Beef is tough when braised. Marinate in wine

Sometimes young housewives make mistakes when choosing meat. And at home it suddenly turns out that this is not a young veal at all, but a rather old animal. And everything would be fine, but how can you make the beef soft so that it is a pleasure to eat? And so that loved ones don’t even suspect the hostess’s unpleasant puncture? Is there really nothing more that can be done?

It's not as bad as it might seem at first glance. Many more experienced cooks give some advice in this case.

1. For example, to make beef soft, you can cut it into pieces and marinate it overnight in a special brine. The marinade is prepared similarly to that used for barbecue. You can prepare the brine by adding vinegar, salt, pepper, seasonings and onions. You can replace vinegar with dry wine. Some people pour ketchup or tomato juice on the meat. There is an option for marinating meat in kefir or sour cream. The main point here is this: the marinade must be sour!

2. Of course, many people understand that cooking time can make beef tender, no other method can. Therefore, after frying, it should be properly stewed by adding a little liquid to a high frying pan. If you marinated meat before cooking, then milk is perfect to neutralize excess acidity. Mayonnaise or sour cream added during stewing will make the meat tender and juicy.

3. Some people add a little soda to the pan at this time. Since this method helps make beef soft, you can use it too. But here you need to remember that during neutralization, the soda begins to hiss violently, as if boiling, throwing it away, and if the dishes have low edges, there is a possibility of some of the broth leaking over the edge onto the stove.

4. There is an option to also add a small amount of sugar to the pan.

5. Instead of marinating, you can simply coat portioned pieces with mustard and keep the meat in this state for half an hour. You should fry it directly in the coating - this will only improve the taste of the dish!

6. If there is not enough time to wait for the beef to marinate, then there is an option to make chops from it. To do this, cut pieces for chops 1 - 2 cm thick against the muscle fibers. The direction of the cut is extremely important for the softness and juiciness of the dish!

Then, having salted and peppered the piece, they begin to beat it with either a special culinary hammer or a regular hammer, well washed and scalded. When beating meat with a regular hammer, you need to be careful, as you can break the meat into a liquid state. In general, it is best to beat it in the most convenient way to achieve the desired effect.

After beating, you can simply fry the meat in a large amount of fat. You can also make chops in batter. For the batter, beat an egg with a small amount of flour and a pinch of salt. After dipping a piece in batter, it is either immediately placed in boiling fat, or dipped again in crushed crackers. Potatoes, pasta, buckwheat or fresh vegetables should also not be neglected as a side dish.

7. Thrifty housewives share this way to make beef soft: before stewing, you can simply boil the meat! By leaving a small part of the beef in the broth and preparing the first one from it, you can easily make a wonderful goulash from the rest of the boiled beef.

True, here the second question arises: soft? Everyone agrees that the best way is to cook meat in a pressure cooker in one large piece, since with this method it is difficult to check when the product is ready, and the option of bringing the meat to a “crumbly” state should not be discounted. And it’s very difficult to make a second dish from overcooked beef.

If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can speed up the cooking process in this way: after boiling the water, boil the meat for five minutes and add a little cold water to the broth to stop the boiling. This needs to be done several times. You can simply stop heating the pan in order to continue the process after a certain amount of time. By the way, with such several “approaches”, the procedure for boiling meat allows you to preserve the greatest amount of useful elements in both the broth and the meat.

You can make aspic out of it - delicious and wonderfully beautiful! And many people even prefer to eat boiled meat rather than fried meat during lunch with their partner. And, by the way, you are absolutely right!

Fried, baked or stewed meat is tough? This can be fixed! Today we will tell you how to cook meat so that it always turns out soft and juicy, and what to do if the finished dish turns out tough and tasteless.

Why did the meat turn out tough?

There may be several reasons. Most likely, you did not clean the cut well enough to remove excess films and tendons, and you cooked it in a small container at too high a temperature. Perhaps you overcooked the meat or, conversely, cooked it too little.

But the most common mistake in which meat turns out tough is its improper use. For example, for frying they take cuts that are too tough and sinewy, which are more suitable for stewing. And vice versa - for stewing and cooking, they take lean cuts (this includes).

