Beef is one of the most versatile and popular types of meat. It lends itself to any type of culinary processing, be it boiling, stewing or frying. Beef dishes are quickly absorbed by the body. They contain much less fat than pork dishes. Our ancestors believed that the presence of such meat on the table testified to the well-being and health of family members.
What to cook with beef quickly and easily? From this meat you can create a huge number of first and second culinary courses. However, it is not possible to do this in a short time in all cases. To ensure that the beef turns out soft and juicy, and cooks quickly, you need to know a few secrets.
Beef Stroganoff with capers
Ingredients:
- Beef pulp - 500 g;
- Sour cream - 4 tbsp. l.;
- Butter - 140 g;
- Canned capers (together with marinade) -100 g;
- Seasoning for beef broth (cube) - 2 pcs.;
- Onions - 3 heads;
- Ripe tomatoes - 4 pcs.;
- Wheat flour - 2 tbsp. l.;
- Ground black pepper, salt to taste; half a lemon.
Wash the beef pulp and cut into small pieces, fry in butter. In a separate frying pan, saute the onion, cut into half rings. Combine with meat, salt and pepper. Dilute the bouillon cube in water and pour over the meat. Add tomatoes cut into slices. Simmer over low heat. 8-10 minutes before readiness, add capers (with marinade), flour and sour cream. Stir all ingredients, cook until thickened.
Tender beef in sour cream sauce in a cauldron
- beef pulp - 1 kg;
- vegetable oil - 2 tbsp. l.;
- onions - 4 pcs.;
- salt - 0.5 tsp;
- flour - 1 tsp;
- mustard - 1 tsp;
- sour cream - 1 tbsp.
- Wash the beef. Cut into strips and then cut across the grain into medium-sized cubes (approximately 3 x 3 cm).
- Cut the onion into half rings. Mix with meat.
- Pour oil into a 1.5-2 liter cast iron pot. Add meat and onions. Close the lid.
- Place in the oven preheated to 180 and bake for 2 hours.
- In a bowl, grind the flour with salt and mustard. Stir in sour cream.
- Remove the cast iron from the oven. You will see that the meat has practically cooked in its own juices, and the onions have become transparent. Pour sour cream sauce over the beef, close the lid and place in the oven for another half hour.
- The most tender beef in sour cream sauce is ready.
Beef with pineapples
Ingredients:
- beef tenderloin - 1.5 kg;
- mayonnaise sauce - 300 g;
- cheese (hard varieties) - 550-600 g;
- canned pineapples - 500 g;
- greens (parsley, lettuce);
- seasoning “mixed peppers”;
- grape oil for frying.
Wash the beef tenderloin and cut into flat pieces (up to 1 cm thick). Beat a little with a hammer and fry in vegetable oil. After this, salt, pepper and coat the meat with mayonnaise. Place on a prepared baking sheet, greased with oil. Place a slice of pineapple and several slices of cheese on each piece of meat. Bake in a hot oven until done. Periodically, the dish must be topped with pineapple juice. Serve beef with pineapples on lettuce leaves, after garnishing the dish with finely chopped parsley. The meat turns out aromatic and juicy.
Rules
Before you start soaking tough meat, you need to remember some rules:
- Under no circumstances should you marinate in aluminum containers. To do this, choose plastic or glass containers.
- It is not advisable to marinate for longer than two hours.
- The marinade must contain acid; citric acid or brine are suitable for this.
- To get rid of excess marinade, blot the meat with paper napkins.
- The product is immersed only in boiling water.
- Salt only at the very end of cooking.
- Meat should not be soaked in vinegar, as it makes it even tougher.
Alcohol
To do this, it is advisable to choose red wine; in extreme cases, you can use white wine, vodka, champagne or beer. It is not advisable to use cheap alcoholic drinks; they will be of no use.
It is best to soak beef or pork in beer or vodka, and during frying, the meat can be lightly poured with wine. But this must be done carefully, otherwise the dish may ignite. During frying, the alcohol evaporates, so this dish can also be given to children.
Mustard
Both sauce and powder are equally suitable. The steak is coated with mustard on all sides and left to soak for an hour and a half. Before frying, remove excess mustard from the steak with a paper napkin. With the help of mustard the dish will acquire a pleasant piquant taste.
Kefir
To obtain a juicy taste, chicken is soaked in any fermented milk product. Even mayonnaise is quite suitable, but kefir works best. The same can be done with pork. You can add any suitable spices to the container with the fermented milk product to give it a pleasant taste. Soak for no longer than an hour and a half, after which the pieces of meat are immediately fried without soaking them with a paper napkin.
Starch
This method is more suitable for chicken or turkey. A small amount of any food starch is mixed with water and small pieces of chicken are placed there. Leave for an hour. To give the dish a spicy taste, you can add a little soy flavor. Starch will give the meat a crispy crust. It is not advisable to use this method with beef or pork.
Lemon juice
100 ml of lemon juice is stirred in a liter of ordinary carbonated water, then any meat is soaked in this marinade for about two hours, after which it is immediately sent for cooking.
Meat hammer
To soften and break tough fibers, before cooking, the meat must be cut into small pieces, placed in cling film and beaten on top with a special hammer. After this, the dish will become very juicy and tender.
Slicing
To tenderize a thick steak, make small cuts on the surface to allow heat to penetrate more quickly during cooking. Or you can cut it into small pieces, but if you make them too small, the dish will turn out to be dry.
Steam bath
This simple and cheap method can tenderize any tough beef. To do this, boil a small amount of water in a saucepan, place a colander with meat on top, and cover with a lid. Leave for twenty minutes.
