Tough meat? 4 ways to make it soft and tender

Each of us has our own image of perfectly cooked meat: some like baked chicken, some like fried pork kebab, and some like Burgundy beef, which has been stewed for a long time in a fragrant sauce.
But no matter what kind of meat you like, you probably want it to be soft and juicy. Really, who would like to chew a hard, dry sole for a long time! But how to cook meat soft and juicy? Is there some secret here? 10 simple recipes for dinners in 15 minutes Enter your email and get a recipe book - instantly and for free![/td]

In fact, there is no secret, there are several rules, and if you follow them, your meat will always turn out soft.

Choose the right meat

The easiest way to cook meat soft and juicy is to take a cut that is soft enough in itself. We know that meat is muscle, but not all muscles work the same. Some are in constant motion, others, such as tenderloin, practically do not work, have a different muscle tissue structure and are softer.

This doesn't mean that tenderloin can be cooked tender while brisket cannot: it's just that the latter contains a large amount of collagen protein, which must be cooked slowly and for a long time. So the most important thing is to choose the right cooking method for the cut you have. Meat that is suitable for barbecue or steak should not be stewed, and vice versa.

Read more

: How to choose the right meat

Take your time

The most expensive types of meat are ready when you decide that they are ready: for example, steaks are fried not so much to soften the meat, but to obtain a golden crust and achieve the degree of frying at which it will be most tasty. But with less expensive cuts rich in connective tissue, things are different: the collagen contained in it requires a long heat treatment, as a result of which it is converted into gelatin. Gelatin makes the juices contained in meat thicker; they are retained inside the piece even when the structure of the protein changes, and we owe the famous effect of meat melting in the mouth to gelatin.

Was the stew not tender enough? The answer is obvious - you just didn't simmer it long enough. Don’t rush, don’t worry about the fact that when cooking meat for a long time, all the vitamins will “leave” from it, but just give the meat the few hours it needs, and it will thank you in full.

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: Stew and more: a complete guide

Soft pork with apples

• onion - 1 pc.
• flour - 45 gr.
• fat - 55 gr.
• cumin - 5 gr.
• pork - 670 gr.
• apples - 2 pcs.
• salt - to taste

1. Before you start cooking meat, it must be thoroughly rinsed with running water. Salt the pork, roll in spices and flour. Heat a frying pan and heat vegetable fat in it.
2. Place the whole piece of meat in a fireproof container. Fry the pork on all sides until golden brown. After this, transfer the steak along with the fat to the roasting pan. After this, pour cumin into the bowl and pour in hot water to about 3/4 of the container.
3. Place the roaster on the stove and turn on low flame. Simmer the pork, adding water if necessary. At the same time, peel and chop the apples into slices. Add fruit before finishing cooking the meat.
4. Once the pork is ready, remove it from the roasting pan. Add flour diluted with water to the remaining broth. Boil the apple sauce for about 8 minutes over medium heat. After the meat has cooled, cut it into pieces. Pour in the prepared sauce, sprinkle with fresh herbs.

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Use acid

Exposure to an acidic environment helps tenderize meat because it denatures the protein. Imagine that a protein consists of many helices interlocking with each other. Under the influence of acid, these spirals straighten, the structure of the meat becomes less rigid - this process is called denaturation. For this reason, before preparing some dishes, such as barbecue, meat is marinated with the addition of acidic foods.

But here, as in everything else, moderation is important: vinegar, pomegranate juice or kiwi pulp, of course, will soften the meat, but will deprive it of taste and texture. The acid found in fermented milk products, wine, onions and similar not very acidic foods is quite enough, and if they are not able to make your meat tender, then you simply chose the wrong piece.

Read more

: How to properly cook shish kebab

Juicy pork in French

• cheese - 240 gr.
• onion - 1 pc.
• oil - in fact
• mayonnaise - 220 gr.
• pork - 530 gr.
• salt - to taste

1. Prepare the pork properly by cutting the meat into small pieces. Carefully pound the meat, season with salt and pepper on both sides. Next, grate the cheese on a fine grater. Peel and chop the onion into rings.
2. Select suitable fireproof dishes and grease them with vegetable oil. Place pieces of pork on the bottom of the container. Place prepared onions on top of the meat, pour mayonnaise over the food. Sprinkle the dish with cheese.
3. Place the meat in a preheated oven to bake. Simmer the pork until fully cooked. Before serving, it is recommended to decorate the dish with olives and fresh herbs. Eat meat while it's hot.

To cook juicy and tender pork, you need to take the animal's tenderloin. This meat is the softest. If prepared correctly, the dish will literally melt in your mouth. It is also important to marinate the pork correctly; it should sit in the sauce for some time. For the marinade, sparkling mineral water, mustard mixture, lemon juice or onions will do.

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Don't overcook

If you used the right cut of meat and it still came out dry and tough, you may have simply cooked it too long. Regardless of how you prepare meat - boil, stew, bake or fry - the processes that occur inside are almost identical. Under the influence of high temperature, the protein begins to shrink, squeezing out the juices contained in the meat. It will not be possible to completely avoid the loss of juices, but if you stop cooking the meat in time, there will be enough of them to keep the meat juicy.

