Meat is eaten almost everywhere in the world. It is very popular and has been a part of the human diet for centuries. Raw meat of animals was eaten by early humans before they even discovered fire or agricultural plants. With such historical significance, meat is something we cannot joke about when it comes to its preparation. As easy and tasty it is to eat meat, preparing the dish is not that easy. It takes a lot of effort and time to cook soft and tasty meat.
Before anything, cutting meat and using tools to tenderize it come first. Meat is tenderized using several hand-powered tools and meat tenderizer tools. Tenderizing the meat can also be achieved biologically, with the help of enzymes by marinating it. Marinating the meat makes it softer and also enhances the flavor. Marinating ingredients mostly consist of acidic ingredients such as wine, lemon juice, curd, vinegar, spices, garlic, etc. Tenderizing meat helps in softening the fibers, which makes the meat easier to chew and digest as well. This process is very necessary when preparing steaks, Palmilla, etc.
Meat Cooking Methods
1. Dry heat cooking methods
Pan-frying
After tenderizing it’s time for cooking the meat. Let the pan become hot by keeping it on a medium flame for some time, add any favorable greasing like oil, butter, etc. After that, it’s time to put the meat in it, while putting the meat it should make a sizzling sound. If it doesn’t then take it out. The sound of the pan indicates that the pan is heated perfectly or else the meat will not be good and it will stick to the pan. Once you make sure of that, let the meat stay and be a little darker. After one side is done it’s time to flip it and let the other side cook. After that, the meat should be checked if the meat is soft and textured yet if it’s already. Then your meat is ready.
Roasting
Roasting is done in an oven. The meat is put inside an oven to cook it properly from all sides. In this process, meat is not covered and no water is added to it.
Grilling
It might be the easiest and earliest method to cook meat. Meat is traditionally grilled over an open fire, a rack, artificial grids, meat grillers, etc. Meat grills and barbeques are extensively used by people as a favorite thing used in camping trips as well as backyard parties.
Broiling
Broiling is the process of cooking meat directly from a flame, there are specialized electric units also which can be used to do so. Broiling is different from roasting and baking as in this process the meat is turned manually for every side to be cooked.
Pan broiling
In this meat cooking process, the meat is cooked in an uncovered pan over direct heat.
Stir-frying
It is similar to pan-frying but the meat is stirred in regular intervals over high heat. Generally, small pieces of meat are cooked by this process.
2. Moist heat cooking methods
Braising
In this process, meat is cooked inside a container. The container is filled with water and heated, the stream is allowed to remain inside and cook the meat perfectly. This is a very popular process used in many households to get that greasy juice of the meat.
From all these methods it is important to find the best way that suits you to cook your meat. All these processes might be a little hectic but cooking meat can be fun when done perfectly so that you can enjoy your delicious meat.