Baking soda
Regular baking soda has the ability to soften any tough meat; to do this, sprinkle the piece generously with soda and leave for three hours. Then shake off the remaining soda and prepare as usual.
Cork
This unusual method will help tenderize the pork. To do this you will need a balsa wood plug. Three plugs are placed in the pan where the pork is cooked. This method will not work with artificial corks; moreover, they can ruin the dish.
Brine
Any brine will do, as it contains acid that can soften the tough fibers of beef or pork. An hour before cooking, tough meat is placed in brine and then fried. No salt required here.
Onion
It’s hard to imagine any meat dish without onions. But in this case, the onion must be passed through a meat grinder or chopped very finely, after which it is used to cover a tough piece of pork or beef. After two hours, you can add seasonings and fry.
Fresh juice
To obtain freshly squeezed juice, take any fruit or vegetable, for example, pomegranate, tomato or pineapple. If you don’t have a juicer, you can grate them through a fine grater. After which any tough meat is soaked in them for no longer than an hour, otherwise it may become rubbery.
Soy sauce
The Chinese are considered professionals in preparing meat; they always turn out it tender and juicy. This is because they use soy sauce and quick frying over high heat.
For a kilogram of meat you need 70 milliliters of vodka and 7 tablespoons of soy sauce. No salt is added since soy sauce already contains it. Before frying, chicken or beef is kept in this marinade for about an hour and a half. This method is best suited for poultry meat.
Tea
Tough beef can be soaked in tea for about five hours, even leaving it overnight is fine. Four tablespoons are poured into a liter of boiling water and filtered after half an hour. Meanwhile, the meat is mixed with chopped onions, pepper, and then dipped into a container of tea.
Beef Goulash
Ingredients:
- thigh pulp - 600 g;
- tomato ketchup - 100 g;
- onion - 1 pc.;
- butter - 30 g;
- wheat flour - 2 tbsp. l.;
- bay leaf - 7 g;
- greens (parsley or dill);
- garlic (cloves) - 2-3 pcs.;
- salt and pepper - to taste.
Wash the beef and cut into small pieces. Boil in salted water for 20-25 minutes. Prepare the gravy: finely chop the onion, fry in butter in a deep frying pan. Add flour and ketchup and let it boil. Place the boiled meat in a frying pan, add seasonings, bay leaf, and salt. Simmer until done. 5 minutes before the end of the cooking process, add finely chopped garlic and herbs. For goulash, the best choice is beef tenderloin, hind leg or shoulder.
Before frying or stewing, it is better to beat off pieces of meat. Marinating will help make the beef more juicy and tender. You can use any wine (red or white), vinegar, sour cream or tomato juice as a marinade. Thanks to this technique, the fibers soften, the beef becomes tender and tasty.
Additional Tips
- To make meat tender, salt it after cooking, or shortly before it is finished. Salt absorbs moisture , which will be detrimental to the dish.
- Always choose a specific marinade recipe, which is based on the products from the list in the article - this way you will avoid mistakes . Marinating too long will have the opposite effect.
- When cooking, the meat will turn out soft if you add it to already boiling water , and then adjust the heat so that the water does not boil too much.
- When frying, always beat the pieces on both sides. The pieces will become thinner and cook faster, while retaining excess water in their structure. Of course, this technique is not applicable when frying steaks.
- The main secret to a juicy and tender steak is choosing the right ratio of piece thickness and frying time. Even with the “no blood” option, they are always not completely fried, allowing the meat to rest for some time outside the frying pan. The temperature inside the meat will even out, and the flesh will fry to the end.
- When cooking chicken, first simmer it , and only then fry it to obtain a crust.
Different cooking times – different effects
After the first 2 hours from the beginning of simmering, the connective tissues partially lose their strength, and collagen begins to break down into gelatin. Subsequently, the meat becomes soft and juicy, and its shape is preserved.
If you simmer meat for more than 3 hours, the connection between its fibers begins to break down, and as a result they easily separate. After 5 hours or more, the meat actually turns into a mushy liquid. At the same time, the level of its softness is affected not only by the cooking time, but also by the oven temperature. The lower it is, the longer the meat itself needs to be simmered.
Use our tips, and with their help you will be able to prepare a truly tender meat dish. Bon appetit!
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Mustard
Mustard is an excellent companion for any meat. The piece is coated with mustard (both sauce and powder will do), after an hour it is washed off or left for a piquant taste, and you can start cooking.
If a piece of meat is first cut into chops, the marinating time is reduced to 15 minutes. Even when preparing goulash, mustard can be added both during the cooking process, there and before it. There is a place for this spice in any marinade or even in batter.
There is also this recipe: 1.5 kg of meat is cut into portions and generously coated with mustard, pepper is added and soaked in beer for 2-3 hours. Then the pieces are rolled in flour and fried while constantly sprinkling with salt water.
Alcohol
We have already mentioned adding alcohol to soy sauce. Let’s say right away that during the cooking process the alcohol evaporates, so the dish can be eaten by children, drivers, and pregnant women.
Other suitable types of alcohol include cognac and whiskey (1-2 glasses each). Moreover, strong drinks can be added not only to the marinade, but also directly to the dish during the cooking process. But wine (both white and dry red) is more often used as a marinade.
To speed up the process, it is recommended to add onions and sparkling mineral water to the wine. The best options are Rychal-Su, Borjomi, Novoterskaya, Essentuki-4. For example, 1 kg of meat is soaked in a mixture of 0.5 liters of wine and 0.5 liters of mineral water. Add salt, pepper and 3-4 heads of chopped onions. You can start cooking in 3-5 hours.
