If the meat is tough. How to make meat tender, juicy and tasty

If you bought tough meat, do not despair, it can be softened very simply. There are many ways to do this. For example, in the Maasai tribe, a piece of beef is placed in an anthill. Formic acid softens meat remarkably ... Okay, jokes aside. The method, of course, is good, but it certainly will not work for a modern hostess.

In fact, it is very easy to remove stiffness and make the dish juicy, soft and expressive. You only need piece of meat and salt.

How to tenderize meat

To show the effectiveness of this trick, professional chef Jack Scalfani purchased a piece of tough meat. The cook claims that it will be as soft as a filet mignon. filet mignon This is the most tender meat imaginable. Can't wait to try it!

Place the meat on a dry, clean baking sheet.

cover it completely sea or other coarse salt. Now put it aside. The chef advises to spend 1 hour for every 2.5 centimeters of meat. That is, if your piece of meat is 7.5 centimeters thick, you will need 3 hours. Now turn on our patience.

Salt will draw out excess moisture during pickling, due to which the meat will become tender and elastic at the same time.

Now it's time to wash off all the salt. Hold the piece of meat under running water until all the salt is gone.

Want to see proof? Jack is holding a piece of marinated meat, and next to it is a fresh piece from the same part of the carcass, bought from the same butcher. The darker and more porous piece of meat on the right is markedly different from the bright, tough piece on the left.

Time to send the meat to cook. And it doesn’t matter what spices you choose, whether you use it or not, it will still turn out tasty, juicy and tender.

It happens that a piece of meat looks great, and after frying, its taste and appearance resembles the sole of a shoe. To prevent this from happening, before cooking, thoroughly salt the meat and then rinse it.

Cooking soft and juicy meat (pork) - general principles and features of this process

Before cooking:

In order for the pork pulp to become soft, you can use a special meat mallet. Having broken the muscle fibers of the pieces of meat with this mallet, the cook will achieve the main thing, in the process of cooking the flesh will not become hard and will not absorb excess oil.

In order for the pork to turn out soft and tender during cooking, it is recommended to marinate the pieces of pulp. In this case, the marinade should be medium acid. Since if you overdo it with components containing acid, the meat will become even more rigid and unsuitable for eating.

Pork can be marinated using vinegar, various wines, citrus fruits, and sour-milk products in the filling.

Salting can also help tenderize the pork. When salted, the pork pulp retains moisture inside itself, due to which, when frying, the meat pieces become juicy and tender. Additional seasonings such as rosemary, thyme and apple cider will give the meat a special piquancy and taste.

During cooking:

In order for, for example, the chops to turn out soft and juicy, they need to be fried over high heat until golden brown, and then placed in the oven to complete the cooking process.

You also need to know that it takes only a few minutes to cook the meat over high heat, otherwise it will cook only on the outside, and the inside will remain raw.

In the process of stewing, pork also becomes tender and appetizing, due to the fact that it is placed in a liquid consistency, supplemented with aromatic ingredients, and boiled for several hours.

Pork can also be smoked, simmered over low heat - the result is a tender, soft and mouth-watering meat dish.

Important! Cooked meat must be allowed to "rest". Since if immediately after cooking the meat is cut, all the juice will flow out of it and it will become hard and tasteless.

The best recipes for cooking soft and juicy pork

Recipe 1. Steak - how to cook pork tenderloin

Ingredients:

Pork pulp - 1 kg.

Kefir - 0.5 l.

Bulb.

Garlic - 5 cloves.

Spices.

Cooking method:

In order for the steak to cook and become soft, appetizing and juicy, it is necessary to marinate the meat in advance. For this, chopped pieces of meat are recommended to be placed in kefir with chopped onions, peppers, spices and salt. Pieces of pork placed in kefir must first be beaten off with a special mallet.

After the meat is well marinated, it will need to be put in a pan with very hot oil.

Then the meat must be fried on both sides until golden brown over high heat (not for long), then reduce it and bring the dish to readiness.

The browned crust will keep the juices in the meat and make it soft and juicy.

Recipe 2. Roast in sweet and sour sauce or how to cook so that pork meat is soft

Ingredients:

Pork pulp 0.5 kg.

Canned pineapple - can.

Pepper (Bulgarian) - 2 pcs.

Water - 40 ml.

Yolk.

Starch - 30 gr.

Soy sauce - 30 ml.

Ginger.

Sauce Ingredients:

Sugar - 70 gr.

Ketchup 60 ml.

Vinegar - art. the spoon.

Cooking method:

The meat must be cut into medium pieces and put in a prepared marinating container.

Then add soy sauce, yolk, starch, water and salt to the meat. Next, you need to mix all the components together and send the meat to the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.

