How to Tender Pork

Pork is the most versatile meat available, it can not only be combined with many fresh, sour ingredients and rich spices, but can also be used with many dishes. However, unlike chicken or beef, which is naturally tender and retains its tenderness when cooked rare or slightly, pork is slightly chewy and needs to be cooked thoroughly (although this reason has yet to be explained). . ^{[1] XResearch Source} You should learn how to tenderize pork to make it more tender and delicious. Read the article below to know how to tenderize pork before cooking.

Table of Contents

Tender pork before cooking

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Use a hammer to gradually cut the meat. The pork chops will be very tough when the muscle fibers of the meat are long and still intact. To begin tenderizing pork before marinating or cooking, you should break down the muscle fibers with a meat hammer (“meat tenderizer”). Meat tenderizers are usually heavy hammers with a pointed surface for pounding meat or tools with sharp teeth for piercing meat. The purpose of the meat tenderizer is the same, it is to smash or stab the meat so that the muscle fibers are broken.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a dedicated meat tenderizer. You can also use a fork or even bare hands to tenderize the meat. Constantly stab, pound, or squeeze the meat to break up the muscle fibers and make the meat tender.

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Use marinade to tenderize the meat. The marinade not only helps to tenderize but also gives a delicious flavor to the meat. However, not all marinades can tenderize meat. To tenderize meat, you need to use an acidic marinade or tenderizing enzyme. Both chemicals can break down tight proteins in meat at the molecular level. However, using too much will bring undesirable results. Too much acid makes meat tough because it denatures the protein in the meat, and too much enzyme often causes the meat to become mushy. ^{[2] XResearch Source}

Orange (lemon) juice, vinegar, and wine are often used to make pork marinades. For example, people often use red wine in combination with soy sauce and other ingredients (brown sugar) to make pork marinade. ^{[3] XResearch Source} To avoid toughening pork with highly acidic marinades, you should use acidic dairy products instead. Yogurt and buttermilk are slightly acidic, so can help make the pork chops more flavorful and juicy.
Softener enzymes are commonly found in some fruit juices. For example, the enzyme bromelain in pineapple and papain in papaya can both effectively tenderize meat. ^{[4] XResearch Source} However, you should not use too much to avoid softening the meat.

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Salted meat. Just like regular marinating, salting is especially good with lean pork (such as ribs). Salting is soaking meat in salt water to help the meat in the dish become softer and more moist. The brine contains not only salt and water, but also other flavoring ingredients such as apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, rosemary, and thyme. Brine creates a salty taste for meat, so you should avoid adding too much salt when eating or drying it after marinating.

The best saltine recipe is to stir 3/4 cup salt, 3/4 cup sugar and black pepper (for flavor) with 3.8 quarts of water in a large bowl (use hot water to help sugar and salt dissolve quickly). than). Place pork in a bowl, cover and refrigerate until cooked.
The marinating time usually varies, depending on the type of meat you cook. For example, pork ribs need to be marinated for 12 hours to 1 day. You need to marinate for a few days if you want to grill the loin whole. The tenderloin can be cooked after marinating for about 6 hours. ^{[5] XResearch Sources}

Soft meat processing

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Sauté pork before grilling. If you know how, you can apply many methods to make pork tender and sweet when cooking. For example, for thin slices of meat such as ribs or cutlets, you can cook quickly and use high heat to make the meat look crisper and more appealing, then reduce the heat and switch to dry cooking in the final stage. . For example, you can sauté pork in a hot pan or griddle, then place it in the oven (or move it to a cooler part of the grill and close the lid) for the rest of the cooking period..

Indirect heat is an important factor in making meat tender and sweet. The frying method before cooking makes the meat “crunchy” more delicious, and conversely, direct cooking can make the meat tough and overheated. Indirect heat from the oven or grill can gradually help cook the whole piece of meat, resulting in softer and more evenly cooked meat.

Direct heat (cooking on a hot pan) can cook the outside faster than the inside, so you only need to cook each side for 1-2 minutes to completely dry the meat. However, indirect heat (like an oven) will take longer to cook meat – 0.5 kg of meat usually requires about 20 minutes to cook. ^{[7] XResearch Sources}

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Braised pork. Braising is another way to cook meat that is tender and moist. Om is a slow cooking method and uses a lot of water. You can add the meat to a mixture of liquid (sometimes dry) ingredients, then simmer for a few hours. The braise method keeps the meat moist, tender and delicious, so it’s the right method for tough cuts of pork like shoulders and ribs. In addition, braised sauce can be used as a sauce or dipping sauce, so it is very convenient for pork dishes served with rice or the like.

Braising time for different types of pork varies, however, you should braise about 30 minutes for 0.5 kg of meat (tough meat and lots of connective tissue usually take longer to braise). ^{[8] XResearch Sources}
Typically, some braised recipes call for pan-frying or sautéing the meat before braising to give it a crispier look.

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Smoked meat. Smoking is a slow and simmering method of cooking meat, often applied to roasts, and has a distinct “smoky flavor”. There are many different ways to smoke meat, but in general, the smoking process requires burning a special wood (such as Mesquite) in a sealed container to gradually cook the meat through indirect heat. Over time, the wood gradually imparts flavor to the meat, so that the meat not only becomes tender and juicy, but also has a unique flavor not found using other cooking methods.

The roasting method is often expensive and time consuming, so it should only be used with cuts of pork that need to cook for a long time, such as shoulder or brisket, or are suitable for barbecues or outdoors.
Smoking is a delicate culinary art, in which many professionals have to use specialized and quite expensive equipment. However, you can also smoke with a regular grill. You can refer to the article on how to smoke meat.

