Evaluate This Meat and Vegetables Before Cooking
When I cook, I always pay attention to the possibilities of flavor and texture, especially for solid ingredients. One of my favorite ways to do this is to score on them. (“Scoring” as in cutting it partially, not “scoring” as in receiving it. But that’s important too.) Not only does this simple method give you more options for flavor and texture, but it can also improve toughness, unpleasant chewiness, or stringiness . Food.
How to kill food
Lightly hammering is a trick that has been around probably as long as sharp knives. Scoring occurs every time you deliberately cut food into shallow slices. The slices do not go all the way, but only about half or three-quarters deep. If you’re hitting the upper limit of fat on meat, go by the depth of fat. For foods that are not as thick, greasy, or fibrous, you can leave about a half-inch deep. Using a sharp knife, cut long, even slices over the entire surface. To create a crosshatch pattern, rotate the item 90 degrees and cut even slices perpendicular to the first set.
Cutting an ingredient into several long lines creates more surface area, which can increase the likelihood of crispy edges and allow the food to cook faster. It also creates small pockets to collect additional seasonings and aromatics. The cuts also make hard foods more tender because they literally break the grains or fibers of the food.
Japanese chefs use this method when preparing squid to prevent it from shrinking into a rubbery gum after cooking. Shallow slices, cut parallel or in a cross-hatch pattern, destroy muscle fibers. This will prevent the squid from curling when heated and will keep it tender. Another popular protein you may have seen tagged is duck. The duck skin contains most of the fat and the cuts help it cook evenly. The extra surface area makes it easier and faster to process valuable fat and is the secret to uniformly crispy, flavorful skin. But there’s a lot more to be found on the surface than just squid and ducks.
What foods can be evaluated before cooking?
Any food that is tough, chewy, or fibrous is a good candidate for scoring, especially if you fry or grill it. These two cooking styles tend to draw out moisture so it’s easy to dry out foods, which only worsens the texture of tough foods, but slicing can help counteract this.
Try cutting fruits and vegetables with edible skin or tough, fibrous pulp:
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Eggplant
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Zucchini with hard skin
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Brussels sprouts
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A pineapple
Mark the fatty part of the meat and proteins that you want to crisp up, or the long fibers that you want to shorten to tenderize:
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Pork shoulder, brisket or ham
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ham
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Skirt, flank or hangar steak
Don’t forget to add flavoring
These new little pockets in your food don’t have to go unfilled. Season the cuts by adding oil, dry seasonings, or fresh aromatics. Using your hands, thoroughly rub the ingredients into all marks. You can also put fresh aromatics in these pockets. Stick crushed cloves of garlic or pieces of ginger or sprigs of thyme and sage into the cuts and, for God’s sake, don’t forget the salt.