What part of the pork carcass is better for barbecue. How to choose quality pork. Professional advice

All people who eat meat appreciate pork for its excellent taste and nutritional properties. But such outstanding characteristics are inherent only quality product, which is difficult to evaluate immediately. With a high price of meat, the ability to choose good piece useful to every person. To do this, you need to know where to choose, and what to look for.

The quality of pork is directly dependent on the following characteristics:

• The age of the animal;
• his health;
• Features of the diet and nutrition;
• Correct slaughter;
• Technological cutting of carcasses.

The fresh product is called “steam room” and has the highest nutritional value. But it is used after more than three hours after cutting, during which time the carcass has time to cool. In this form, the meat should be sold within a day. If the product is cooled to t° not higher than +4°C, the implementation can be carried out within two days. For long-term storage, carcasses are frozen to -20-40°C.

You can choose pork in a supermarket or in the market. But you can't do that on the streets. The best choice for this there will be a store in which quality is necessarily controlled meat products. Organoleptically, they are evaluated by color and cut surface, then by smell. When choosing, the buyer has the right to ask a piece to cut, check the color and determine the smell.

Before buying loose meat, the seller is asked about freshness, you can also ask for the appropriate document for it. If a refusal is received for any reason, then most likely the product is expired. When choosing, you need to keep in mind that for each carcass, depending on the location, the meat is divided into varieties. The lumbar and scapular parts are referred to the higher, and the cervical is considered a lower grade.

Visually, pork should not be too dark or unnaturally light.. The first option indicates that the animal was not young, and its meat will be tasteless and tough. The second option is about the use of hormonal drugs in feeding, which are often abused by unscrupulous livestock breeders. Eating it will negatively affect health.

In a young pig, the meat is moderately light with a pale pink tint, and the fat is soft and white. Well, if it is possible to evaluate the skin, its color is also white without the presence of various spots that may be evidence of illness. A yellow tint indicates a stale product or an elderly pig. Also, a healthy pig has white hard bones, but young individuals have a reddish tint on them.

Pork is also tested for elasticity.. Under normal condition, they have elastic and dense properties. Finger pressure will not leave a dent, this place should immediately return to its original position. Quality meat has almost no smell and film, but the presence of small veins that look like marble is a good sign.

Loose texture and bright color are a sure sign of pork that has been grown with the use of hormonal growth stimulants. You can verify this using small test for naturalness. little piece it is set on fire over the fire, and if no foreign odors are heard, everything is normal, but if an extraneous chemical shade is felt, it is not worth buying.

Unscrupulous sellers use several tricks to hide the smell stale meat . One of them is the processing of products with a solution of potassium permanganate. But this is easily determined by the color of the fat, which in its natural form does not have red tints. The use of vinegar for such purposes is determined by the smell. Attempts to increase the weight of products with the help of water injections can be seen in the characteristic swelling and excess moisture.

When buying a frozen product, you need to make sure that there is no fact of secondary freezing.. Re-freezing is typical pink crystals, which are especially visible in the section. Long term storage causes darkening of carcasses and characteristic spots along the edges. Each such procedure takes away from the meat marketable condition and nutritional value.

The choice of pork is a responsible process, since not only the taste and quality of the prepared dishes, but also health depends on it. Having learned the simple rules of this process, you can easily distinguish poor quality product. In this case, you should not be shy to conduct a dialogue with the seller. If he trades in normal goods, he will always go to a meeting, since he has nothing to hide.

Video on how to choose the right pork meat

Suddenly made me think about pork in general. IN Lately it has become fashionable to defiantly refuse the consumption of pork - they say, boring, mundane and, in addition, not very useful. Let us leave these statements to the conscience of those who utter them: pork is still one of the most popular types meat due to low price, ease of preparation and high palatability. Yes, the taste of this meat may seem rustic to some - but this, as they say, means only one thing: “You just don’t know how to cook them.” Look here:

• Pork secretos with artichokes and tapioca in red wine
• Salted pork neck with dried berries and wild mushrooms
• Pork with quince
• Baked brisket with apple and shrimp sauce

All this is not just a set of words, but real names existing dishes that the world's best chefs don't hesitate to serve in their Michelin-starred restaurants. Are you so confident that you understand the issue better than they do? Well, let's leave them alone, and we ourselves will go and choose a great piece of pork to cook something delicious out of it. So let's go.

I want to note that this article does not replace the classic ones, but complements them. We will talk about how to choose not just high-quality, but the most delicious pork.

Meat

Pork should be pink, without iridescent overflows, the surface should be dry, and there should be no smell. The darker the color of the meat, the older the age of the animal (although not necessarily - this is highly dependent on nutrition). If you buy pork in a package - it should not contain liquid, the same is true for pork lying on the counter: there should not be a puddle under it. All this common truths and you, of course, know them, but looking only at the meat, you are unlikely to be able to choose the most best piece. Much more leads will give us fat.

