Add An Acidic Ingredient When Boiling Beef For More Tender Results (2024)
Kyle Grace Mills
·2 min read
Boiled beef doesn't have the tastiest reputation. Indeed, the title seems to call to mind bland, tough meat that needs plenty of sauce or stew to make it palatable. Still, if executed properly, boiling can be the best way to transform a cheap cut of meat into a delicious dinner that can outmatch pricier entrees. The secret to success? Add a bit of acid to your boiling brew.
Boiling meat already helps make tough cuts more tender. These cuts of beef often have elastin and collagen marbled within, making it sinewy and chewy. Cooking it with moist heat — such as by boiling or simmering — helps to slowly break down this connective tissue without drying out the meat altogether. This is a good start, but acid helps double down on the tenderizing effort. An acidic compound, like lemon juice or soy sauce, breaks down tough fibers and connective tissue in chewy cuts of meat. As an added bonus, it also helps impart a tangy flavor to the beef. So what are your options for adding acid to your beef boil?
A beef boil could mean anything from a beef stew to a pot roast— basically, any recipe that uses a liquid to cook the beef. Many beef boil recipes will already have good acidic ingredients in the base liquid that will help tenderize the beef, such as tomatoes, vinegar, or soy sauce. However, if you notice that your recipe only calls for beef broth, water, and some vegetables, you'll want to add a good dose of acid to the mix yourself.
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So which acid should you choose? Ultimately, that will depend on the flavor you're looking for and how prominent you want it to be in the dish. For a basic acidic punch, you can always rely on a few tablespoons of lemon or lime juice or a dash or two of balsamic vinegar (or another vinegar of your choice). If you're looking for an acid that also packs more flavor, you can pick Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce. Wine and apple cider are also acidic mediums that will bring savory depth to your beef boil. Finally, tomatoes or tomato paste are a vegetable acid you can rely on to bring umami flavor and tenderizing qualities. Whichever you choose, your acid will still help break down the meat, producing some of the most tender boiled beef possible.
An acidic compound, like lemon juice or soy sauce, breaks down tough fibers and connective tissue in chewy cuts of meat. As an added bonus, it also helps impart a tangy flavor to the beef.
After browning the meat and adding liquids, bring to a light simmer then reduce the heat so that it is just bubbling every now and then. This will give you the most tender meat; true, hard boiling will make meat stringy and tough.
Whether hosting a holiday cookout, serving up some stir-fry or tackling game meats, baking soda is the go-to meat tenderizer to help make your steak, chicken or turkey silkier, juicier and yummier.
The longer cooking time and the low heat complement each other perfectly. As a result, even though the meat is cooked for far longer, it doesn't dry out because the temperature is low. As a result, this is the best way to retain all the natural juices of the meat.
Boiling meat already helps make tough cuts more tender. These cuts of beef often have elastin and collagen marbled within, making it sinewy and chewy. Cooking it with moist heat — such as by boiling or simmering — helps to slowly break down this connective tissue without drying out the meat altogether.
For the thinner cuts of meat you can try the acid marinade, that is based on citrus fruits, vinegar or wine, which break the muscle fibers of the meat, so as to make it more tender in cooking.
Kaitlin Leung of The Woks of Life, a blog dedicated to Chinese cooking, shares that a standard velveting mixture could include egg white and cornstarch, plus a few tablespoons of water – to help coat the meat yes, but also to make the meat extra tender and juicy.
The higher the cooking temperature, the tougher the muscle fibers become, and the more they shrink in both length and width. It's no wonder that stewing beef becomes incredibly chewy when cooked in a boiling broth!
This is certainly true when it comes to notoriously tough cuts of meat like beef brisket and pork shoulder. Cooking these cuts of meat slowly, either by braising, stewing or grill roasting, is the best way to get these tasty cuts of meat meltingly tender.
If you want super tender beef, you'll need to cook it on a low heat in a Dutch oven on the stove or a slow cooker for at least a few hours. Chuck meat is your best bet for beef stew, but it's also a pretty tough cut so it needs time to break down and become tender.
Top with enough cold water to just cover and season with a very generous pinch of salt. Bring to a simmer, then lower heat to maintain a very gentle simmer. Cook, skimming occasionally, until each cut of beef is fork-tender, at least 2 hours and up to 4 hours, depending on the cut and animal your beef is from.
After all that slow, mellow cooking, you need a bit of acid to brighten and balance the flavor of the stew. So give the stew a taste, add some salt if needed, then give it a little splash of vinegar or citrus juice (sherry vinegar, balsamic, lemon juice, orange juice, etc.), stir, and taste it again.
Simmering in a little bit of liquid or broth is a great way to tenderize. Acidity can also be your friend here. A little bit of vinegar and lemon juice in the liquid can help you tenderize the meat.
Boiling meat can also result in overcooking, which makes it tough and dry. As the meat heats up beyond 150 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the well-done point for a steak, the fibers contract, lose their moisture, and become very firm.
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