How to make beef tender. The main components of marinades

14.03.2018

To cook deliciously chicken or pork, and even more so a piece of beef or lamb, the meat must be kept in the marinade. What is the best way to marinate meat for baking in the oven? We have collected for you the most popular recipes for the preparation of such compounds.

In the list of the best marinades, mustard sauces for marinating meat for baking, which are prepared in the company with soy sauce, are in the lead. They give the meat a sharpness, appetizing aroma and enhance its taste characteristics. Even not too young meat, if you keep it in such a composition before starting cooking, it will turn out juicy and tender. Here is one of the options for its preparation (based on a kilogram of meat).

Ingredients:

• grain (or regular) mustard - 100 ml;
• soy sauce - 100 ml;
• olive oil - 100 ml;
• ground pepper - 1 tsp. spoon;
• salt - a teaspoon;
• garlic - 3 cloves;
• seasonings - 1/2 tsp. spoons.

Cooking:

On a note! Be aware that soy sauce tastes salty, so don't overdo it!

For any meat - marinade based on mayonnaise

There are different recipes for marinating meat for baking in the oven, but mayonnaise-based sauce gives the most delicious crust. Preparing this composition is very simple. Try to make it in such a combination.

Ingredients:

• mayonnaise (ideally homemade) - 80-100 ml;
• curry - half a teaspoon;
• salt - 0.5 tsp. spoons;
• dried paprika, oregano (oregano);
• garlic - 1/2 tsp. tablespoons dried or 2-3 chopped fresh cloves;
• chili - a quarter of a teaspoon;
• apple cider vinegar - 2 tsp. spoons.

Advice! To prepare the marinade, always take enameled dishes.

Cooking:

Sauce for spicy taste and caramel crust

For quick marinating meat for baking in the oven in a piece, it is better to use the original composition, including soy sauce, oil and honey. This trio is suitable for almost any meat and guarantees the formation of a delicious crispy crust.

Ingredients:

• olive oil (or other vegetable oil) - 50 ml;
• onion turnip - 1 head;
• liquid honey - 50 ml;
• black pepper - 0.5 tsp. spoons;
• soy sauce - 100 ml;
• bay leaf;
• powdered garlic - 1 teaspoon spoon.

Cooking:

The cheapest and easiest marinade

Although this marinade will require a minimum of inexpensive ingredients, it will make the meat unusually flavorful. It can be used if meat is to be marinated for baking in foil. This marinade is more suitable for pork.

Ingredients:

• vegetable oil - 30 ml;
• onion - 0.5 kg;
• a mixture of red and black pepper - 0.5 tsp. spoons;
• hops-suneli - 1 tsp. spoon;
• salt;
• several bay leaves.

Cooking:

1. Peel the onion from the husk. Grind in a meat grinder to form onion puree, as well as juice.
2. Put it in an enamel pan.
3. Add all spices and pepper.
4. Salt.
5. Mix all the sauce ingredients with a spoon.
6. Put the meat in it and keep it all night.

Advice! To speed up marinating, pierce the meat in different places with a fork.

Gourmet's Choice: Basil Marinated Meat

Connoisseurs say that this fragrant herb best emphasizes the natural taste of meat and adds new flavor notes to it. Be sure to try marinating meat for roasting in the oven with basil!

Ingredients:

• a bunch of basil;
• onion head - 1 piece;
• several sprigs of parsley;
• garlic - 1 medium sized clove;
• granulated sugar - 0.5 tsp. spoons;
• vegetable oil - 3 table. spoons;
• salt - 1 tsp. spoon;
• pepper.

Cooking:

1. Pour basil, parsley, peeled onion, garlic into the blender bowl. Grind.
2. Add salt, oil, sugar, pepper to this mixture. Whisk well again.
3. Marinate the meat, wrap with cling film. Place on the shelf of the refrigerator for several hours.

Make it juicy, emphasize the taste - lemon-cognac marinade

Many people add alcohol to the marinade, as it is believed that the driest meat soaked in "degrees" will become softer and more juicy. This composition is best used for hard meat - lamb, beef.

Ingredients:

• cognac - 50 ml;
• mustard - 30 g;
• ground ginger root - 10 g;
• garlic - 3 cloves;
• spices;
• lemon juice (or lemon essence) - 10 ml.

Cooking:

Most often, in response to complaints about tough meat, you hear: "". Of course, you can't argue with Captain Obvious...

But what to do, and not always what you dreamed about? Or, even worse, a piece of the same beef looks great. Then we apply a few tricks that will help overcome the stiffness and make our dish juicy, soft and expressive.