Fat

Fat is an integral part of pork, in no case should you be afraid of it. Feel free to choose pork by the amount of fat: the more fat is deposited under the skin of the animal, the happier and more full life it lived. However, fat should not replace meat if there is a lot of it and little meat - something is wrong here.

The second rule is that it is very desirable that this same fat be distributed over the meat most evenly. The term "marbling", which is usually used to describe the best beef, is also relevant here. It is clear that in different parts body fat is deposited in different ways, but ideally the best cuts should look something like this:

In this case, during the cooking process, the fat will melt and the meat will remain juicy and tender. If there is not enough fat, there is a high risk of overdrying the meat, there will be little joy from such a dinner.

Skin and bones

Some cuts (such as the neck or tenderloin) are only sold raw, while others (ham, brisket, etc.) may or may not have skin and bones. Your choice, of course, depends on the price and the dish you are going to cook, but other things being equal, I choose those pieces where the skin and / or bones have not been cut off.

What are good pieces with skin? It helps to keep the meat juicy, and if cooked properly, it will become a great crunchy addition to the main dish. If you are going to bake a porchetta or pork roll, it is worth cutting the skin on the brisket: this will render excess fat, and then it will be easier to cut. If your knife is too hard to make such cuts, take a clerical knife with a retractable blade, push it literally a centimeter, and you will be fine.

Pieces with bones have one indisputable advantage. When baking or frying, the bone plays the role of a heat sink: such pieces take longer to cook (and the closer to the bone, the more time the meat takes to fry), but leaving the finished piece to lie down so that the juices are distributed inside, you will find that the meat is more juicy, than usual.

Cuts

tenderloin

The tenderloin is the leanest cut, so just follow the quality criteria above. Bake the tenderloin in the oven, grill or cut into thick medallions and fry on both sides. Don't try to cook it before " clear juice”, it is better to let it lie down after roasting so that it cooks due to residual heat: this way the meat will turn out more juicy.

Brisket

When buying a brisket, you can deviate from the rules that you just read and choose one where there will be less fat: in this case, there will still be enough of it, and the meat will turn out to be tastier. If you are going to bake the brisket "as is", buy with bones, if you roll into a roll - without stones, but still on the skin.

Ribs

Try to buy ribs from a young pig that have left enough meat. Here is my favorite recipe: .

Cutlet on the bone

Choose delicious cutlet on the bone - a non-trivial task. First, make sure the cut is straight. Secondly, there should be not a little fat on the edge, but a little more. Thirdly, the ideal thickness is 2 cm, if the cutlets are thinner, they are unlikely to turn out juicy. Fourth - my main secret - look not so much at the central, round part of the cutlet, but at the A-shaped part at the very end of the bone (look at the photo for clarity - this part is on the top right): the more pronounced the marbling in this part , the more juicy the whole cutlet will turn out.

Ham

I don't often see skinned hams as they weigh quite a bit and are unlikely to be sold quickly. However, for baking, it is best to take just such a piece, or at least a cut on the bone: it will turn out juicier.

knuckle

Everything is simple here: choose a meatier shank, with an even distribution of fat and smooth skin.

Marbling, marbling and again marbling - these are the three criteria that should be followed when choosing pork neck, it doesn’t matter if you bake it whole, fry it or cook a barbecue. At the same time, remember that marbling and fat content often do not match - choose a piece where there will not be an excessive amount of fat.

At the very beginning, I did not refute the thesis that pork is not healthy. I'll do it now. As I already wrote in proper nutrition pork fat resembles olive oil in composition. By the way, the super-healthy Mediterranean diet does not shun pork at all - not only in Spain and Italy, but also in Portugal and France Ham- this is a recognized delicacy, and in Italy they also make lard, which is not much different from ours. So eat pork for health, and with pleasure!

Pork is a very popular meat among us, and this is not surprising. This is a primordially Russian product, it is universal, everyone loves it, it is easy to cook. We even make kebabs from pork.

Now there is a lot of domestic pork good quality. Work in this direction has been carried out for a long time, there were problems when choosing the right breeds, determining what kind of pork we need - less or more fat, with an emphasis on lard. And although there is a lot of imported pork on the market, I think that ours is still better.

Beware, bastard

Choosing pork, in principle, is easy, the main danger: from unscrupulous manufacturers-sellers, you can accidentally buy boar meat, uncastrated wild boar. It stinks when cooked. In the meantime, raw, it is exactly the same as regular pork. You won't understand until you start frying. Therefore, experienced buyers, especially it was common back in Soviet times, went to the market with a knitting needle. They heated it with a lighter and pierced the meat - so it was possible to determine whether it was a boar or not.

No marinades and other tricks can beat off the smell of a boar. It is especially disappointing if you take a large batch, and 1 kg of a boar comes across in it - everything is spoiled. But this is more of a restaurant story.

