Tenderness: How to Cook Meat

Tenderness: How to Cook Meat

Leader Training Handout

Tenderness: How to Cook Meat

Steps for cooking meat

1.  Choose the type of meat (beef, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey, etc.)

2.  Choose the cut

Cuts from less exercised parts of animals will have less connective tissue and can be cooked quickly with dry heat methods such as broiling, grilling or pan frying. The more exercise the part of the animal receives and the older the animal, the more success you will have from choosing methods that keep moisture around the meat as it cooks such as braising or stewing.

3.  Choose the cooking method

Types of cooking methods

·  Dry heat—No water based liquids are present during cooking, but you can use fat or oil; dry heat is used for tender or medium-tender cuts

o  Roasting:Meat is cooked uncovered, in hot air, in an oven. Meat may also be roasted revolving on a spit over a fire.

o  Grilling (broiling):Quick cooking by direct heat from a gas flame or an electric element. Meat may be placed under or over the heat source.
Barbecuing: Meat is cooked on a grid or spit over glowing coals or gas flame.

o  Fan-grilling:Cooking in a multi-function oven using radiant heat from the grill (upper) element and heated air circulated by a fan. A thermostat controls the temperature and the oven door is kept closed. Suitable for tender grilling cuts and some roasts

o  Pan-grilling:Meat is cooked on a pre-heated heavy, dry fry pan or ridged iron grill pan (griddle pan), or metal hot plate. This is not frying. The cooking surface may be lightly greased, or the meat brushed with oil before cooking, but no further fat is added. Any fat drippings should be poured off as they accumulate. The meat is cooked uncovered.

o  Pan-frying (shallow frying):Meat is cooked in a small amount of hot fat or oil (usually about 3-12mm depth), in an uncovered pan. A suitable method for thin cuts of tender meat.

o  Sautéing:"Sauté" literally means "to jump". Small pieces of food are tossed (either by shaking pan or using a spatula or similar utensil) as they cook in a little hot oil or fat in a sauté pan (like a fry pan but slightly deeper). A suitable method for thinly sliced, small pieces of tender meat. A sauté may be finished with a sauce cooked in the pan.

o  Stir-frying:Finely cut food rapidly stirred and tossed as it is fast-cooked in a little hot oil, usually in a wok, over high heat.

o  Deep-frying:Food cooked by being immersed in hot oil or fat.

·  Moist heat—Best for cuts from highly exercised, less tender parts of animals and older animals. These cuts have high content of meat extractives that provide flavor and are higher connectives tissue.

o  Braising:Meat is first browned in a minimum of fat or oil, then cooked gently with vegetables and a small amount of liquid in a tightly covered pot or casserole on the stove top or in the oven. Used for serving-sized pieces of meat as well as for larger cuts.

o  Pot-roasting:The term used for larger cuts or joints of meat cooked as for braising, but without any (or with barely any) liquid. A good method for less tender roasting cuts such as fresh beef silverside, topside and chuck roasts.

o  Stewing or Casseroling:Meat cut into small pieces or cubes is cooked at a low temperature or gentle simmer in liquid, usually with vegetables, in a covered pan on the stove top or in the oven. The meat may be browned first.

o  Simmering:Gentle cooking in liquid just below boiling point so that the surface barely ripples. Meats for simmering may be cut small, or in large pieces, e.g. corned beef silverside.

o  Poaching:Food is cooked very gently in liquid below simmering point. Liquid is hot but should not exceed a mere tremble, i.e. less movement than simmering.

o  Pressure Cooking: Cooking in liquid and steam under pressure, which increases temperature and reduces cooking time to about one third of normal time. A suitable method for less tender meat cuts, which normally need long, moist heat cooking, e.g. ox tongue and beef shin.

·  Combination methods: Methods that use both moist & dry heat.

o  Microwave Cookery:Microwave cookery is electro-magnetic. It is neither a dry nor moist technique, but the microwave oven can be used to roast, simmer, braise and casserole meats. However, it gives different results from conventional cooking methods and it is not always a time saver. Generally, meat cooks better, and more evenly, at lower power settings. Size and shape of the meat cut affect evenness of cooking and the time required.

o  Covered Roasting:This is not true roasting as the meat is enclosed, either in an oven-bag or covered roasting pan, thus trapping in some steam, and cooked in the oven. A variation is fry pan "roasting", example: small lamb leg cuts are first browned in a hot fry pan. Heat is then lowered, the lid put on, and cooking is completed.

4.  Cook to an adequate endpoint temperature and rest before serving

a.  Undercooking meats result in:

i.  Safety issues

ii. Underdeveloped flavor

iii.  Raw texture

b.  Overcooking yields tough, rubbery, stringy, dry, excessive shrinkage of protein with loss of water from muscle fibers, collagen converted to gelatin so fibers no longer adhere to each other (strings)

c.  Color is not a safe indicator of doneness—Any cooked, uncured red meats – including pork – can be pink, even when meat has reached a safe internal temperature

d.  Only sure way to determine doneness is with a meat thermometer

e.  When meat is removed from heat, it needs to rest

i.  Allows juices to equalize throughout the meat, less lost when cut

ii. Tent with foil to keep the meat warm

iii.  Resting time for particular cuts vary

iv.  Usually between 10 and 20minutes

Oklahoma State University, U.S. Department of Agriculture, State and Local Governments Cooperating: The Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service offers its programs to all eligible persons regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, gender, age, disability or status as a veteran, and is an equal opportunity employer.

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