There are only two ways to soften meat before cooking: coating and marinating. I'm not talking about beating a piece of meat with a hammer - it's not sports.

1. Fruit marinade - with kiwi, papaya

From my own experience I can tell you how to marinate young beef steaks. I bought a decent piece of tenderloin and decided. But vague doubts sharpened me: what if the beef turns out to be tough? And then, on the advice of our author and friend Sergei Milyanchikov, I marinated them for half an hour in a fruit marinade.

You will need: 2 kiwis, 0.5 tsp salt, freshly ground white pepper, a little dry rosemary, 6 beef steaks.

Cooking: Peel kiwi from the skin, grate on a coarse grater. Add salt and spices. Soak the steaks in the resulting marinade. Leave for half an hour. Then pull out, dry with a napkin and fry in a hot dry frying pan. The steaks are super soft! Do the same with green papaya.

2. Marinade with dairy products

In my family, as elsewhere in the south, there is. The result has always been a juicy and soft piece of meat. Now I apply kebab marinade to all meats that should be tender: beef, chicken or turkey breast, pork tenderloin, or lamb steaks.

You will need: 500 ml of kefir, 500 ml of mineral water with gas, a little salt, freshly ground black pepper, dry herbs to taste, 1 kg of any meat for frying.

Cooking: Mix kefir, water and spices. Place the meat in the marinade for 2-4 hours. Then pull out, dry with a napkin and fry. It can be grilled, it can be in a pan, it can be on skewers.

3. Marinade with wine and mineral water

Also tried and tested by generations of my family and friends and pals, this is a very simple marinade that keeps meat tender. . If you are marinating kebabs, add onions. If it’s just meat for frying in the form of steaks, cutlets and chops, you can do without it.

You will need: 500 ml of dry white wine of the Rkatseteli type, 500 ml. mineral water with gas, a little salt, freshly ground black pepper, dry herbs to taste, 3-4 onions, 1 kg of any meat.

Cooking: Mix wine, water and spices. Place the meat in the marinade for 3-5 hours.

4. Mustard and beer marinade

This way to make meat soft was suggested to me by the President of the public organization "Shashlik League", Valery Maltsev .. Meat turns out to be not only that. There is only one minus - it's a pity for Krusovice ...

Required: ordinary mustard, 250 gr., dark beer 250 ml, freshly ground black pepper, meat - 1.5 kg.

Cooking: Meat cut into portions. Spread generously with mustard. Sprinkle with pepper. Leave for 1 hour. Pour the meat with beer and leave for 2-3 hours. Fry, rolling in flour and sprinkling with salt water.

5. Soak in vodka and soy sauce

Also a recipe I personally tested. When I noticed that Chinese chefs often prepare meat for instant frying in this way. And the meat always turns out deliciously soft. Especially such a marinade is suitable for chicken, duck and turkey breast.

You will need: soy sauce 7 sl., vodka 70 g, meat 1 kg

Cooking: cut the breast into long strips. Mix vodka with sauce and pour over meat. Cover the mixture and leave for 1-1.5 hours. Then pull out, dry with a napkin and fry or stew.

P.S. By the way, if you are stewing meat, then add some alcohol to it - wine, vodka, beer. Pick to taste - it always makes the meat softer, and the alcohol degrees evaporate without harm to the body.

The article presents practical solutions for how to make beef meat softer and juicier when cooked.

Any piece can be cooked in a roast and make fried meat or ready-made roast or fillet, steak, entrecote, meatballs and meatballs more enjoyable for the child. Useful tips from this article will help you with this.

How to make beef soft and juicy

You can make beef soft and juicy by marinating it like you would cook a barbecue from it. A faster way is to rub a whole piece of meat with mustard an hour before cooking.

How to make very soft juicy beef when roasting

Soft and juicy beef will be if:

1. Sprinkle its pieces with spices and salt a few hours before frying;
2. Beat the meat before frying;
3. Spread the pieces on a well-heated pan with oil;
4. At the end of cooking, pour a little water into the pan and simmer the meat under the lid until the water has evaporated.

How to make beef soft when stewing and baking

Braised beef will be soft if:

1. cut the meat into pieces across the fibers;
2. first heat the oil well in a frying pan, and then put the pieces of meat in it;
3. fry the meat for the first 5-7 minutes, stirring and not covering with a lid;
4. simmer for the next 30-40 minutes over medium heat, covered with a lid.

