: A pro food smoker can automate all prerequisites of smoking to deliver perfect results.

The Bradley Smoker is one such example. It is designed with dual heating functions that perform both hot and cold smoking. The Bradley Smoker has an auto feeder that ensures consistent performance for up to 9 hours of no wood refilling. Digital controls for cooking time and temperature make it user-friendly. Use the right fuel: The fuel should flavor the meat rather than turning it foul-smelling. This is why Bradley Bisquettes are the best option for a perfect smoking experience.

Bradley Bisquettes are specially designed to deliver 17 different flavors to choose from, and burn for the specific time before it turns down to ash, delivering only flavor to your meat while heat is handled by our electric heating elements.

Let it rest for a while to absorb all the juice that has been secreted during the cooking. This will make the steak juicy and flavorful. When cooked under pressure, different things happen to the meat cut, eventually making it tender. The process begins with a breakdown of the proteins in the meat.

At a higher temperature, the collagen starts to contract and eventually becomes gelatin, which is a softer form of cooked collagen. At this point, the meat cut loses a significant amount of moisture. Some people have a habit of classifying the quality of meat based on its tenderness.

Tough meat can also have a high quality because, after pressure cooking, these parts become very delicious since they have become tender and can absorb a lot of the spices and herbs used for cooking. However, tough meat cuts cook longer than tender meats. Since meat loses moisture when cooked for longer periods, you can ensure enough liquids are added to ensure the texture is not too tough after cooking. Another reason some meat cuts are tender is the age of the animal that has been slaughtered.

Younger animals have tender meat when compared to older animals. Butchers intentionally slaughter younger animals to get tender meats for sale. Cows are generally slaughtered when they are matured because the butcher can get more meat from the carcass. The meat from cows has a varying degree of tenderness depending on the part of the cow it was cut.

However, pork meat is usually tender because pigs are slaughtered when they are younger, compared to the age of cows are slaughtered. If you are in the market for tender meat, you can consider buying pork. In conclusion, the tenderness or toughness of meat cuts depends on the collagen content in the meat, the age of the animal and the parts from which the meat is cut for sale. Also, the cooking time can influence the texture of meat regardless of how it feels before cooking.

Pressure cooking meat is suitable for tough and tender meat cuts, which can also be cooked using different methods such as boiling, steam roasting, or braising. Free Pressure Cooking Tips. We won't send you spam.

Unsubscribe at any time. Subscribe To Email List. Share via. Facebook Messenger. Copy Link.