When the meat is ready (marinated), it must be sprinkled with starch on all sides and put in heated oil in a frying pan. Next, the pork must be fried until a crust forms and put out of the pan into a clean bowl.

After you need to fry the pepper, ginger for a few minutes, and then add pineapple to them. Cook all ingredients for no more than 5 minutes.

Separately, you need to prepare the sauce. To do this, pour sugar into a cup, add vinegar and ketchup. All components must be mixed and added to the roast of pepper, ginger and pineapple. You also need to add to all these ingredients starch, previously diluted in water.

Put the meat in the sauce, mix all the ingredients and fry for a few more minutes.

A dish of the most tender and juicy pork in sweet and sour sauce is ready.

Recipe 3. Pork with apples. How to cook pork tenderloin

Ingredients:

Pork - 650 gr.

Fat - 60 gr.

Bulb.

Apples - 2 pcs.

Flour - 40 gr.

Cumin - 0.5 tsp.

Cooking method:

Pork must be thoroughly washed, salt, pepper, roll in flour - a whole piece and put in a pan.

Then the pork must be fried in hot fat on all sides, and then put in a roaster along with the fat that remained after cooking in the pan.

Next, you need to sprinkle the meat with cumin and pour ¾ with water. Next, the duck with pork should be set on fire and left to stew. If during this process the water begins to evaporate, then it will need to be added.

After that, you need to peel, cut the apples into pieces and, before the end of cooking, add them to the meat in the ducklings.

When the meat is cooked, it will need to be removed from the duckling, and flour diluted with water should be added to the remaining apple liquid. Then the apple sauce will need to boil for a few minutes.

When the meat subsides a little, it will need to be cut into pieces, pour over the prepared sauce and embellish with herbs.

Recipe 4. Pork baked in the oven. How to cook pork tenderloin

Ingredients:

Pork pulp.

Bulb.

Garlic.

Mustard.

Salt, pepper, seasonings.

Cooking method:

On top of the selected piece of pork, it is necessary to make cuts with a knife, this is done so that the meat, when cooked, turns out to be soft, juicy and appetizing.

Then the meat must be salted, put garlic in the cut places, sprinkle the pork with spices and coat with mustard. You can also add mayonnaise to the mustard - the meat from this will be even tastier. On top of the mustard, you need to lay the chopped onion and leave the pork to marinate, thus, for 3-4 hours.

Recipe 5. Pork in French. How to cook pork tenderloin

Ingredients:

Meat (pork) 0.5 kg.

Cheese - 250 gr.

Mayonnaise - 250 gr.

Bulb.

Cooking method:

Pork flesh must be cut into medium pieces. Next, you need to beat off the meat, pepper and salt on both sides.

Then you need to peel and chop the onion in half rings, grate the cheese.

You can decorate the dish with olives, a sprig of greens and serve.

How to cook pork tenderloin - culinary tricks and tips

The tenderest part of the pork is the tenderloin. This piece will make a delicious, savory and juicy dish, pork will simply melt in your mouth.

In order for the pork meat to be cooked soft, it must be coated with mustard and left in this form for half an hour.

Pork can be marinated in purchased mineral water - a chic and tasty dish will come out.

For greater softness to pork during cooking, you can add sugar, a spoon will be enough.

Juicy and tender pork will turn out if you put it in cold water with the addition of starch for 2-3 hours.

The most important thing in preparing any pork dish is that the meat is young and fresh.

Beef is known not only for its high usefulness, low calorie content and excellent taste, but also for the many difficulties that hostesses face when preparing it.

The fact is that beef is mostly stiff, which greatly complicates its preparation. Leading chefs know how to tenderize beef and make it more juicy.

There are several ways to marinate beef, each with different ingredients and meat requirements. For example, if you plan to cook a dish using old beef with excessive rigidity, you can use ordinary mustard.

The meat should be cut into equal pieces, beat off and smeared with mustard. After two hours, the product must be washed.

One of the best natural softeners is a fruit such as kiwi, which can also be used as a marinade for beef. So, for starters, the meat should be cut into pieces and mixed with kiwi, previously peeled.

This procedure should be carried out 15 minutes before the start of cooking a dish with beef, because with a longer contact of meat with fruit, you risk getting minced meat.

Ordinary kefir also has softening properties, in which you can soak beef, cut into pieces. The downside of this decision may be the duration of the procedure. So, if you plan to cook beef in the morning, it is recommended to put the meat in kefir overnight.

Lemon, lime, vinegar, yogurt, wine, ginger, and pineapple can also be used as a natural softener. But we must remember that the ingredients used will affect the quality of the final dish in a certain way.

If you want to not only soften the meat, but also give it certain taste and aroma, you can use one of the ready-made marinade recipes. So, adherents of lemon spicy taste can prepare a marinade from:

freshly squeezed lemon juice - from ½ of one medium-sized fruit;
red hot ground pepper - 2 teaspoons;
salt to taste.

