Tenderizing tough cuts of meat

[Guest guest]

For those of you who may have changed the type of meat you buy because

of the financial shenanigans in our country (and around the world),

like buying chuck steak instead of the more expensive cuts like

ribeye, new york, porterhouse, etc., here are a couple of tips for

making those cuts much more tasty.

1. The tough cuts make great raw meat dishes. Whenever I eat steak

tartar (and sometimes carpaccio) I always use something other than one

of the traditional steak cuts. Round and top sirloin are much tastier

raw IMO than tenderloin or even the new york cut, but especially

tenderloin. I also find that the meat from the short ribs is excellent

raw. So if you have never done so before now might be the time to dive

into the chapter from Nourishing Traditions on raw meat appetizers.

2. I found this great tip for tenderizing tough cuts of steak.

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" One of the problems I had living in Europe was that the cuts of meat

there were much less tender. Often the meat was like chewing cardboard

except stringy. I looked for tips on tenderizing meat and it often

required long term marinating or a great deal of effort with little

result. But one suggestion I discovered was too simple to be believed

until I experimented with it and found it worked.

" It is simple. When you have a tougher, or cheaper, grade of meat and

want to tenderize it for cooking you use salt. Now most said to take

sea salt or kosher salt but I found that really cheap boxes of salt

for making ice cream worked fine. You just need the really large grain

salt. About 30 minutes before you are going to cook it you cover one

side of the meat with this salt. Try to cover as much of it as you

can. And then pop it back in the fridge and let it sit. When the 30

minutes is up take it out and rinse the salt off under water. Then pat

the meat dry and cook as normally would. The large grain won't flavor

the meat where small grain salt will. But it does tenderize it. And

the salt is quite cheap. One large box costs me about 75 cents and it

sufficient for quite a few pieces of meat. Leaving it on longer than

30 minutes can start to cause the meat to taste salty. But this really

does tenderize meat. And sometimes you don't want to stew the meat.

I've had cheaper cuts taste a lot more expensive this way. By the way,

this doesn't work well with roasts but that I address differently. "

http://www.wendymcelroy.com/news.php?extend.2178

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" Wartime brings the ideal of the State out into very clear relief, and

reveals attitudes and tendencies that were hidden. In times of peace

the sense of the State flags in a republic that is not militarized.

For war is essentially the health of the State. "

~ Randolph Bourne, 1919