You need to be especially careful when buying a shank, there is the greatest chance of running into a boar.

Be sure to sniff

If there pronounced odor pigs - it’s better not to take meat, you won’t get rid of this smell when cooking, if it smells of mustiness and rot - you can get poisoned with such meat. The meat should smell neutral, nothing unpleasant or repulsive should be. Piglet generally smells like milk.

It's all about softness

When pork is selected and cooked, everyone tries to buy soft meat. But here you need to think carefully. If the pork is soft, it means that it is very fatty. If there is little fat, then the meat will be harder and denser.

Manufacturers are moving towards this pursuit of softness. For example, they marinate meat: starch, salt, water - and the meat does not change the taste, but changes the structure. And when frying from such meat, it is no longer a chop, but something strange, such as ham. You won't get any crust.

For frying or soup

The softest and fattest part - neck, they take it for a barbecue.

The spatula is also suitable for barbecue or baking.

Carbonate you need to fry, but not with thick chops, but with small medallions.

tenderloin- specific meat, not everyone likes it, it is too dense. But it is also used only for frying.

Loin on the bone, chops are made from it. In fact, this is the same carbonate, but with uncut bone.

The back part is suitable for baking, stewing.

The dangers of pink

If you choose a ham or a ham and see the pink and beautiful pork on the cut, you should know that the meat was chemically processed here. There is, for example, potassium salt. You can marinate meat in it for two hours, and then boil or bake, in which case the meat will be pink. potassium salt in large quantities harmful. And here everything depends on the honesty of the manufacturer, if he took not too good meat, then he will marinate it in huge number salt, to give at least some kind of presentation. The baked ham should be gray. It doesn't look too pretty, but the taste is natural.

Yes, the taste of pork, and meat in general, has changed since Soviet Union. In the USSR, we did not have many breeds of animals, there was only one breed, which was grown for lard and for meat. They did not use much medicine, medicines, did not use compound feed. In each house there was a tank where cleaning and waste were to be drained. This is what they fed the pigs.

Now it is unprofitable even for farmers to feed animals with waste, cook something for them, boil the same potatoes. It's easier to buy feed. What should he do? Growing wheat for chickens? Then the eggs will be prohibitively expensive. And the farmer buys the same compound feed as in the factories. Of course, the meat has a different taste.

Another thing is the breed. Now they breed new meat breeds, they have less fat, completely different meat, other fibers.

Shop or Farmer

Big stores work with big manufacturers, where everything is impersonal. But a large complex also does not give a stable quality of meat.

And even large producers buy imported pork. It says on it that it is domestic, but in fact it is Hungarian. Huge holdings have the task of feeding everyone, there should be no holes in the supply, so it turns out that way.

But even turning to a small manufacturer does not guarantee you 100% quality. Because every manufacturer is different. I think you need to find yours. Search for the pork that you like and buy in one place.

It's all about central Russia. Beyond the Urals there are more small-town shops. There everything is smaller, homely, solid. Shops usually work with one manufacturer. So pork beyond the Urals and pork in the European part of Russia are completely different.

Pork is one of those types of meat from which you can cook huge variety culinary masterpieces. However, no matter how skilled the cook is, if the meat is chosen incorrectly, best result may not be expected. For pilaf, choose the lumbar part and brisket, these parts are also good when roasted in pieces. The shoulder blade can be considered a universal part of the carcass. They take it for borscht, and for cutlets, and for barbecue. Shank, head and shank - great option if you need to cook delicious aspic. We advise you to read the article and some tips for cooking meat in the article (pork, poultry, beef, lamb).

Having decided on the purpose of one or another part of the carcass, you can proceed to the choice quality meat, by following the link, having read the criteria to which you should pay attention. Let's start with the fact that pork comes in two varieties. The first refers to the meat itself High Quality. It is taken in the thoracic and scapular, lumbar and hip parts of the carcass. The second grade of meat includes the neck, shank and forearm. In each of the listed parts of pork, the amount useful substances and body fat varies.

When choosing meat in the market and in the store, pay attention to its density and elasticity. When pressed, fresh meat springs, and the hole in the place where the pressure took place is quickly leveled. Good pork won't publish bad smell and there will be no films on it. Small veins resembling marble are good, you can take them. The meat of a young pig will be lighter, an old pig will be darker.

Fat can tell about the freshness of meat. Its layer in a piece of pork should be white color, not cream, and even more so, not gray. Unscrupulous sellers can use potassium permanganate to give meat fresh look. The smell will be interrupted, but the color of the fat will change. Also yellow fat layer may indicate that the pig was old. High-quality meat will be dry, beautiful and without an unpleasant smell. Also, some comrades pump special solutions into the meat. It can be determined by structure. Put pressure on the meat. The structure of the fibers should be dense, without signs of wateriness and flabbiness. Be careful when choosing meat not in the markets. Try to avoid such places. Buy meat at sites verified and certified by government agencies.