Tenderizing Meat with a Baking Soda Solution | Cook's Illustrated (2024)

FAQs

How long do you leave baking soda on meat to tenderize it? ›

Step 2: Soak meat in solution for at least 15 minutes

This process allows the baking soda to neutralize acid on the surface of the meat, resulting in less toughness and a cooked meat that is juicy on the inside while remaining crispy on the outside.

For proteins with an ample amount of exposed surface area, there's no need to allow it to soak for more than 15 minutes when using baking soda to tenderize meat. In fact, over-soaking can yield mushy meat.

Kaitlin Leung of The Woks of Life, a blog dedicated to Chinese cooking, shares that a standard velveting mixture could include egg white and cornstarch, plus a few tablespoons of water – to help coat the meat yes, but also to make the meat extra tender and juicy.

How does Texas Roadhouse tenderise their steaks? Season each side of the steak well with the seasoning and set aside to rest for about 40 minutes. This causes the salt to infiltrate the surface (through osmosis) and actually aids in the breakdown of muscle fibres, resulting in more tender meat.

The longer it sits, the more tender it will be. However, if you velvet for longer than an hour, the meat will become too soft—more akin to goo than a tender cut of protein. Rinse well before cooking: After velveting the meat, you have the option to rinse off the baking soda or slurry to prevent clumps in your stir-fry.

This is how to tenderise beef with a Chinese restaurant method called “velveting beef”. Also used for chicken, it's a simple, highly effective technique using baking soda that transforms economical beef so it's incredibly tender in stir fries and stir fried noodles.

You can mix the baking soda in with other marinade ingredients for flavor, or use it by itself simply to tenderize tough cuts of meat. The baking soda raises the pH level of the outside of the meat, discouraging the proteins from bonding together and thus making the tough meat tender and easier to chew!

Less than a teaspoon of baking soda ensures that your steak remains juicy and tender—even after a speedy marinade. While other recipes demand hours of marinating, this baking soda hack makes a flank steak or any other fibrous cut of beef ready to sear after just an hour.

The Aging. Most fine restaurants age their beef to intensify the flavor and improve the tenderness of the cut. Aging is done by letting the meat sit (in very controlled conditions) for several days or weeks.

Is velveting meat unhealthy? ›

Velveting chicken is a perfectly healthy meat preparation method since the core ingredients are cornstarch and oil, each of which is perfectly fine for you to eat. So, velveting can deliver delicious, tender meat without sacrificing quality when it comes to taste or health.

Bulgogi sauce

Using generous amounts of garlic and sesame oil is necessary to create an authentic taste. To enhance the flavor and tenderize the meat, Koreans traditionally add a grated Korean pear to the marinade. It's simply the best way.

As well as acid, enzymes found in fruits like pineapple, kiwi, mangoes, and papaya disrupt the molecular structure of meat's connective tissue. Adding puréed fruit to your marinade turns tough and chewy meat tender and juicy.

This is how to tenderise beef with a Chinese restaurant method called “velveting beef”. Also used for chicken, it's a simple, highly effective technique using baking soda that transforms economical beef so it's incredibly tender in stir fries and stir fried noodles.

To achieve the best results when marinating chicken with baking soda, consider the following tips: Use in Moderation: Baking soda is potent, so it's important to use it in moderation. Too much baking soda can give the chicken an unpleasant aftertaste.