The main varieties of beef
Several breeds of beef cows are widely known in the world: English hereford and aberdeen-angus; french limousine and Charolais; Italian chianina; japanese wagyu, thanks to which it came into fashion. Our domestic marbled meat is produced in Lipetsk beef bulls angus… However, genetics is just one of the prerequisites for producing delicious meat. First of all, the food, the living conditions of the animal and how the meat was aged and delivered to distant lands are important.
Some time ago, the fashion for free-grazing chickens, the so-called chickens, came to us from the West. free rangeThere has been a lot of talk about ethics and the happy existence of poultry, but the truth of the consumer is that free-range products are tastier. It’s not that simple with cows. Intensive animal husbandry, in which many animals are in a small area in conditions far from natural, causes enormous damage to the environment: it pollutes water, air and soil and upsets the balance of agriculture (vast territories are occupied by the cultivation of animal feed). And it is almost impossible to ban this type of animal husbandry. However, each of us can reconsider our personal relationship with beef.
Cows raised in cramped stalls have softer meat than free-grazing cows… Lucky free cows have serious muscle strength and proper fiber-rich nutrition (grass, not cereals). In addition, they do not have extra calories. In captive cows, the opposite is true – which is why they easily accumulate intramuscular fat and their meat becomes soft, melting in the mouth. But who said that meat should melt in your mouth? The Japanese expression “You don’t have to have teeth to eat marbled meat” doesn’t sound like an advertisement for everyone. When you evaluate meat not in terms of texture, but in terms of brightness of taste, nothing beats a steak from a free-grazing cow (and not necessarily an Argentinean – free-grazing angus are grown on a farm “Mustard glade”). And the juiciness that fat gives to a marbled beef steak is obtained in a fat-free steak due to proper aging and preparation.
Butchering beef: what goes where
No more than 7-10% of meat from the whole carcass is used for noble steaks.
Everyone knows – the most “prestigious” cuts of beef. However, there are much more components of beef carcass, and each has its own purpose in cooking. Brisket suitable for rich soups,kostrets with “sugar” bone – for clear broths. Soups are cooked in and out of shoulder blades, naked, which in the classification refers to the second (i.e., to the last after the highest and first) grade of beef, goes to jelly. The best beef stroganoff is from rump sirloin (this is the inner thigh). Tartare and carpaccio – only from clippings… Shish kebab is tenderloin, thick and thin rim, tender rump meat. Frying is recommended meat of the highest grade, and everything else is better to bake or stew.
To soften cuts of meat with a lot of muscles, it will take a long simmering: collagen is released from the connective tissues of the meat, and during cooking it turns into gelatin, which makes the product more juicy. For such “intractable” pieces like shoulder blade, shank or oxtail, the ideal cooking mode is “” -. However, any piece of meat that has been baked for 10 hours at a stable temperature of 52–53 ° C, and then allowed to “rest,” often exceeds expectations. Chefs, who are fond of slow-cooking, in all seriousness say: “”.
Steamed and aged beef
While neophytes believe in fresh meat, advanced cooks know: meat gets better when it’s matured… In the right conditions, of course. An almost photographic law: the longer the aging, the more contrasting the taste… The so-called “” meat is the last hobby of meat-eaters all over the world. In a restaurant hidden in the Swedish outback, but known throughout the gastronomic world, Magnus Nilsson serves a ribeye from a “retired dairy cow”. The meat of a seven-year-old cow was aged for five months – from Christmas until almost summer. And one of the best steaks in the world is prepared in a Spanish restaurant and made from sixteen year old bull meat that has been aged for three months… A steak with a bronze crust of fat, with a smoky aroma and a taste of blue cheese expands the boundaries of our perception of meat: it not only melts in the mouth, but gives such a bright taste that even New Zealand beef does not have. The secret is not in the cow, but in the process of preparing a product that involves enzymes – a nanobook, as Harold McGee, a scientist and deli named them.