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Stew the pork or use a slow cooker. You can use a pressure cooker or slow cooker to slowly cook the pork and help it soften when you eat it. Stew is cooking meat over low heat in a mixture of solid and liquid ingredients for a long time. Usually, casseroles are cut so that they can be scooped with a spoon. Just like braising, the stew method is suitable for meats with lots of connective tissue (like shoulder or ribs).

Braise time varies for different types of meat but is generally the same as the braise time.
The slow cooker (cooker) is especially convenient for stewing meat. Usually, when you have a slow cooker, you just need to put all the ingredients in the pot, turn on the pot and cook for a few hours. However, if the recipe calls for vegetables, you should add them later in the stewing process because vegetables cook faster than meat.

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Leave the meat whole after cooking. If you want the meat to be as tender and sweet as possible, don’t cut it and eat it right after it’s cooked. If you want your meat to stay moist and tender, one of the most important, but often overlooked, steps is to keep the meat as it is after cooking. Regardless of the cooking method used, you should remove the meat from the heat source and let it cool for 10 minutes. You can keep meat hot by covering it with foil. You can enjoy the meat after this time.

Cutting meat immediately after cooking will cause the meat to lose moisture and become tender. When cooking pork, the gravy from the inside of the protein fibers needs to be “squeezed” out. Letting the meat cool gives the proteins time to re-absorb the moisture. That’s why when you cut a hot piece of freshly cooked meat, you often see a lot of water coming out. Conversely, less juice will come out if you let the meat cool for a while before cutting.

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Cut along the grain of the meat. If you want the meat to be especially tender, you should learn how to cut it. To make the meat as tender as possible, you should slice the meat along the grain. You will know how to cut the meat by grain if you look closely and see the horizontal part of the separate strands of meat when cutting. Cutting meat to the grain can break muscle fibers into small pieces before chewing. This little tip is sure to come in handy.

For simmering methods such as stewing and braising, you don’t need to cut the meat down to the grain because the meat is already tender enough. However, thick and large pieces of meat that are grilled or grilled should be cut to the grain so that the meat is as tender as possible before serving. — That’s why in parties, servers need to slice large pieces of meat along the grain and into thin diagonal slices for easier enjoyment by guests.

Choose a tender piece of meat

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Choose back meat. In terms of pork terminology, the word “back” in pigs is not the same as humans. The back is a long strip of meat near the backbone and runs along the back of the pig. In general, the back meat is the softest and leanest part of the pig, so it will produce soft, sweet and nutritious dishes thanks to the lean proteins. Popular loin cuts are: ^{[9] XResearch Sourcewww.canadianliving.com/food/cooking_schop/butchers_block_cuts_of_pork.php}

Ribs pieces
Grilled tenderloin
Cutlet
Back ribs
Grilled back

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Choose tenderloin. The loin (sometimes called “pork fillet”) is the tenderest part of the loin. The loin is the long, narrow, lean muscle that runs along the upper ribs of a pig. The tenderloin is exceptionally sweet, tender and lean, hence the most expensive cut. ^{[10] XResearch Source} Tenderloin is commonly sold:

Whole piece
Sliced into “round pieces”
Pre-baked in wrap

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Choose ribs. Pork chops extend from the spine down around the belly, and vary in taste, leanness, and flavor, depending on the position of the rib in the skeleton. The top rib (closest to the spine) is usually lean, sweet, and tender, like a filet mignon. The bottom of the ribs (near the belly) is also quite tender when cooked, but is usually fatter and takes longer to cook. The ribs that you can choose from are:

Small rib
Bone
Ribs
Ribs cut into pieces

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Choose belly meat. As the name suggests, belly meat is very fatty, has few bones and is cut from the belly of a pig. Many people like to thinly slice the belly and smoke it. Because it is very fatty, the belly meat needs to be grilled or baked for a long time and slowly before eating, so that the meat will be sweeter and tender. ^{[11] XResearch Source}

Belly meat is often available as bacon and similar products like Pancetta (Italian Bacon) and is rarely sold in regular butcher shops. You need to go to a meat supply store to buy a piece of belly meat that matches the recipe.

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Choose tough cuts of meat if you have a slow cooker. Tender cuts of meat (especially loin) are often expensive. If you want to save money, you don’t have to waste money buying delicious cuts of meat. In fact, cheap and chewy cuts of meat (like shoulder meat) can still be eaten if cooked slowly. Here are inexpensive cuts of meat you can tenderize if you know how to cook:

Thigh shoulder meat
Grilled shoulder
Butt meat
Boston butt meat

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Choose the less common tenderloin. You should try cooking some of the lesser known cuts of meat that can make for tender and sweet dishes. These cuts of meat are rare in modern Western cuisines but are extremely common in traditional recipes or cooking styles. If you dare to eat, you can ask to buy these special pieces of meat at the market. You can choose cuts of meat that can be tender (by long cooking and simmering) such as: ^{[12] XResearch Source}

Mother
Pork leg
Nail
Tongue
Organs (liver, heart, etc.)

Warning

Avoid using too much meat tenderizer. Using too much can make the meat soft on the outside but hard on the inside.

Things you need

Pork
Gradually hammering meat
Plate
Meat tenderizing product (powder)
Sour marinade (acidic)
Pineapple or papaya
Zipper pocket
Bowl
Water
Salt
Plastic bags
Knife
Meat tenderizing product (powder)
Wood or firewood for smoking

Steps

Tender pork before cooking

Soft meat processing

Choose a tender piece of meat

Warning

Things you need

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