In the resulting marinade, each piece of beef should be soaked and let it brew for no longer than an hour. After the specified time, you can start frying the meat.

For lovers of the lemon and garlic tandem, the following marinade recipe is suitable, the main ingredients of which are presented:

lemon juice from 1 fruit;
medium-sized bulbs - 2 pcs.;
black ground pepper;
garlic - 4 cloves;
salt to taste;
water - ½ cup.

Water should be brought to a boil, cooled, then mixed with freshly squeezed lemon juice, chopped onion, black pepper and grated garlic cloves.

Beef must be cut into equal pieces, beaten off and processed with the resulting marinade. After 2 hours, the meat will be ready for further cooking.

You can use a vinegar marinade to tenderize tough beef and give it a nice flavor. The main ingredients in this case are:

water - 500 ml;
3% vinegar - 500 ml;
salt to taste;
a pinch of black allspice, black ground pepper;
bay leaf;
cloves and juniper berries to taste.

The listed spices must be placed in a container with the specified amount of water and boiled for no longer than 10 minutes, gradually mixing with salt, sugar, vinegar.

Chopped and beaten pieces of beef should be poured with cooled and strained marinade and left for 2 days, after which the meat will please with juiciness and softness. By the way, this marinade can be used to soften not only too tough beef, but also big game.

If beef is supposed to be used in cooking barbecue, in this case, you can use the marinade with wine vinegar (3 tablespoons), ground black pepper (1 teaspoon), salt to taste, coriander seeds (1 teaspoon) and onions ( 2 pcs.).

To begin with, onions should be finely chopped and mixed with the rest of the ingredients. After that, it is necessary to soak the chopped beef in the resulting marinade and leave it in the container for at least 12 hours.

Lovers of meat dishes with an exquisite taste will love marinade recipes, which include red wine. One of these marinades is prepared from:

dry red wine - 1.5 cups;
carrots - 1 pc.;
onions - 1 pc.;
parsley;
bay leaf - 5 pcs.;
carnations - 3 buds;
rosemary to taste.

The indicated amount of ingredients is enough to marinate beef in an amount of about 500 g. If a larger amount of meat is used, it is necessary to increase the recommended parameters of the components, adhering to the established ratio between them.

Sliced beef soaked in such a marinade should be infused in a cool place for 12 hours.

Cooking soft and juicy meat is not always possible. The reason for this may be an unsuccessfully chosen piece: a juicy and tender dish without effort can only be obtained from the meat of young animals. But in the store it is not always easy to visually determine the freshness of the product, in addition, sellers often resort to various tricks, passing off old meat as young.

The problem may also be in the wrong time and temperature of cooking. Too high a roasting temperature or too long a roasting time can turn even a great piece of meat into a tough, dry, tasteless dish. But it is enough to know a few simple ways and techniques that will avoid such a fate.

Roast meat properly

Most often, the meat turns out tough when improperly roasted. To avoid this, it is worth remembering the following rule: the meat must be quickly fried in a well-heated pan, on both sides over high heat, so that the juice does not have time to run out. And after the formation of a small crust, the fire must be reduced and continue to fry the meat until tender. In this way, fried meat will definitely turn out juicy.

Also, when frying, breading can be used to preserve the juice. It can be any batter, flour, breadcrumbs. It is necessary to bread the meat before frying, this will preserve all the juices. Chops can be first dipped in egg, then in flour and rolled in breadcrumbs. This breading allows you to get juicy meat during frying, soft and tender.

Stewing and baking

When stewing, additional ingredients, such as, for example, onions, can give special softness to the dish. If the meat is stewing and is still tough, just increase the cooking time. A longer cooking time will still make the meat soft and juicy.

If you bake meat in foil, it is almost impossible to get dry meat. In foil, the meat is baked in its own juice, which does not run out anywhere. Thanks to this, the dish is fragrant, soft and very tender.

The same situation is when cooking in pots. Meat in pots is stewed in the oven, in the allocated juice. It is almost impossible to overdry meat when cooking in this way.

How to cook soft meat

To get soft meat when cooking, you need to add it to already boiling water. When cooking, the meat should not boil much, the fire should be medium. Also, boiled meat will turn out softer and juicier if you cook it in a large whole piece, and not cut into small pieces.

A few more useful tricks

There are several ways to make meat soft and tender.

rebound

At the beginning of cooking, meat can be beaten off using a special wooden or metal mallet. You need to beat the meat on both sides, after covering it with cling film.

This technique can make even old meat quite soft. Such meat is ideal for cooking chops fried in a pan.

Marinade

Another way is in various meat supplements. You can pre-marinate the meat - this will give it an exquisite taste and softness. For the marinade, use any available ingredients.