Oven-baked meat will be soft and juicy when placed in a roasting sleeve that will not allow moisture to evaporate, and the meat will cook in its own juices. In order to form a golden crust, the meat should be kept in the oven for some more time, but already removed from the sleeve.

How to tenderize beef and steak

The following recommendations will help to soften beef meat and steak:

1. Frozen meat must be thawed before cooking. It is desirable that defrosting occurs naturally, and not in a microwave or in water.
2. Pepper and salt the meat before putting it in the pan.
3. Steak meat is not beaten.
4. For even frying, also brush the steak pieces with vegetable oil before cooking.
5. Before laying the meat, the pan is thoroughly heated and the heat is not reduced in the future.
6. When frying a steak, do not put oil in the pan, just constantly turn the meat from one side to the other until it is completely cooked.

How to tenderize beef chops

A few secrets of soft beef chops:

1. Buy unfrozen, “fresh” light red meat for chops.
2. Cut the meat into portions across the grain. The thickness of the chop is usually about 1 cm.
3. You need to put not wet, but towel-dried meat in the pan, then less juice will flow out of it.
4. If the meat has not been breaded, then it is better to salt the chop during the frying process, after a crust forms on the meat.
5. You can bring the fried chop to readiness, if it remains damp inside and at the same time keep its juiciness in the microwave or oven.

How to make beef skewers tender

The marinade helps to soften the beef skewers. The classic marinade is vinegar, spices and onions. More refined - red wine, a mixture of black and red peppers, as well as onions and garlic. The meat is marinated for 6-18 hours in glass or earthenware. When frying kebabs, since beef is rather lean meat, it should be sprinkled with mineral water. Well-marinated meat is ready after 20 minutes of frying on a skewer.

How to soften beef goulash

Meat for goulash should not have veins and chaff, only then the goulash will turn out soft and tender. For cooking goulash, it is better to use a cast-iron skillet or a skillet with a non-stick coating. The first minutes, until the pieces of meat turn white, the goulash is fried over high heat, the next hour and a half - the fire should be reduced to a minimum, and the pan covered with a lid. So the beef is well simmered and will be quite soft.

How to Soften Cooked Beef in the Oven

The beef cooked in the oven is soft, if it is pre-marinated and for 1.5-2 hours (depending on the size of the piece of meat) and fried, wrapped in foil. To form a golden crust, at the end of frying, the foil can be opened or removed altogether.

How to make beef cutlets tender

How to make tough and old beef soft when boiled

Even old beef will become soft and tender in taste if it is held for several hours in a solution of 100 g before cooking. vodka and 10 tablespoons of soy sauce.

How to quickly soften minced beef

Tough ground beef can be softened by placing ground beef in a plastic bag and beating it for at least 5 minutes. You can soften the minced meat by adding cold beef broth or egg white to it.

How to make beef soft and tender in a pan

If the beef is marinated before cooking with the addition of alcohol (beer, wine or vodka), then the cooked meat will be much more tender and softer. The alcohol will evaporate during cooking and will not harm your health.

Beef undoubtedly has excellent palatability, but it is a rather tough and capricious meat. Therefore, it is better to marinate the beef before cooking, then the meat will become soft, juicy and acquire a delicate aroma. Depending on the firmness of the meat and how it is cooked, you can use

Easy ways to marinate beef

Fresh beef can be soaked for a couple of hours in mineral water.

Any, even old beef, can be smeared with mustard and put in the refrigerator for two hours. Then wash the meat with water, cut into portions and you can start frying or baking.

You can make tough beef soft with kiwi. To do this, the meat must be cut into small pieces, and the peeled kiwi - into thin slices, mix and leave for 1 hour.

Meat of medium hardness can be softened in kefir by keeping it overnight in the refrigerator.

marinade recipes

Designed for 1 kg of beef

Beef skewers - marinade

• Wine vinegar - 3 tbsp. spoons
• Onion - 2 pcs
• Coriander (seeds) - 1 teaspoon
• Salt - 2 teaspoons
• Black ground pepper - 1 teaspoon

Finely chop the onion, add salt, pepper, coriander, vinegar. Mix the chopped beef with the marinade with your hands and lightly compact. Close the bowl with meat and leave in a cool place for a day.

Marinade for beef in the oven

• Lemon - 1 pc.
• Onion - 2 pcs
• Garlic - 4 cloves
• Water - 1/2 cup
• Salt, black ground pepper - 1 teaspoon each

Mix lemon juice with cold water, add finely chopped onion, garlic and pepper mashed with salt. Cut the beef into portions, beat off, pour cold marinade over and leave for 3 hours.

