Beef is a core component of many popular meals, but there’s nothing worse than when it’s dry and chewy. With one easy tip, you can make your meat taste tender and easily impress your guests. Many classic meals include beef from a roast with Yorkshire puddings, crispy roast potatoes, a generous helping of vegetables to a hearty stew – it’s important to get your meat right.
When cooking beef, you should cook it “low and slow” says The Kitchen Today. It says: “Slow cooking with moisture is a time-tested way to soften beef without modern gadgets.
“For roasts or larger stew chunks, cook covered on low heat in the oven or a pot with lid slightly ajar.”
If you’re hoping to enhance its flavour, you can add aromatic veggies like onion and garlic, beef broth and red wine to create flavour as the meat slowly cooks and tenderises over two to four hours.
The extended cook time allows the collagen in the meat to break down, leaving you with soft, delicious beef.
If you’re looking for another method to make your beef taste even better, you can use a meat mallet or tenderiser.
For thinner cuts like flank steak or stew meat chunks, use a meat mallet or manual tenderiser tool.
Simply place the beef between two sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper and pound away – this will help to break down the tough muscle fibres.
You should aim to evenly thin and soften the meat, but be careful not to overdo it, as this could make the meat mushy. Lightly pounding to help tenderise is the key to softer beef.
One other tip is to use fresh beef – if you’re using frozen meat this can impact the texture and the flavour.
For even greater tenderness, especially when making stew, consider using a slow cooker.
Cook on a low heat for around six hours – this extended cooking time allows the beef to become succulent, and it will melt in your mouth.