Not all meat is equally suitable for frying and stewing. If you don’t know which cut to choose, remember this rule: the muscles from the back and lumbar parts of the carcass are the softest and most tender. These cuts are best used for frying. For example, from this part of the carcass you can. Meat taken from parts of the carcass that were involved in movement during the life of the animal is suitable for baking or stewing. These include the flesh from the hip part of the carcass and the so-called “butt”.

How to cook juicy meat?

Let's say you chose the right cut. Now the most difficult thing remains - to prepare it juicy, tasty and aromatic. If you fry meat for goulash or roast, the cut must be thoroughly cleaned of films and veins. Then wipe dry and only then cut into portions. The pan should already be heating up. The better its working surface is heated, the faster the meat will “grab” into the crust, thereby preserving the meat juices inside. You need to salt it at the very end! This is one of the main rules of a juicy dish. Remember: beef stew that has been pre-fried turns out much tastier.

Let's say you need to fry a cut that is not the most tender. For example, . Cut it into thin strips across the grain and marinate. Soy sauce, mustard and lemon juice are used as natural “softeners”. You need to marinate the beef for 20-40 minutes. No longer recommended.

With beef steaks everything is simpler. Better dry or wet aging. Meat with thin layers of fat is ideal for frying and baking. The fat keeps it from drying out and enhances the natural flavor of the beef. Depending on the thickness and degree of marbling, cook for 3-4 minutes on each side until medium rare. It is considered the most appropriate for steaks made from high-quality grain-fed beef.

Meat with thin layers of fat or pockets of fat is ideal for roasting. It always turns out juicy, not overcooked and very aromatic. Such cuts include, for example, prime rib roast beef. The baking temperature should not be too high (from 100 to 120 degrees). Otherwise, the meat will begin to dry out.

What to do if the finished meat turns out tough?

Finally, we come to the main question. Let's say the meat turned out tough. How to fix it? If you fried meat and it turned out tough, try stewing it in sauce. Prepare it from dry red wine or wine vinegar. Simply deglaze the pan with wine and simmer briefly to evaporate the alcohol. Pour the liquid over the meat and let it simmer. A good way to fix the situation if you were cooking and it turned out too tough.

You can soften fried meat without stewing. Just sprinkle some lemon juice on it and let it sit for a few minutes.

If you stew the meat and it is not chewy, continue to stew. Transfer the cut to a larger pan - this will improve the circulation of hot air. Add the required amount of liquid. This could be water, wine, broth or beer. You can add a shot of vodka or a little wine or apple cider vinegar if you are dealing with a very tough cut. Simmer the meat until softened.

But what to do if the baked meat turns out tough? Get out of the oven immediately! Cut the meat into slices and place in a heatproof bowl. Pour in the sauce. You can deglaze the pan it was baked on. This can be done with water, broth or wine. Pour the liquid over the meat and simmer until it is soft enough.

What to do if the meat is tough? People who are not vegetarians love to cook meat dishes. We boil, steam, fry and stew meat.

But what should we do if the piece we came across for some reason turned out to be too harsh? Or during frying you got distracted and brought your meat to an unpresentable state.

It is in this case that you will need practical advice from people who have already encountered similar troubles.

First of all, let's deal with the second case, when we have already cooked the meat, but it turned out to be tough. In this case, there is only one way to return your dish to a digestible appearance. You need to place it in a water bath.

How is it prepared? It’s very simple: you will need a pan of boiling water, on top of which you place a colander, where your meat is already located.

On top you need to cover all this splendor with a lid, and allow it to cook in this way for half an hour or forty minutes. After this, the meat will become softer, and the crust formed during frying will only add piquancy to it.

Now let's begin to return the meat to an attractive appearance, if you did not pay attention to its toughness when purchasing. Use the following tips to make meat more tender and tender:

1) If you are a beef lover, then you need to remember that it is stewed with the addition of salt, spices,cream and sugar. Then even the initially toughest meat will become soft and pleasant to the taste.

2) If you are going to cook meat, be it pork, lamb or veal, you need to do it for about two or even two and a half hours over low heat. This will allow you to feel significant changes for the better and the finished dish will become much more tender.

3) Very common are before cooking. There are many methods and recipes in this regard. The most common and accessible is the use of onions and vinegar, because in every kitchen there is this list of spices and food products.

4) Cuts made on its surface will help speed up the process of penetration of the marinade into the meat.