Marinade for beef steak

• Garlic - 6 cloves
• Onion - 1 pc.
• Vinegar 9% - 3 tbsp. spoons
• Olive oil - 1/2 cup
• Soy sauce - 1/2 cup
• Mustard - 2 tbsp. spoons
• Rosemary - to taste

Blend all marinade ingredients in a blender until smooth. Pour the marinade over the beef cut into steaks and leave in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.

Marinade for roast beef

• Water - 1 glass
• Onion - 2 pcs.
• Lemon - 1 pc.
• Sugar - 2 tbsp. spoons
• Salt - 2 tbsp. spoons
• Curry - 1/2 teaspoon
• Seasoning for meat - 1 teaspoon

Finely chop the onion, knead with your hands and mix with chopped beef. Sleep with spice. Mix water with lemon juice, salt and sugar (until they dissolve) and pour into a container with meat. Mix everything well and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

Soy marinade for beef

• Soy sauce - 100 ml
• Garlic - 4 cloves
• Onion - 2 pcs
• Juice of 1 lemon

Cut the beef into portions and beat them lightly. Mix lemon juice with soy sauce, crushed garlic, finely chopped onion and oil. Add meat to the marinade, mix everything thoroughly with your hands, put in a cold place for 3 hours, and best of all - at night.

Marinade for tough beef with vinegar

• Water - 1/2 l
• Vinegar 3% - 1/2 l
• Salt, sugar - 1 teaspoon each
• Bay leaf, black allspice, ground black pepper, cloves - to taste

Boil spices in water for 10 minutes, add vinegar, salt and sugar, bring to a boil, remove from heat, strain and cool. Pour beef with marinade and leave in the refrigerator for 2 days.

Marinade for stewing beef with vinegar and soy sauce

• Soy sauce - 2 tbsp. spoons
• Table vinegar - 1 tbsp. spoon
• Water - 1/2 cup
• Onion - 1 pc.
• Garlic - 4 cloves
• Olive oil - 1 tbsp. spoon
• Salt, black pepper - 1 teaspoon each
• Bay leaf - 2 pcs.
• Carnation - 3 stars
• Basil, rosemary, nutmeg, ginger, coriander or other spices - to taste

Put the chopped meat into a marinating bowl. Finely chop the onion and garlic, crush with salt with your hands, add the rest of the ingredients and mix with the beef, kneading the meat well. Cover the dish with marinade with a lid or film and refrigerate overnight.

Marinade for beef in a pan with beer and mustard

• Dark beer - 250 ml
• Mustard - 250 gr

Cut the beef into portions and generously coat with mustard. Sprinkle with black pepper. Leave to marinate for 1 hour. Then pour everything with beer and leave for 3 hours. Fry in a pan, previously rolled in flour and sprinkling the meat with salt water.

Beef in mustard marinade

• Mustard - 3 tbsp. spoons
• Vegetable oil - 2 tbsp. spoons
• Mayonnaise - 1 tbsp. spoon
• Suneli hops - 1 teaspoon
• Salt - 1/2 teaspoon

Mix all ingredients. Cut the beef into portions and knead with your hands with the marinade. Leave to marinate for 3 hours in the refrigerator.

Marinade with kiwi for beef

• Kiwi - 2 pcs
• Onion - 2 pcs
• Lemon - 1 pc (or 1 tbsp mineral water)
• Salt, pepper, other spices - to taste

Cut the meat into pieces, mix with salt and spices, let stand for about 15 minutes. Pass the onion through a meat grinder or chop with a blender into a pulp. Do the same with peeled lemon and kiwi (put it in the refrigerator for now). Add onion-lemon gruel to beef, mix and leave to marinate for at least 3 hours. One hour before cooking * add chopped kiwi to the pickled meat and knead everything thoroughly with your hands.

* You can add kiwi to meat both 20 minutes and 1.5 hours before the start of cooking. It all depends on the size of the pieces and the degree of stiffness of the beef.

Kefir marinade for beef

• Kefir - 1 liter
• Onion - 3 pieces
• Vegetable oil - 3 tablespoons
• Salt, ground black pepper - to taste

Onion cut into rings, meat - in portions. Put the beef, onion, salt and pepper in a marinating container. Pour in oil and kefir. Mix everything, press down with oppression and leave overnight.