Some housewives overcook meat out of ignorance, others out of fear that it will remain raw, but this problem can be solved with the help of a simple tool: a kitchen thermometer. Measure the internal temperature of the meat and do not cook it longer than necessary to achieve the desired level of doneness for the cut you choose.

Read more

: How to determine the degree of doneness of meat

Roast in sweet and sour sauce

• pork tenderloin - 500 gr.
• canned pineapple - 0.3 kg.
• chicken egg yolk - 1 pc.
• clean water - 50 ml.
• potato starch - 35 gr.
• bell pepper - 100 gr.
• soy sauce - 35 ml.
• ketchup - 60 ml.
• vinegar - 25 ml.
• granulated sugar - 65 gr.

1. Prepare a marinating bowl. Place the pork meat, chopped into pieces, into it. Pour in soy sauce, add raw yolk, water, starch. Add salt, mix everything and wait 3.5 hours.
2. Chop the pepper into bars, chop the canned pineapple. Pour oil into a frying pan, heat it up, and add the marinated pork inside. Fry until crusty, transfer to a clean bowl.
3. Fry the pepper in the same way, after 3 minutes add the pineapple pieces. Simmer the components under the lid for 5 minutes. Start making extra sauce.
4. To do this, mix ketchup with sugar and vinegar, add this mixture to the pepper and pineapple. Simmer under the lid until the sand dissolves, then add the pork and simmer until done.

how to cook delicious minced meat cutlets

Don't forget the salt

When exposed to salt, proteins are denatured in the same way as when exposed to acid. The only question here is time, but the marinating process is not quick, and usually takes at least an hour. Pre-salting meat in brine or using a dry method makes it softer, as well as more tasty and juicy, since proteins that have gone through such a “soft” denaturation do not shrink so much during heat treatment, and more juices are retained inside.

Brine is good because it allows you to salt the meat evenly throughout the entire volume so that it takes exactly as much salt as necessary. But if you prefer dry pickling, go ahead. The main thing is not to start frying or baking the meat immediately after you have rubbed it with salt, but let it sit for at least forty minutes.

Read more

: How brine helps make meat more juicy

Defrost slowly

Of course, fresh meat is preferable to frozen, but sometimes you have to cook it too. In this case, resist the temptation to force defrosting of the meat by putting it in the microwave or under running hot water. Such unceremoniousness is a sure way to lose a large amount of liquid contained in the meat, since microscopic ice crystals formed in it will disrupt its structure during rapid defrosting.

Do you want your thawed meat to be juicy? Simply transfer it from the freezer to the top shelf of the refrigerator and let it defrost in the slowest and most gentle way possible. This may take a day, but the result is worth it - the loss of juices during defrosting will be minimal.

Read more

: How to defrost meat

Let the meat rest

Take the meat out of the oven or take the steak off the grill? I bet all you want at this moment is to quickly cut yourself a piece and enjoy the taste of the delicious meat that exudes this maddening aroma. But don’t rush: without allowing the meat to “rest”, you risk losing most of the juices it contains: once you make a cut, they will simply flow out onto the plate.

Why is this happening? There are several different theories, but they all boil down to the fact that due to the difference in temperature inside and on the surface of the meat, an imbalance is created in the distribution of juices inside the piece. As the surface cools and the interior warms from residual heat, the juices will be evenly distributed inside. The lower the degree of frying of the meat and the larger the size of the piece, the longer it needs to rest: if five minutes for a steak in a warm place under a layer of foil is enough, a large roast beef of several kilos may need all of half an hour.

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: Why meat should rest

How to properly fry turkey meat with vegetables so that it is soft and juicy?

The following turkey recipe is perfect for dietary nutrition and for children. My little “unwanted” one devours it without any coaxing. So, save this recipe if your kids are also reluctant to eat healthy foods.

List of ingredients:

• 400 g turkey tenderloin;
• 3 onions;
• 2 heads of carrots;
• 100 g sour cream;
• 30 g mustard;
• salt and black pepper.

Cooking steps with photos:

1. Cut the turkey into small pieces and immediately place in hot oil. Stir and fry until all pieces turn white. Then place on a plate.

2. Grate the carrots on a fine grater and chop the onion into half rings.

3. Place the onion in a heated frying pan with oil. Once it has softened, add the carrots. Together they should fry for 1-2 minutes.

4. Next add the turkey pieces. After 2 minutes of frying, add a small amount of water, reduce the heat to low and cover with a lid.

5. For the sauce, chop the garlic, add sour cream and mustard. Mix everything until smooth, then pour into the pan. Simmer the mixture over low heat for 15 minutes.

Serve the finished turkey in sour cream sauce, delicious with buckwheat or any other side dish.

Cut against the grain

Sometimes it happens like this: the meat seems incredibly tough, but the problem is not that it is really tough, but that you are eating it incorrectly. The structure of meat can be imagined as a tightly assembled bundle of fairly thick threads - muscle tissue fibers. Separating fibers from one another is much easier than cutting or even biting one of them. For this reason, any meat should be cut across the grain: this will make it easier for you to chew it.

