Top Ways to Prepare Meat

Where would our dishes be without the meat in them? 

Meat is one of the most flavourful and tastiest parts of any dish, and it is very important for your health that you consume it regularly.

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Here we will give you some options that you can consider making next time when you make a family gathering.

Dry-Aged Meat

To improve the flavour and softness of a chosen cut of beef, it is dry-aged in a controlled, open-air setting. The meat is stored in a dry-ageing beef chamber with controlled temperatures and humidity.

The enzymes in the beef decompose the muscle as the liquid is drawn out, making it tender. The dry-aged beef is kept from deteriorating by the regulated and controlled temperature levels, as well as the salt in the air.

Before you proceed to dry age your meat, make sure you have good-quality beef at hand. The best part of this meat preparation is the New York strip or boneless ribeye.

You can get both fresh from shops such as The Meat Box online butcher. You can order from their website; choose the date you want them delivered and wait for your fresh meat by your doorstep. 

Beef can receive help from dry ageing in two ways. It improves the flavour by giving it a unique, rich, and robust meaty flavour. Moreover, the dry-aged steak is then tenderized and given a buttery feel. The greater the flavour of beef, the longer it is aged.

How to Dry Age Beef at Home

You'll need to take efforts to prevent temperature and humidity fluctuations to dry age your meat safely and correctly. Keeping your meat at the proper temperature during the maturing process is extremely crucial.

The simplest method to do this is to choose a separate dry-ageing refrigerator or freezer.

Because of the lack of circulation, your meat may not dehydrate properly. This problem may be solved by placing a small desk fan inside your meat refrigerator/freezer. You'll want to dry-age your beef for the amount of time you calculated from its hue.

The meat's exterior layers will be the most dried. These areas are unlikely to be edible, but underneath the crusty top lies the delicate, delicious flesh that is typically aged beef. Shave away the outer layer using a sharp knife. 

Other enzymatic reactions take place inside the meat to give it that rich, beefy minerality that gourmets appreciate.

If you enjoy steak but have never tried one that has been dry-aged, now is the time to start putting money down for your next special occasion supper.

Best Meat to BBQ

One of the best ways you can relax during the summer days is when you are with your family on the lawn and enjoy a good old BBQ.

There is something special in good fresh meat from the grill on mild summer nights. There are lots of ways you can prepare meat on the grill.

The most usual way is to use mincemeat and to make burgers. You heat the two buns on the grill, prepare the lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles, add seasoning and you have a great meal for both the grownups and the children. It's far better than going to your McDonald's or Burger King.

Also, for meat enthusiasts, you can get some beef ribs, and, on the side, you can have some lovely spring salad, made out of cucumber and tomatoes.

The best hamburgers are made from 80/20 ground beef, which means 80% lean meat and 20% fat. That ratio will ensure you have the juiciest burgers for your event.

There are many ways to make hamburgers, and every family has their own recipe. Some add a dash of Worcestershire sauce to the mixture to add umami and a unique flavour. But even the best chefs will tell you that the best hamburgers only have a generous sprinkle of salt and freshly ground black pepper right before you grill it.

Chefs will constantly reiterate that you should never overwork your mixture, which means not mixing too much.

Just shape them thick, lay them flat on parchment paper, add a little indentation in the middle using your thumb and refrigerate. Add salt and pepper on the grill and not before, as salt tends to make the meat tough.

Chicken filet tastes great when prepared on the grill, as you probably know, just make sure that you do not leave it too long on it.

Although chicken breasts are the most popular section of the chicken, they can be difficult to keep juicy when grilled, and they can rapidly become dry. 

Grilling chicken thighs and legs is a great way to cook them. Thighs are a tasty section of the bird with a high meat-to-bone ratio. Because chicken thighs don't dry out as fast as chicken breasts, it's difficult to overcook them.

Finally, when cooked on the grill, the skin on chicken thighs becomes brown and crispy. Drumsticks and thighs are both included in the chicken legs.

Drumsticks are a fattier cut of meat that grills excellently. The meat will be soft and moist when grilled at relatively high heat, while the skin will turn crispy brown.

We also recommend that you try some grilled vegetables such as peppers and green beans.

Fried Meat

One of the easiest ways to prepare meat is just to fry it in a pan. Although this does not sound too glamorous, there are different beautiful, tasty meals that you can prepare this way.

The obvious one is of course chicken, but there are lots more. For example, you can experience various different cuisines in your kitchen using this method, like the Swedish meatballs, or the Turkish variant of it, called kofte or kofta.

Before you start preparing, there are some things that you should do, or not do.

To avoid the pan losing heat, don't put too much meat in the pan at once. Cooking causes the meat's connective tissue to shrink.

Before frying, you need to cut away or cut through any visible membranes. To prevent the meat from bending or twisting because of the applied heat, cut slits in the covering fat.

Most cooks like butter because it adds taste and gives you a sense of how hot your pan is.

Others rely on oil, which is resistant to high heat. Some use a combination of both butter and olive oil but they can both react negatively to high heat. Try to experiment in your kitchen if you want to discover the ideal way.

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Braising Meat

To braise beef, the meat is first browned, then cooked for an extended length of time in a little amount of liquid over low heat.

The result is flavourful and tender meat. The traditional method of braising beef is in the oven, although it can also be done on the stovetop.

Stewing

During the winter months, beef stew is a must-have. Stewing beef is similar to braising, except that stewing submerges the beef in liquid, whereas braising just submerges the meat in a little amount of liquid.

Because the meat is usually diced or sliced into small pieces before cooking, the cooking time can be reduced. Less costly cuts create the tastiest beef stews, which may seem paradoxical. Don't create a stew using meat that is tender or fatty.

Pan and Stir-Frying

Pan and stir-frying are quick and easy ways to prepare beef. Pan-frying is a quick-cooking method that uses a little amount of heated fat, such as oil or butter, high heat, and short cooking periods.

Stir-frying is a version in which smaller chunks of meat are cooked over high heat while being constantly stirred. When stir-frying at home, use a skillet rather than a wok. It's a lovely touch to marinate the meat first.

Hopefully, these suggestions and ideas will help you in preparing a delectable and beautiful meat supper for your family and friends, and you will appreciate the tantalizing flavour.