5) After placing the meat in the marinade, you need to leave it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. Low temperatures will help you in your quest to make meat more tender..

6) One way to make meat more usable would be dipping it on all sides in mustard. You can use the product either purchased in a store or in grains. Why, even with dry mustard you can achieve significant results.

7) For a better result, you can give the meat the impact of a kitchen hammer or the back of a knife - this will bring it to the tone we need and make it softer.

8) If you undertake to cook meat, then remember that you need to salt it only at the end of the cooking process. The same rule applies when frying meat. Just salt tends to draw water out of the product, so if you want to achieve softness of meat, it is better not to salt it right away.

9) Very often Ready-made cucumber brine is used as a marinade. You can also use tomato, but in practice, cucumber brine has shown the best results.

10) Exotic type of marinade, but very effective, will be made from kiwi juice or pulp. However, do not overdo it - use one fruit per kilogram of meat. Also, do not overcook - the meat should be marinated for no more than three hours, otherwise it will simply begin to decompose.

11)Pineapple juice and pulp can also be used. Moreover, they are not as dangerous and aggressive in terms of their impact on meat as kiwi. Use the same proportions.

12) If you are stewing meat and notice that it is slightly tough, you can add beer to the dish. Really, analyze who exactly will eat it. If you have small children, then this method is unlikely to suit you.

13) If you are planning to fry tough meat, you can moisten it with lemon juice a few minutes before cooking. Allow the juices to absorb and start frying the meat.

14) A very expensive marinade contains soy sauce. You need to soak the meat for an hour or even two, but do not forget that you should not salt it too much now, since the sauce itself has a rather piquant taste.

15) You can soak the meat in water with starch diluted there for several hours. This will give the product the necessary tenderness.

16) When cooking, add half a teaspoon of sugar to the pan. This will have a significant effect in softening the meat.

17) Many people use a very extravagant method when preparing boiled meat. It involves throwing three wine corks into the water. It is not known how effective this method is, but given its popularity, we can say in the affirmative.

However, make sure that the corks you use are made from natural balsa wood, otherwise the result may be disappointing.

18) Into the meat, which is stewing,you can add a couple of tablespoons of dry wine. Be sure to choose wine that does not contain alcohol, as this is what will tenderize the meat.

19) Sometimes the product is soaked in vodka for about an hour, which gives it special tenderness. But can you find people in our country who would casually transfer a few liters of vodka like that? To be honest, it's quite difficult to do this...

20) Another very effective marinade recipe for softening meat involves using finely chopped onions,grated apple,tablespoon vinegar and spices.

Among the latter, it is most advisable to use bay leaf, ground black pepper and vegetable oil.

21) Milk marinade prepare as follows:

• take half a liter of kefir;
• the same amount of mineral water, soda;
• add salt, pepper, herbs and spices to taste;
• stand for three hours, longer if possible.

We hope our tips will allow you to make your dish refined and original, and the initially tough meat will become soft and tender, as most recipes require!

Beef is a meat that many housewives avoid. And, I must say, completely in vain. Most likely, the reason is more than banal - many people simply do not know how to cook beef so that it is soft. But everything is quite simple. Many years of experience as home cooks, numerous experiments and a passionate love for meat have given rise to many excellent recipes for preparing this wonderful and extremely healthy product. And therefore, answering the question of how to cook beef so that it is soft can take a long time. Because there are more than enough such methods, and different ones at that. The meat turns out tender, juicy and soft in a frying pan, in the oven, or in a saucepan. Even a beef kebab, properly prepared, will be no worse than one made from pork. The only thing you need is to follow the advice of experienced chefs, which we will give in our article. And at the same time, we’ll share several recipes, tell you how to fry soft beef, make delicious shish kebab, chops and bake it in the oven. So let's begin.

Choosing meat

Since it is not possible to cook beef so that it is soft from just any piece of meat, you need to be very careful in choosing it. Firstly, it must be fresh. Under no circumstances should you take frozen food. In addition, you need to buy meat only from young animals, since old beef is only suitable for long-term stewing. The color will tell you about its age. Young beef has a beautiful pink or slightly reddish tint. This meat differs from pork in that it has a lot of films and veins. Therefore, when choosing beef at the market (which is preferable) or in a store, be sure to try to take the piece where there are practically none or at least not very many of them.

