Many novice cooks and housewives are thinking about how to choose beef so that the acquired piece of meat is of high quality and juicy and tasty. And oddly enough, it’s not at all difficult to do this, the main thing is to clearly find out why beef is bought. We will discuss some of the subtleties of choosing this type of meat.
The choice of meat according to its purpose
First of all, before choosing beef, you should decide for yourself why you are buying meat and what you want to do with it. After all, it depends on its purpose which piece of carcass you have to choose, and how it should look. And first of all, for this you need to understand that the softest meat is the muscles that are least involved in the cow during its movement, and the hardest - the muscles that are constantly in motion. Therefore, if you plan to grill meat, for this purpose you should take the upper part of the carcass of the cow, starting from the back. If you want to try a cooked dish, then you need to take the lower part of the cow carcass, and the middle part is suitable for stewing.
Well, or you can remember that you can fry a rump or fillet, for baking fillet or tenderloin with a fat layer is suitable, and for stewing you need rumps, thighs or brisket. Every housewife knows that a rich broth can be prepared from a piece of meat with bones, tendons and cartilage.
Market or supermarket
Many confidently believe that it is best to buy beef in a supermarket, where it is already packaged and frozen. However, this is not at all the case, since the store meat most often does not breathe, and loses many of its useful properties while it is under a plastic film. Therefore, it is better to go buy meat to the market. However, despite the fact that the bazaar is the best place to buy this product, when deciding on how to choose beef in the market, it is important to know about several nuances. And first of all, it is better to go around the counter, where next to the meat you will see puddles of water, which are formed due to the fact that sellers spray it with beef to make it look better. So they mask the loss of quality. But if the meat looks slightly dried, then this is not at all scary and will not affect the quality of the product.
Beef Selection Rules
So, you have already decided on the choice of part of the carcass of the cow and the place of purchase. Now it’s very important to remember how to choose beef from among many pieces of meat, so that you don’t regret your decision.
- In no case can you choose meat, focusing on its low cost, because a good quality product cannot be cheap at all, and even for the highest quality marbled beef you will have to pay a tidy sum.
- You should take a good look at the product, since its appearance can tell a lot about its quality.
- It is advisable to sniff a piece of beef offered to you by the seller to make sure that it has a pleasant aroma, because otherwise it will indicate that the meat has deteriorated.
- If possible, you need to touch the beef to determine if loose meat is given to you, and try to choose the piece that turns out to be the most elastic.
How to choose beef in appearance
The main thing that you need to pay close attention to is the appearance of the piece provided to you. First of all, the color of the meat should be even, without any dark spots and greens, which indicate a deterioration in its quality. The color itself should be bright red, which confirms the freshness of beef, while the red-brown color of the meat will signal to the watchful buyer that the beef is already old and not at all fresh. It is also important to look at the fatty layers, which in the fresh piece will be white, the yellowish color of the layers will tell that the cow has lived to a very old age. Plus, you definitely need to make sure that there are no crusts on the meat, which indicate that it has been sold unsuccessfully for a long time, which means that you can’t take such beef.
How to choose meat by smell
When buying meat, it is very important to sniff at a piece. Beef should smell good and not have any odors. After all, if the smell of onions, vinegar, various spices comes from meat, then this indicates that its shelf life has expired, and they want to sell it soon. The absence of at least some smell from meat should also alert, because this suggests that the cow was raised with harmful chemical additives that accelerate its growth, which means that such a product will be very unhealthy. And, finally, in no case should you take beef from which a rotten odor emanates, because such meat has spoiled a long time ago, which means that you need to leave the counter as soon as possible.
Choose meat by touching a piece
If you have not yet been able to make a choice, simply by smelling or looking at a piece, then the last option on how to choose beef meat in the market can be considered a touch to it. To do this, simply touch the beef with your finger and immediately go away if the meat is sticky or wet. In addition, it is important that the finger pit on the beef is immediately smoothed out, which will show the vigilant buyer its high quality. If the dent is not smoothed out, then this meat is already old, and after cooking the beef will be very stiff.
Steak Meat Selection
When choosing meat, the most difficult thing is to find a suitable piece for cooking steak, even in the oven, at least on the grill, at least on the fire. Therefore, if you decide to cook this delicious dish, it is important to remember how to choose meat for beef steak, so that in ready-made form it will shock everyone with its unique taste, aroma and appearance.
First of all, you should pay attention to the cut of meat, if it is perfectly flat, then everything is fine with beef, but if it resembles a ladder, then most likely a piece of meat was cut frozen, lost its taste, so it’s cooked unevenly will lose more moisture than necessary and will be completely inedible. You also need to pay attention to the color of the beef for the steak, which should be natural, not have pale or dark spots. The pale color of beef, which is similar to pork, is absolutely not suitable for us, because the steak will fry too much. You should also pay attention to the thickness of the meat piece, which should vary within 3-5 cm.
Meat storage
Now that you already know how to choose good beef, it is very important to remember how to store this meat. So, after the purchase, it is very important to put the meat in the refrigerator without cutting it, and you can keep it there for three to four days. It is very important to put the beef in the refrigerator, wrapping it in a paper bag or waffle towel. But the meat should not be wrapped in a plastic bag, nor can it be stored wrapped in film, because bacteria can get into it in this way. The maximum shelf life in the refrigerator at a temperature of 0-7 ° C is one week, and in the freezer - up to six months. However, storing meat in the freezer for a long time is not recommended, because it will lose its taste and all useful properties.
Mistress note
And finally, since we now perfectly know how to choose beef and how to store it, in the end you need to remember a few more rules for handling meat, which, if they are strictly followed, will greatly help culinary and meat-eaters.
- The fatter the meat, the faster it will completely fry.
- During the roasting of beef, one cannot put many pieces of meat into the pan, because they all let the juice go, and then the meat will not be fried, but stewed.
- To cover the meat with a beautiful golden crust, before baking it on the grill, in the oven or in a pan, you should dry it with a paper towel.
- During the roasting of meat, it is impossible to turn it too quickly on the other side, let first one side is covered with a golden brown, and then the second.
- It is best to defrost meat directly in the refrigerator at a temperature of +5 ° C.
- Due to boiling and frying, the amount of meat purchased should be clearly calculated, since after cooking its weight from one kilogram will be 600 grams, and after frying - 650 grams.
- When you fry meat, you can’t pierce it with a fork for testing, otherwise all the juice will flow out of it, and as a result, the finished dish will be tough, it will be impossible to chew.
- If you add tomato paste or tomatoes to the kitchen pan, then the beef stews much faster.
- Stew meat should be on a low low fire, avoiding rapid boiling.
- So that the broth in which the meat is cooked is transparent and can be used for cooking the first dishes, the beef should be poured with cold water.