Read more

: How to cut meat correctly

Repel

So, where acid and salt failed, mechanical action will help! By beating the meat with a special hammer or just your fist, or using a special tenderizer, you destroy its structure, doing in advance the work that your teeth would have to do. This method can be used both to prepare all kinds of schnitzels and chops, and to give a large layer of meat the same thickness - for example, to then roll it into a roll.

However, the general rule is: if you can't hit, don't hit. By destroying the structure of meat, you are depriving yourself of those textural nuances that usually make up a large part of the pleasure of eating meat dishes, so you should not try to soften already soft meat.

Read more

: How to cook a perfect steak

Master sous vide

The most advanced and trouble-free way to cook meat soft and juicy, from absolutely any cut, is the sous vide technology. For those who do not yet know what this is, I will explain: the products (in our case, meat) are packaged in a vacuum bag and cooked for a long time in water heated to a certain temperature - for example, beef cheeks need to be cooked for 48 hours at a temperature of 65 degrees. As a result, the meat is incredibly juicy and soft. The word “incredible” is not a figure of speech here: if you haven’t tried sous vide meat, don’t even try to imagine its taste and texture.

To start experimenting with sous vide, you will need a vacuum sealer and special equipment, but to get started, you can get by with a slow cooker and plastic ziplock bags, which are sold in every supermarket.

Read more

: Literally everything you wanted to know about sous vide

Well, this guide on how to make meat tender and juicy turned out to be long and detailed, but I must have missed something. Write your favorite methods and secrets for tenderizing meat in the comments!

Recipes for softening marinades

It's no secret that all of the above products can be combined in one bottle and use their advantages to achieve the best result. We present you a list of our favorite marinades for main types of meat.

Beef marinades

Beef in kiwi

1. Cut the beef into pieces of the required size.
2. Finely chop the onion, crush the garlic, and cut the kiwi into round slices.
3. Line the bottom of the plate with kiwi slices.
4. Mix the onion and garlic, and place the meat on a plate, coating each piece well;
5. Place a second layer of kiwi on top and soak the meat for 1 hour.

An unusual look for Russian cuisine

Beef in onion cream sauce

1. This marinade is intended for pan-frying, so cut the beef into small chops.
2. Finely chop the onions and bring the butter to room temperature.
3. Mix the future sauce well and let it sit for 1 hour, add water and stir.
4. Place chops in mixture for another 1 hour.
5. Fry in a frying pan without adding vegetable oil until cooked.

Enveloping sauce for the most delicate taste of the dish

Soviet style beef

1. Cut the meat into chops (thin slices).
2. Mix all marinade ingredients. We do not add salt under any circumstances!
3. Place the meat in it for 2 hours.
4. Beat with a kitchen hammer and fry in a frying pan or grill.

Traditions that have passed through centuries do not lose their relevance!

Pork marinades

We decided to prepare unusual, but at the same time simple recipes for you.

Pork in kefir-lemon mixture

1. The lemon should be cut, peeled and pitted.
2. Pass the onion and lemon through a meat grinder or grater.
3. Add kefir, salt, spices and pepper to the mixture.
4. Marinate the meat for at least 4 hours. The optimal period is 8-12 hours.
5. Fry the meat on skewers.

Kefir leaves behind a delicate taste, but the appearance remains the same.

Pork with soy-spicy additive

1. Finely chop the onion and add it to the sauce, along with the bay leaf.
2. Let it brew for 15 minutes, then add the chopped meat.
3. Determine the “strength” of soy sauce by taste. If it is extremely salty, marinate for 2 hours, if there is little salt, then 4 hours.
4. Fry on the grill or frying pan.

Spicy enveloping sauce

Oriental style pork

1. Grate the onion, add all the spices, salt and pepper, let it brew a little to destroy the enzymes.
2. Add the mixture to kefir, then immediately place the pork there.
3. Marinate for 3-4 hours, start frying.

The strong taste of spices will leave a pleasant sensation

Chicken marinades

By tradition, we present you with simple but unusual options for a gastronomic explosion in your home.

Chicken in honey-spicy coating

1. Press the garlic, mix mustard and honey.
2. Lightly coat the chicken, add salt and leave for 30 minutes.
3. Fry in a frying pan.
4. Coat with garlic and serve.

Sweet crust on chicken is Europe's favorite delicacy!

Sweet chicken

1. Squeeze juice from an orange or any other citrus fruit.
2. Place chicken meat in juice for 10 minutes.
3. Fry with vegetable meat, add salt at the end of cooking.
4. Serve with curry sauce.

Curry sauce will leave a pleasant aftertaste

Chicken with marinade inside

1. Press the garlic, prepare a syringe with a large needle.
2. Inject lemon juice and wine inside the chicken (along the bone). Ideally, the chicken should swell.
3. Place in soy sauce for 15 minutes.
4. Frying in a frying pan will release a lot of water.
5. Grate with garlic and serve.

From the outside, it’s a very ordinary dish, revealing its colors after the first bite.