Preparatory stage

If you ask any housewife who knows a lot about meat about how to cook beef so that it is soft, the answer will be unequivocal. Pre-marinate! And here you can already use your own imagination to the fullest. The marinade can be almost anything. And you can keep beef in it, intended both for baking in the oven and for frying in a frying pan, in one piece or cut into small pieces. Below are some of the most common pickling options.

Marinades

• Peel a couple of large onions, chop them, take a large lemon, also cut it into pieces without peeling, and then put it all through a meat grinder. After which the mixture must be squeezed out. Add any seasonings you like to the resulting juice (it can be pepper, both red and black, or chili, thyme, mustard, coriander, etc.). It is in this marinade that you need to keep the beef. Exposure time depends on size. A large piece needs to be kept for longer, a small piece will be enough for an hour.
• Take ordinary table mustard, carefully, without sparing it, rub the meat on all sides. Place the piece in a saucepan and leave in a warm place for several hours. The beef will need to be rinsed before cooking.
• Mix half a liter of kefir with the same favorite spices, pour the mixture over the meat, and let it marinate overnight. In the morning you can start preparing.
• Soak the beef in regular mineral water. Exposure time is three hours.

These are, of course, the simplest options. You can marinate meat in beer, red wine, or in a specially prepared marinade designed to keep beef in it for two or even three days. Create, experiment! And we’ll talk further about how to cook beef so that it is soft in the oven.

Bake

To do this, you can use either special dishes, parchment, foil or a sleeve. It all depends on what kind of dish is intended. So, for an inexperienced housewife, it is best to opt for the sleeve. Moreover, you don’t need to do anything special. It is enough to take the meat out of the marinade, put it in a sleeve, seal it on both sides with special clamps, put it in the oven, after which you can go to rest. In two to three hours the meat will be cooked (at a temperature of one hundred and eighty degrees).

You can simply bake it on a baking sheet. It is only advisable to first stuff it with pieces of lard - for greater juiciness. The result will be tender and soft beef. In the oven, you need to set the temperature to the same one hundred and eighty degrees, and the meat itself needs to be poured with the released juice from time to time. There are a great many baking recipes. Moreover, you can cook not only beef alone, but with a side dish. Mushrooms, eggplants, potatoes. This is a topic for another discussion. On our agenda are soft beef chops.

How to cook

By the way, anyone who thinks that preparing chops is very simple is mistaken. Especially when it comes to beef. Still, this meat is both tough and quite dry. But you want the dish to be juicy, so that the chop simply melts in your mouth, while also emitting an appetizing aroma. But nothing is impossible. True, the preparatory process will take a little time, but the resulting result will fully justify such sacrifices. We offer the simplest recipe - beef chops with cheese. To prepare, we stock up on: meat, cheese (300 g), a pack of mayonnaise, vegetable oil, salt, spices.

We cut the beef, and certainly across the grain, into appropriate portion pieces. We beat back diligently. Then rub with any spices and salt. Allow time for the meat to soak a little in this mixture. Grate the cheese (preferably finely), mix it with mayonnaise. And then we fry our chops, first dipping them in this peculiar batter. Finally covered with a cheese crust on the outside, the chops will be soft and juicy on the inside. Just as we ordered.

And finally, let's talk about how to cook soft beef kebab. The recipe for its preparation, or rather, several, see below.

Shashlik

It must be said that traditionally this dish is prepared from pork. True, recently they have increasingly begun to make it from chicken. And it is very rare that shish kebab is prepared from meat such as beef. Recipes with photos of this dish clearly confirm that beef is no less suitable for its preparation. And to make sure of this, we’ll tell you about several of the most common methods.

In Georgian

To prepare it we stock up on:

• beef tenderloin;
• onions (two or three pieces);
• a bunch of fresh parsley;
• bay leaf;
• grape vinegar (three tablespoons);
• allspice (5 or 6 peas);
• salt.

We cut the meat into appropriate portions, put it in a container, generously sprinkle it with chopped onions, herbs, add grape vinegar, salt and all the available spices, and close. And we leave it for two or even three days. In a cool place. The future shish kebab should be thoroughly mixed several times a day. Then everything is traditional: a warm evening, a cozy cottage, a skewer, a barbecue, good wine...

