To buy fresh and delicious beef, you need to pay attention to the following points:
– Fresh and delicious beef will have a bright red color and a sticky, firm, and tender texture. It should not be too dry or overly wet.
– In particular, you need to know how to differentiate between young beef and old beef: Old beef will have a dark red color, it is tough to eat and takes a long time to cook. So, don’t foolishly choose to buy it. Young beef will have white fat, fine and tender meat. This is the best quality beef.
– Even though they are both beef, female beef will be more tender, sweet, and flavorful than male beef.
– When pressing on the meat, if it bounces back well and does not have a foul smell, then it is a good piece of beef.
How to use beef for different dishes:
– For stir-fry dishes: You should use sirloin or tenderloin. When stir-frying, the meat will be tender without being tough.
– For braised dishes (beef stew, beer-braised beef…), choose parts of the meat with tendons or connective tissue such as beef shank, tendon, tail, thigh… This will make the dish more delicious. When cooking braised beef dishes, add ingredients such as garlic, ginger, cinnamon bark, star anise, the dish will be more fragrant, not greasy, and have a lot of nutritional value.
– For grilled dishes: You should use sirloin or a cut with a little fat, it will be more flavorful when grilled.
How to stir-fry beef without it being tough:
To prevent beef from being tough in stir-fry dishes, remember to use high heat, quickly stir the beef, the faster the meat cooks, the better it will taste. If you are stir-frying beef with vegetables, stir-fry the vegetables first until they are cooked, then quickly stir-fry the beef. When the beef is cooked, add the vegetables, stir-fry for a bit more and then turn off the heat. This way, the beef will always be tender, sweet, and not tough.
To make beef tender, add a little salt when cooking. For beef tendons, beef sirloin, pork ribs, if you want them to cook quickly without simmering for a long time, add a piece of pineapple, an ice cube, or a small spoonful of vinegar to the pot.
Source: Khoevadep