Tenderizing Meat With Baking Soda

5 years ago

I made the old Chinese-American restaurant dish “beef with broccoli” this week. The process starts with tenderizing the sliced beef with water and baking soda. This works remarkably well. The 1/4” strips of sirloin were fried at high heat until well browned, but were still tender, moist, soft, juicy, without becoming either gray/steamed or brown/dry.

This got me wondering if other dishes would benefit from the technique. For example, would you do this to fajita meat? To ground beef for hamburger? To meatballs? Could you inject baking soda into turkey breast to ensure a tender, moist Thanksgiving bird?

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carolb_w_fl_coastal_9/10

5 years ago

last modified: 5 years ago

What a coincidence - I read and saved an article yesterday about using baking soda when browning ground meat to get a better maillard effect. They credited America's Test Kitchen for the tip.

I'm looking forward to trying it.

https://skillet.lifehacker.com/you-should-add-baking-soda-to-your-ground-meat-1846103865/amp

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Comments (11)

HU-753479426
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
I've seen recipes for velveting chicken using baking soda...I use an Irene Kuo recipe that has cornstarch. This is a good discussion how-to-velvet-chicken-stir-fry and includes references to beef, pork and shrimp...but my experience is limited to chicken,

seagrass
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Yes, I think the papain in meat tenderizer breaks down the proteins in bee venom/stings. I know it helps, as does a paste made of baking soda. When we owned the bar, we used to buy a liquid meat tenderizer and used that on the steak, and it made them very tender.I thought it was actually "mushy", customers loved it. Because I'm so strange about texture, I don't use meat tenderizers, I do think it changes the texture (otherwise, how would it be more tender?). Dad loved the stuff, though, and I attributed that to the fact that I still have all my teeth and Dad had dentures which occasionally made his mouth sore. I do have a handy little gadget that has a bunch of metal spikes that is used for tenderizing meat, but it changes the texture too. I don't necessarily find the changed texture to be offensive, but it's more like cubed steak. As usual, to each his own. I don't think you'll know if it's offensive unless you try it. If you don't like it, take it from the kitchen and put it in the bathroom for bug bites and bee stings. Annie
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wednesday morning
5 years ago
I saw and read that article too and now I dont know where I referenced it from. Was it, maybe, someone here posted a link? Dont remember.

Gonna' try baking soda like that.

I will tell you that a pinch of baking soda will sweeten up your tomato sauce without one grain of sugar being added. I never add sugar to tomato sauce.

It wil also add cleaning strength to your dish washing tub if you have hard water. It will make it sudsy and bubbly and it will clean better.

A pinch in the pot of boiling water will also keep the bright green color in your green beans as you cook them.
dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m
5 years ago
Baking soda has been in use in Chinese cooking for a very long time.

It does "tenderize" by changing texture of meat and the taste of meat.

I have noticed even many none-Chinese foods are doing the same, hot dogs for instance.

dcarch
jakkom
5 years ago
For the Chinese velveting technique, cornstarch works almost as well, and doesn't change the flavor the way baking soda does. You have to stir it around periodically, however, since it separates from the water so easily.
carolb_w_fl_coastal_9/10
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
So I tried it tonight when I browned ground beef for taco filling - approx. 3/8 tsp. for a pound of reg. (85/15) ground beef. Sprinkled the soda over the meat in a bowl, tossed/stirred it and let it rest 15 minutes. It seemed to make the meat very bright red and I did notice it didn't release very much moisture when cooking, I think it came out a bit more tender than usual as well.

I want to try it for burgers next.
sheilajoyce_gw
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
John, I want to try the baking soda method for the thin slices of steak I will cook into Beef Romanoff. What are the quantities and directions for the method you used? This was a steak I used just half of for another recipe, and it was surprisingly tough. DH hates tough meat. Help!

I tried it with the tough chuck steak, and DH had no idea this was the other half of the tough steak I had used in the stew. It was definitely more tender.
plllog
5 years ago
Traditional fajitas made with skirt are marinated for days. The baking soda method might work if you don't have days, assuming it would taste right.
war garden
5 years ago
i prefer seltzer water
John Liu
Original Author
5 years ago
Sorry to take so long to reply. I sliced then added water and very little baking soda, like 1 tsp, mixed it all up and left in fridge for an hour
l pinkmountain
5 years ago
We tried the baking soda trick with onions. It did speed up the softening but a trade off with taste and texture . . .

Tenderizing Meat With Baking Soda

carolb_w_fl_coastal_9/10

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HU-753479426

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Tenderizing Meat With Baking Soda

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