“”, – he writes. The concept of “dry aging” means that after the carcass was cut, the meat was weighed not for a week (like most steaks from the supermarket), but for several weeks or even for a couple of months: all this time it was kept at a temperature of 3-5 ° С and at a constant humidity of 80–90% with good ventilation. During this time, enough moisture has evaporated from the meat so that during cooking the texture remains juicy and soft, and the taste – thanks to the work of enzymes – becomes more concentrated… The problem with dry-aged beef is not so much that it is expensive, but that it is difficult to find. Therefore, some try to “age” the meat at home. This is tricky: if you drop a few degrees of humidity, unnecessary bacteria will proliferate on the surface of the meat. However, technologies come to the rescue: for those who do not trust the good old gauze, there are special bags for dry aging that allow you to store the product correctly.
Beef for steak
This is a triumph of meat taste, the simplest and at the same time the most complex beef dish. All steaks are cut from parts of the carcass that are not involved in muscle work: ti-bon – from the area on the border between the dorsal and lumbar, club steak – from the bit part, sirloin – from the head of the tenderloin. File-minion, the most tender piece (and according to some meat-eaters, the most spineless, “in which there is even nothing to chew”) is a thin cross-section of the central part of the tenderloin. His closest relative chatobrian – the thick edge of the same cut.
The king of steaks, if we proceed from the ratio “taste – softness”, is fish, a piece “in the shape of an eye” from under the scapula with small splashes of fat. Ribeye is so good that it is even a pity to experiment with it, it does not require tricky sauces and side dishes, it does not need special cooking technologies: traditionally, ribeye is rapidly fried over a powerful fire at a temperature of 250 ° C so that the crust “seals” the meat juices inside, and then brought to the desired degree of readiness at 150 ° C… Another approach is cook the steak on a slow grill, at a temperature of about 160 ° C, turning frequently… Moderate heating will prevent the fibers inside the meat from shrinking, all juices will remain inside the steak, and the texture will be especially tender.
Ground beef
A few months ago, an unprecedented food scandal erupted in Europe: horse meat was found in semi-finished products – in ready-made lasagne, in stews and even in meatballs from IKEA. This story once again confirmed that you cannot trust the factory minced meat, and it is not so difficult to cook your own at home using a combine or a meat grinder (although purists choose minced meat, chopped exclusively by hand).
Inexpensive meat is taken for minced meat – from the bottom of the rump, rump, shoulder blades… For dishes that cook quickly (cutlets or kebabs), the meat will have to be cleaned of films and fat. For other options, the meat can be chopped along with the connective tissue. But any minced meat must be kneaded very well, otherwise the product runs the risk of falling apart. Adding an egg as a fixer is not a good idea.
The famous English chef in an interview “” told how he once took part in a TV show. As part of a team of professional chefs, he “fought” with a team of amateur chefs. When the theme of the program was “minced meat”, Aikens made lasagna and meatballs. Looking at the dishes, the judge said: “”. Indeed, minced meat dishes – bolognese sauce, rolls, casseroles, zrazy – are distinguished by a special “comfort”: they have a home-like taste, not the smack of haute cuisine.
Here you can improvise with flavors: spices, herbs, including exotic ones, like dried tea rose leaves and yellow iris, spices of Persian and Caucasian cuisine. The familiar word “dolma”Means“ stuffing ”, and in the homeland of dolma, minced meat with onions, chickpeas, rice, herbs and spices is seasoned not only with grape leaves, but in general with everything that can be filled: – and each“ vessel ”gives the meat its own taste and juiciness.
Beef offal
In recent years, giblets have not only returned to the kitchen, but also conquered previously unheard-of heights – before they were considered exclusively food for the poor, but now they are on the menu of the most expensive restaurants. The chefs became interested in them not so much for ethical reasons as for the fact that this is a separate world of tastes, “non-obvious” products with great creative potential.
Beef marinades
The science of pickles is not as complicated as it sounds. Moreover, being carried away by the composition of the “bouquets” and how fancifully they are reflected in the taste of the finished meat, you begin to get real pleasure. The marinade must certainly contain an acidic component, which will start the fermentation process and help make the meat softer in a few hours. In our kitchens, there is always a lot of sour – obvious and non-obvious -. it It is good to grate the onion for the marinade – it is the juice that is important from it. But vinegar is advised to avoid – it “knocks out” the meat spirit from the meat.
Meat is also marinated in the Indian manner -. This base makes it soft and juicy. For the same purpose, olive oil is added to the wine marinade. There are unexpected ingredients: But the most creative marinade has recently been made from – the paste from them has a magical effect: it softens the meat and gives it a special flavor.