With vinegar and wine

To prepare such a kebab, we go to the store for:

Cooking

Naturally, first we deal with the meat, that is, we cut it. Then add peppercorns to the bottom of the vessel in which you plan to place the beef, seasoning them generously with bay leaves. Place the meat in layers, sprinkling each with onions, seasonings (of your choice), and salt. The top layer should look like onion. Pour all the available tomato paste onto it, don’t forget about the vinegar. Then you need to press it all down with a press. Moreover, the latter should be as heavy as possible. Under such pressure, and in a cool place, the kebab should marinate for about a day. After that, you need to remove the press, drain all the liquid in the vessel, and then add a glass of purchased wine and lemon juice. And wait another four hours. All. You can go to the dacha. The further algorithm of actions is the same as in the first case.

Give it a try. And make sure that beef kebab is no worse than one made from pork or chicken. And in some ways, maybe even better. It is quite clear that the recipes we have given are far from the only ones; there are a great many of them. In addition, after trying to cook soft beef kebab once, you can then make your own adjustments to the recipe by replacing or adding ingredients.

Bon appetit!

Beef is suitable for preparing numerous dishes. These include dietary dishes made from meat, steamed or boiled in water. These are different recipes for fried and baked hot dishes and even cold appetizers. For every method of cooking beef, it is important to know how to properly handle it to ensure the meat is tender.
Beef is a finicky meat. There are different options for what to add to make the beef tender, depending on the cooking method. But it all starts with the right choice of meat. Beef itself has a richer red color when compared to pork. When buying beef, you need to know that the darker the meat, the older the cow was. This means that dark-colored beef takes more than one hour to cook and it is not a fact that it will become soft. To ensure that boiled beef is soft and juicy, you need to buy meat from a young cow.





In order for the meat to become soft during the cooking process, it must be immersed in already boiling water;
It is better to cook beef in one large piece. It is better to cut the beef after cooking, when the meat has cooled. With this method of boiling this type of meat, you will not get a rich broth, but the meat itself will become juicy and soft;
To give boiled beef additional flavor, you can add fresh vegetables and a variety of spices to the water. The most suitable vegetables are onions and carrots. They need to be washed and put into the broth an hour after the meat was put in there. Spices should be added just 15 minutes before the end of cooking;
Tender boiled beef fits perfectly with the one prepared according to this recipe.





In the case of such heat treatment, preliminary marinating will have a positive effect on the final quality of the meat. You can marinate either a whole piece or meat already cut into pieces;
In order for the beef to become tender, it is important to keep it in the marinade for the required amount of time. The time depends on the size of the pieces and the initial degree of hardness of the meat. When marinating, the liquid should completely cover the beef, the meat must be stirred periodically;
Most successful marinades are made with acids, fats and additional spices. To make the beef soft, you must definitely use table, apple or balsamic vinegar. Citrus fruit juices are suitable as vinegar substitutes. Fats help strengthen the flavor of meat and protect it from dryness during cooking. Spices and some vegetables will add additional flavor to the marinade;
To make the meat softer when frying or cooking in the oven, it must be marinated in glass, porcelain or clay dishes. Containers made of high-quality plastic are also suitable for the process of marinating beef;
What should I add to make the beef tender after pre-marinating? Juniper berries, lemon slices, and garlic cloves are perfect. You can also arrange chopped meat with onion rings;
On average, beef needs to be marinated for two to three hours;
A successful marinade recipe for this type of meat will be obtained with the addition of red vein, vegetable oil and spices. Pomegranate juice will also soften the meat;
Such juicy meat will undoubtedly suit anyone.




What else to pay attention to when cooking beef in the oven
With this type of heat treatment, it is important not only what to add to make the beef soft, but also how to cook it correctly. It is best to wrap the meat in foil. If the beef will be cooked over an open fire, then it must be periodically basted with the remaining marinade.
When cooking a large piece of beef in the oven, it is necessary to water it with the juice that it will release. This will make the meat as soft and juicy as possible.
These are all the main secrets of what to do to keep beef soft when boiling or frying, another type of heat treatment. But when dealing with this type of meat, it is important to understand that beef cannot be cooked quickly. At a minimum, this process will take an hour and a half, but it is better to count on two hours.

By following these tips, you will not only learn how to cook juicy meat, but you will also always be able to cook delicious