“Beef is the soul of cooking.” – Marie-Antoine Carême
With the variety of beef available these days, it’s a fantastic idea to know the different cooking techniques one can use while processing the beef. Below I have mentioned eight different methods for cooking beef.
Essential Cooking Hacks for Beef
TIP #1 Always buy brightly colored beef
A quality beef should always be dark red. It may be older if it is darker red to brown and may not taste as good and juicy as it ought to be.
Also, make sure the beef is relatively firm. You can also try to buy a properly-aged beef; it will be more beneficial to you because the aged beef will be more tender and juicy. Typically, most grocery shops or poultry do not keep the aged beef.
TIP #2 Understand the cuts
The juiciness and tenderness of the beef will be reflected and affected by the cuts on the beef. So it becomes very crucial for you to understand the cuts better.
The tougher meat will always consist of more muscles. Similarly, the more the beef is fat, and the more it will be juicier. Some of the tender cuts on the beef include tenderloin steak, top blade steak, rib steak, rib roast, top loin sirloin.
However, it should always be remembered that the beef will be more flavourful if it has a bone-in.
If you need to grind the beef, consider choosing the sirloin cuts. Ground beef made from sirloin cuts suits best for hamburger patty, considering you’ve got a proper meat grinder.
TIP #3 Match beef quality to its purpose
If you are supposed to cook the beef without any heavy sauces and choose the best possible quality of meat available, even it is a bit expensive. And if you are preparing your beef for proper meals and stews, you can go for the ones with inexpensive cuts.
TIP #4 Grading of Beef
Prime, choice, and quality are the three grades of beef. The quantity of fat embedded in beef, which keeps it moist, determines the grade, known as marbling. The beef, which will be the most tender and juicy, will be marbled throughout and not just on the sides or edges; hence marbling becomes integral.
When one starts to cook the beef, the fat begins to melt, which adds to its flavor and juiciness. So we can say that marbling plays an integral part in the successful completion of cooking the beef. The prime grade of beef is the most tender, tasty, and most highly marbled beef.
TIP #5 Keep the Beef fresh
The freshness of the beef is crucial. As soon as you bring your beef to your home and not cook it on the same day, remove the beef from the butcher paper and then wrap it from a plastic wrapper. It should then be placed in a zip-lock bag and kept in a refrigerator for the sustained freshness of the meat.
TIP #6 Marination of the Beef
For cooking the beef, wash it vigorously with water, damp cloth, and new paper. Marination of the meat can help in enhanced flavors and juiciness of the beef. But it should be noted that a good quality of beef or an appropriately aged beef won’t be needing additional flavors, even sprinkling of black pepper and salt would be enough and suitable to go!
I add a mixture of olive oil, wine, lemon juice, and fresh herbs, which is excellent if left overnight to help the meat in a growing tender.
TIP #7 Cook evenly
A better way of cooking the tender cuts is to cook it on the internal temperature of 140 degrees Fahrenheit for medium cooking meat and 130 degrees Fahrenheit for rare cooking. One can also use a meat thermometer to get an accurate temperature.
TIP #8 Let it rest
Before cutting your beef after the oven session, let it rest for at least 5 minutes. It helps the juices to settle and gives a nice taste and aroma all around.
Characteristics of good Beef
It’s believed that beef may be considered as a quality beef if it has aspects of being tender, juicy and flavourful, color, packaging, and leanness, hygienic, including others.
Beef can also be considered as quality Beef if it is safe and wholesome for consumers. A consumer may get satisfied with the beef for its eating and preparation characteristics; only then will it get the ultimate label of being Quality Beef.
A program called “Beef Quality Assurance” was initiated to pay special attention to guarantee the real and perceived safety of beef.
To ensure that the beef is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled, internationally, the particular Government of a country puts strict guidelines for the harvested and manufactured beef products.
One must remember some of these basic cooking tricks of beef before actually preparing it. Happy Cooking!!!
This content is brought to you by the FingerLakes1.com Team. Support our mission by visiting www.patreon.com/fl1 or learn how you send us your local content here.