Do you often wonder how to prepare tough meat? You should know that each part of the Beef has different textures, so some will require different cooking times to achieve an optimal result.
Let's identify the cooking methods available. It's very simple, as there are just four:
- Dry Heat Cooking (Oven, Grill, Rotisserie, Barbecue)
- Moist Heat Cooking (Boiling, Blanching, Poaching, Steaming)
- Medium Fat Cooking (Frying, Sautéing, Browning, Stir-frying)
- Combination Cooking (Stewing, Braising, Braising)
For us, the most important is the one related to the grill and barbecue, as it is our specialty. Therefore, we want to focus a bit more on the two main methods: direct heat cooking and indirect heat cooking.
Speaking of direct heat, we need to achieve a temperature on our grill between 450°F and 550°F, which means you can hold your hand about 10 cm away for 4-5 seconds maximum. If you can keep your hand there for longer, it means the charcoal is not ready yet. Another, and our preferred identifier, is when you manage to have completely WHITE EMBERS. This will ensure a uniform temperature in the cut, and the charcoal will not release any toxins or black smoke that could affect the flavor of the meat.
That said, we can recommend that cuts which work best for direct fire are those from the Rib or Loin, such as Rib Eye, Short Rib, New York Strip, T-Bone, and any cut with a thickness of no more than 2 inches. If the cut is very thick, we suggest searing the meat at High Temperature, but for longer cooking times, we prefer using Indirect Heat.
We can identify a direct relationship between these two methods:
Quick Cooking = Direct Heat
Slow Cooking = Indirect Heat
For Indirect Heat, we need a temperature between 350°F and 400°F, which means you can hold your hand about 10 cm away from the grill for 7-8 seconds maximum with the charcoal ready, and for medium temperature, between 10-12 seconds maximum for a low temperature.
We can recommend cuts that, due to their structure, require more cooking time to achieve better results, such as those from the Chuck, such as Brisket and Inside Skirt, from the middle part the Flank Steak, Full Ribs or Thick Cuts, and from the Rear mainly the Picanha.
In conclusion, we can identify which cuts work best depending on the type of cooking method we want to use and the result we aim to achieve. Dare to try different methods!
In our next entry, we will talk about getting better results regarding the meat's doneness.
Thank you for reading us again.
Comments