The most popular marinades are mustard, lemon juice, and soy sauce. These products can always be found in the refrigerator, are very simple and affordable. The marinade does not need to be salted, salt will make the meat tough. Before cooking, the marinade can be washed off with water, or you can cook the meat with it.

As a marinade, for example, you can add kefir, cream or unsweetened yogurt to meat and leave for an hour. This marinade is great for stewing or baking, especially poultry meat.

A piquant taste can be obtained by using fruits for the marinade. The most commonly used are kiwi and pineapple. The fruit acids released at the same time quickly soften any meat and give the finished dish a bright, unique taste. Meat with fruits is best baked, baked pork with pineapples is very popular.

Alcohol can also be used as a marinade: wine or beer. Meat marinated in this way is especially aromatic and juicy. With these marinades, meat is usually stewed, including in a slow cooker.

When and how to salt meat

When frying meat in a pan, it cannot be salted at the very beginning. Salt should be added only at the end, about 10-15 minutes before the end of cooking. Otherwise, the salt will draw all the juice onto itself, and by the end of the frying, the meat will definitely be hard and dry.

If the meat is still dry...

If, despite all efforts, the fried or baked meat still came out tough, it can still be resuscitated. A steam bath will help. The meat must be transferred to a colander and put it in a pot of boiling water, cover with a lid on top. Leave the meat for 15 minutes, this time will be enough to return the dish to juiciness and softness.

You can, of course, do a similar procedure in a double boiler or in a slow cooker, in steam mode.

As you can see, cooking juicy and soft meat is not as difficult as it seems at first glance. The main thing is to achieve the preservation of juice inside the meat. By following a few simple rules, you can always get a tasty, fragrant, juicy and tender meat dish.

Often, the hostess blames the wrong choice for the stiffness of the meat. So, there is an opinion that cooking fresh meat will provide a juicy and tasty dish, but this is far from the case.

Even in conditions of a responsible approach to the purchase of meat, the quality indicators of the resulting dish can differ greatly from those desired. Experienced chefs recommend using tough pieces of meat only before softening them.

There are several ways to make meat soft and juicy, which are regularly used by practicing chefs. Guided by the features of each method, the necessary equipment and ingredients, it will be possible to choose the best option.

Softening meat with mustard

This ingredient is often used in the preparation of meat dishes in order to endow them with the necessary taste. But few people know that mustard can also play the role of an effective softener. For these purposes, it is recommended to use the product in a slightly different way.

So, hard pieces of meat should be greased with mustard and infused for 40 minutes. Wash the meat before cooking. It is noted that with this approach, the meat becomes not only tastier, but also very juicy.

The use of mustard in the preparation of chops is dictated by many recipes. After cutting and beating the meat, it is recommended to spread it with a small amount of a sharp component. Meat chops should not be washed before frying.

Many barbecue recipes involve pre-treatment of meat with various alcoholic beverages. As a rule, most often preference is given to wine and beer. This is necessary not only to form the necessary taste and aroma, but also to soften the structure of the meat.

Onions are a natural softener

It is not for nothing that onions are considered an ingredient that must be used to prepare meat for barbecue. In this case, it is customary to cut the onion into large rings.

If we are talking about the need to soften the meat intended for a slightly different dish, you should use another method, which consists in the use of onion juice. Onions can be finely chopped and added to meat or chopped using a meat grinder. Both methods are quite effective. After insisting the meat for 1-2 hours in the onion marinade, you can start cooking.

A strong softening of meat can be achieved by creating an acidic environment. Many hostesses use vinegar for this purpose, but it is still better to replace this product with a natural and safer analogue, represented, for example, by lemon juice. Positive results can be achieved using carbonated mineral water.

Natural softeners can be added as the dish cooks. So, in the process of stewing meat to acidify the gravy, it is recommended to add a little lemon or tomatoes to the pan. You can also soften the baked meat with the help of tomatoes, which must be cut into rings and laid out on top of the pieces.

You can soften the meat immediately before cooking using certain marinades. So, fruit marinade is considered quite popular and effective, for the preparation of which you should use:

fresh kiwi fruit - 2 pcs.;
freshly ground white pepper;
rosemary.

The amount of fruit used can be adjusted based on how much meat the marinade is designed for. So, the indicated amount of kiwi is intended to soften six beef steaks.

Kiwi after peeling should be chopped with a coarse grater. Marinade must be supplemented with salt and white pepper to taste. Meat should be soaked in such a marinade for no longer than 40 minutes, because kiwi is considered a fast and fairly effective natural softener, so if the specified time is exceeded, there is a risk of getting minced meat.

Dairy products are also considered quite an effective softener of natural origin. In this marinade, you can soak both beef and chicken, pork, turkey and lamb.