Marinade for roast beef

• Mustard - 3 tbsp. spoons
• Vegetable oil - 1 tbsp. spoons
• Mayonnaise - 1 tbsp. spoon
• Garlic - 4 cloves
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Salt, spices (white, black pepper, coriander, rosemary, basil, paprika, etc.) - to taste

In a marinating bowl, mix mayonnaise, lemon juice, mustard, salt, spices and oil. Stuff the beef with garlic cloves, making cuts in the meat. Thoroughly rub the marinade into the meat. Close the container with the pickled beef with a lid or film and leave in the refrigerator for 12 hours.

Wine marinade for beef

• Wine vinegar - 1 tbsp. spoons
• Red wine - 400 gr
• Onion - 2 pcs.,
• Sugar - 2 tbsp. spoons
• Bay leaf - 3 pcs
• Clove and rosemary - to taste
• Mustard powder - 1/2 teaspoon.

Mix wine, vinegar, sugar, mustard, spices and grated onion. Bring the marinade to a boil in an enamel bowl, remove from heat and cool. Pour the meat pre-cut into portions with the marinade. Marinating time depends on the stiffness and size of the pieces of beef and ranges from 2 to 8 hours.

Marinade for grilled beef

• Juice of one lemon
• Any vegetable oil - 1/2 cup
• Soy sauce - 4 tbsp. spoons
• Garlic - 4 cloves
• Sugar (preferably brown) - 1 tbsp. spoon
• Ground black pepper - 1 teaspoon

Rub beef with pepper. In a bowl, mix butter, soy sauce, lemon juice, sugar and minced garlic. Mix meat with marinade. Put in the refrigerator for 3 hours. Stir marinated meat from time to time.

Marinate beef only in plastic or enameled dishes, avoiding contact of meat with open metal, otherwise you can spoil the taste of the dish. Marinade can be poured over beef during cooking, or you can make a sauce out of it, add a little starch or sautéed flour and boil over low heat.

Marinating is a tricky thing that allows the meat to get better while in the aromatic liquid. Marinade adds flavor, juiciness, and tenderness to beef (acid in marinades weakens muscle tissue and increases its ability to retain moisture.) When marinating for a long time, brines penetrate the tissue slowly, which can give the meat an excessively sour or salty taste. For this reason, opinions differ, and some argue that you need to marinate the meat overnight for maximum effect, while others that long marinating will not do any good.

There is also a third special opinion that to achieve the greatest taste effect, you should marinate the steak already cooked. So what's the best method?

Marbled beef steak. Marinating recipes. Ways and time.

I decided to test all the ways. I chose a relatively inexpensive and tender alternative Flank steak for testing. For the marinade, I used everything that was at home:

1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
3 tablespoons minced white onion
2 tablespoons of sugar
4 cloves minced garlic
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

I marinated each steak differently.

Steak #1: marinade 12 hours

Steak #2: marinade 3 hours

Steak #3: marinade 45 minutes

Steak #4:

Salt, pepper and sugar before cooking; immediately after frying, I made small holes in the steak and poured the marinade on top, wrapped it in foil and left it for the meat to absorb the liquid for 5 minutes.

The result surprised me.

The most extreme methods won, while the intermediate results did not impress me.

Steak #1 was with a bright taste of marinade with a hint of soy sauce. All fears about the falling apart and loose texture were not confirmed. The meat turned out to be juicy, soft and quite dense, but a little salty.

Steak №2 absorbed all the best qualities of the marinade, but lost to the first steak in flavor. The meat was tougher.

Steak #3- marinates in just 45 minutes. It boasts an attractive crust, but compared to the first two steaks, the meat was less aromatic and lacked a rich taste.

Steak №4- The fresh aromas of garlic and onion were very noticeable in the taste and texture of the meat. The steak didn't have the deep caramel color and flavor that comes with pre-marinated steak. However, instead, you will find a pleasant sweetness and saltiness, and then a light, fresh aroma of marinade that has opened after frying.

Conclusion

Let's summarize: the 12-hour marinated steak had the richest flavor and aroma, the post-fry marinated steak had the lightest and mildest taste of all. Therefore, if you are going to marinate marbled beef meat before cooking at night, but do not like salt, then try marinating a ready-made steak.

Don't worry about the marinated steak being stewed instead of grilled. Marinated meat has a crust and a beautiful pattern. Don't worry that long marinating will destroy all the connective tissue and the meat will be soft like cotton wool. The steak will only be more tender and juicy. The only thing I would like to warn against is a very strong acid solution of lemon juice, wine or vinegar. In this case, I would recommend marinating for about 3-4 hours.

How to marinate beef. Marinate beef for delicious cooking