Tenderizer

[TromboneAl]

I haven't had good results with meat tenderizer in the past, but Lena and I recently had a NY strip steak at a restaurant that was much better than the ones we have at home. The waitress told me that they use tenderizer.

We've been eating a lot of rib-eye steaks and filet mignon, but even on sale, those pretty pricey.

So I got a Petit Sirloin value pack at only $2.99 and pound, and sprinkled both sides with McCormick "unseasoned" (salt and glucose as first ingredients) tenderizer about 2 hours before cooking. The result was excellent, and the freezer is now full of these steaks.

 

[MasterBlaster]

from WiseGeek

Meat tenderizers are proteolytic enzymes or proteases, enzymes specialized in breaking the peptide bonds between amino acids found in complex proteins. Meat is held together by a complex protein called collagen, and aside from mechanical tenderization and cooking, enzymes are the only other available meat tenderizers. Meat is often tenderized before cooking, to make it less tough and more suitable for consumption.
Meat tenderizers often come in a powdered form that can be sprinkled directly on the meat. Meat tenderizers dissolve some of the sinewy connections within the meat at room temperature. If meat tenderizers are allowed to act for too long, the meat can become squishy and lose its special texture.
The most popular meat tenderizer, called bromelain, is composed of a number of protease enzymes and harvested commercially from the stems of pineapple plants, where it is concentrated. The substance can be found throughout the entire plant, but is harvested from the stems because they are usually not consumed and are therefore available to be processed. Besides being a meat tenderizer, bromelain is an excellent anti-inflammatory agent, blocking metabolites that cause swelling. It has been used effectively to treat sports injuries and swelling caused by arthritis.

 

[tmm99]

I haven't had good results with meat tenderizer in the past, but Lena and I recently had a NY strip steak at a restaurant that was much better than the ones we have at home. The waitress told me that they use tenderizer.

We've been eating a lot of rib-eye steaks and filet mignon, but even on sale, those pretty pricey.

So I got a Petit Sirloin value pack at only $2.99 and pound, and sprinkled both sides with McCormick "unseasoned" (salt and glucose as first ingredients) tenderizer about 2 hours before cooking. The result was excellent, and the freezer is now full of these steaks.

Good to know. Did you poke the steak with a fork before sprinkling it with the tenderizer or you didn't have to do that? How much sprinkles did you put on it?

Thanks.

 

[GregLee]

And, perhaps interesting,

Systemic enzyme therapy (consisting of combinations of proteolytic enzymes such as bromelain, trypsin, chymotrypsin and papain) has been investigated in Europe to evaluate the efficacy of proteolytic enzymes in the treatment of breast, colorectal, and plasmacytoma cancer patients.[6]
Bromelain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[ERD50]

... (salt and glucose as first ingredients) ...

I thought glucose was a dirty word for you?

Anyway, I never felt the need to tenderize a steak, especially rib-eye (about the only cut of steak we cook in our house). Why would anyone want it any mushier than it already is?


-ERD50

 

[Sarah in SC]

Good to know, Al. We used to keep it around for jellyfish stings when diving because it neutralizes the poison somehow. Need to get some more!

 

[TromboneAl]

I poke it after putting the tenderizer on.

Yes, I'd prefer no sugar, but it's a very small amount. Also, it tends to be salty. I'm going to try to find to bromelain without anything else.

 

[ERD50]

I poke it after putting the tenderizer on.

Yes, I'd prefer no sugar, but it's a very small amount. Also, it tends to be salty. I'm going to try to find to bromelain without anything else.

This could possibly be dangerous if you like your steaks rare. One reason we can eat steaks rare and not hamburger is that any e coli are on the surface of the meat and get killed by the high surface heat. Poke them or grind them into the meat and they can be pushed into the part that stays below 140.

I don't know how real this danger is, but I'd avoid if I could (and I do).

-ERD50

 

[Nodak]

I poke it after putting the tenderizer on.

Yes, I'd prefer no sugar, but it's a very small amount. Also, it tends to be salty. I'm going to try to find to bromelain without anything else.

Here you go Al:
Amazon.com: Vitamin Shoppe - Bromelain Powder, 200 mg, 4 oz powder: Health & Personal Care

 

[Leonidas]

This could possibly be dangerous if you like your steaks rare. One reason we can eat steaks rare and not hamburger is that any e coli are on the surface of the meat and get killed by the high surface heat. Poke them or grind them into the meat and they can be pushed into the part that stays below 14

After researching cooking steak I came to the same conclusions.

There is more than one way to tenderize a piece of beef. A liquid marinade requires a little pre-cooking prep-work, but I find the results are magnificent. The thinner the piece of beef the better (and quicker) it works. Plus it doesn't require piercing the flesh and introducing nasty stuff to the interior where it may thrive.

Letting the meat rest after cooking helps make it tender as well.

 

[Buckeye]

Do you have to wash it off? Will it tenderize your insides?

 

[bltkmt]

I have always been curious about these devices: Amazon.com: Jaccard Supertendermatic 48-Blade Tenderizer: Kitchen & Dining

Does anyone have experience with them, or similar tenderizers?

 

[Nodak]

After researching cooking steak I came to the same conclusions.

There is more than one way to tenderize a piece of beef. A liquid marinade requires a little pre-cooking prep-work, but I find the results are magnificent. The thinner the piece of beef the better (and quicker) it works. Plus it doesn't require piercing the flesh and introducing nasty stuff to the interior where it may thrive.

Letting the meat rest after cooking helps make it tender as well.

+1

 

[mickj]

steamy kitchen method

http://steamykitchen.com/163-how-to-turn-cheap-choice-steaks-into-gucci-prime-steaks.html

the steak secret: massively salt your steaks 1 hour before cooking for every inch of thickness.

This method works pretty well.

 

[Rustic23]

bltmkt
Looks like about 96 people tried it and 82 of them rated it 5 stars!

 

[TromboneAl]

the steak secret: massively salt your steaks 1 hour before cooking for every inch of thickness.

I tried this in the past, and it just didn't work at all. Perhaps the cut I tried it on was too tough.

 

[Zero]

Here it the ultimate natural tenderizer. The cow did it.

 

[TromboneAl]

Well, that's another thing. Once I decided the key was to get cuts with a lot of marbling. But I got one steak that had tons of marbling, but was tough. So back to the drawing board.

 

[Zero]

Well, that's another thing. Once I decided the key was to get cuts with a lot of marbling. But I got one steak that had tons of marbling, but was tough. So back to the drawing board.

The marbling thing seems to work very well on ribeyes, not so much on other cuts, and the fat needs to be pure white and almost wax like. I guess that comes from aging but I'm no meat expert.

But I did work a summer in an upscale steak house back in 1969 in Torrance and all the steaks, except the ribeyes and fillet mignon, got tenderizer after being cut (no mechanical tenderizing) but the ribeye just got a coating of salt.

The steaks were cooked on a large round rotating grill with a open flame wood bricket fire and you had to be careful removing the ribeyes because they would literally fall apart.

The ribeye section came in whole weighing about 10-15 lbs and were cut onsite and the butcher would really give the marbling a careful look-over.

EDIT: Better yet, I'm off to see my butcher and will report back.