Cooked Perfect Complete? Thermometer

Preparing your meat

Safety first...

Before you unwrap your meat, make sure your hands, worktops and any equipment like knives are really clean. It’s always a good idea to have a separate meat chopping board too.

You’ll need to give everything a good wash after touching the raw meat too, especially if you’re handling cooked food next.

Finally, and we know this sounds obvious, double check to make sure you take off all the packaging before you start cooking. We have even had chefs get this wrong in the past!

Seasoning

Why do we season?

The reason for seasoning meat is both to add flavour to the meat and to bring out the natural flavours, within the meat itself.

Additionally certain seasonings, such as salt, help to break down the meat and improve the texture.

What is seasoning?

Seasoning is normally thought of as adding salt or pepper, but it can also mean the process of adding any herb or spice to a piece of meat in order to bring out, or add to the flavour of the finished dish.

Seasoning can also mean adding flavouring in the form of a liquid such as Tabasco or Worcestershire sauce, as well as items such as mustard, spread onto a rib of beef.

When is seasoning applied?

Seasoning, in the case of salt and pepper is applied, either just prior to sealing or cooking the meat, or just after sealing (sealing is done by placing the meat in hot oil or oil and butter and leaving for a short time on each side to ‘seal’ the meat). Or alternatively the meat can be brushed with oil and seared in a dry hot non-stick frying pan. The reason for saying season just before or after is because most chefs believe in one or the other method. If you season meat too early before cooking, the salt will draw out the moisture, meaning a less juicy piece of meat, however if you season just before cooking the seasoning will help to impart flavour into the meat. If you seal the meat and then season it, the sealed meat will not release any juice. Hence the two theories. Try both and see what you think!

Marinating

What is marinating?

Marinating is the process of adding flavour to meat by seasoning or soaking with liquid. When you read the term in a recipe "marinate for two hours in..." it is merely saying put the meat into the stated marinade. You can marinate meat in many different things from simple oils such as walnut or olive, to spicy oils such as peri-peri, as well as many other things such as soya sauce, (normally mixed with something else as it is a very strong flavour, try soya sake and walnut oil) or a simple lemon juice and oil combination. You can also make a marinade from a mixture of items with both liquid and spice, or vegetables and fruit. The length of time you marinate a piece of meat for depends on the size and type of the meat and the end result required.

There are also other considerations such as temperature. The warmer the environment, the less time is required to marinate a piece of meat. A marinade may also tenderise the meat. The more acidic a marinade, the more it will affect the texture of the meat and can improve the quality of the finished dish. The type and cut of meat will be important in deciding what type of marinade to use and for how long. To really take on the flavour of your marinade, your meat needs to sit in it for an hour or two. The marinade can only sink so deep into the meat, so pierce it to make a few little holes and let some soak into the flesh. While all that’s happening, cover it up and put it back in the fridge.

Simple marinade examples

When you make lamb skewers to cook on the barbeue, you can prepare these in advance and leave them to marinate in a mixture of sunflower oil and lemon juice flavoured with rosemary.

For beef kebabs, use onions, pimento peppers and crushed black pepper marinated in soya sauce, sake and light olive oil.

For stews or casseroles try marinades such as combinations from apple juice or calvados with pork to red wine marinades for stewing. These marinades can also have vegetables and/or herbs added to them.

Ready, steady, cook?

However you prepare your meat, it’s best to get it out of the fridge a while before you start cooking, so it comes up to room temperature

From Broad Stripe Butchers