How to quickly cook meat: the secrets of culinary skills

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

The first step to making a delicious meal is buying good food. Experienced housewives always choose the freshest vegetables, fruits and herbs, natural milk and butter, and the meat of young animals and poultry. It is from young pork, beef or lamb that you can cook the most delicious dishes. Plus, you don't have to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, as the tender meat will cook through faster.

But sometimes a chef has to work with what they have. And sometimes you need to figure out how to quickly cook meat that is not the best variety. How should one act in such a situation? In fact, there are several ways in which you can quickly cook tough meat. They are quite simple, but they save a lot of time and effort.

How long to cook meat

Meat is the main source of protein in our diet. Of course, there are those who do not eat animal food at all, or prefer to see fish on their plates. However, most people on the planet are meat eaters. And they can't refuse stew orwell done steak.

So how long does it take to cook the meat? It all depends on its origin, and the age of the animal, for example:

1. Beef is ready in 1.5 hours. Veal - for one hour. If the meat is from an old animal, it may take 2-2.5 hours.
2. Lamb is boiled for two hours. Meat of a young animal - 1.5 hours.
3. Camel comes to readiness 1 hour after boiling.
4. Pork is cooked for at least two hours. Pork from a young animal - 1.5 hours.
5. Horse meat is considered quite tough and fibrous meat. In order to make it softer, it must be stewed or boiled for at least two hours.
6. A rabbit in the form of a whole carcass is boiled for 1.5 hours until done. If the rabbit meat is chopped into pieces, then the whole process will take 45-50 minutes.
7. Beef tongue is boiled whole for 3 hours. And only then they clean and butcher.
8. Veal tongue is a more tender and delicate product. It will cook in 1.5 hours.
9. Pig tongue is cooked in the same way as beef tongue - 2-3 hours, depending on the age of the animal.
10. Beef and pork lung. This offal only needs to be cooked for 25 minutes.
11. Beef udder. It is prepared infrequently, after soaking in cold water for at least 3 hours. Then boil for one hour.
12. Beef kidneys. Offal with a characteristic unpleasant odor. Kidneys should be soaked for at least 3 hours. And during cooking, change the water 2-3 times, each time washing the offal under water. Cooking time is one hour.
13. Beef heart is cooked until done for 1.5 hours as a whole. Veal - one hour.
14. Beef liver, cut into large pieces or whole, comes to readiness in 30 minutes. Soaking time - 30-40 minutes.
15. Pork liver is boiled for 40 minutes. Soaking time - two hours.
16. The whole chicken is boiled for at least an hour. Pieces - 40 minutes. If the bird is free-range (village), then the cooking time should be doubled.

From all of the above, you can understand that old meat needs to be cooked 1.5-2 times longer. The size of the piece is also of great importance - the smaller it is, the faster it will reach readiness. How to quickly cook old meat? There are several cooking techniques that can help with this.

Slicing thickness

To understand how to quickly cook beef, pork or lamb meat, you need to carefully examine the piece before buying. Young meat is pink or red, with white layers of fat. Dark meat with yellow veins indicates that either a piece has stale on the counter, or it came from an old animal.

If the old meat has already been bought, then you will have to work with what you have.

The first thing that comes to mind is to cut the meat into small pieces. The smaller they are, the faster they will cook, and the softer the texture will be. This is a good method, but it is not suitable for all dishes. Since sometimes it is necessary to boil the meat in a whole, rather large piece.

Using a pressure cooker

The older generation of culinary experts can easily answer the question abouthow to cook meat quickly. To do this, you just need to use a pressure cooker!

The pressure cooker is a unique kitchen unit. In fact, this is an ordinary saucepan, but with a tight airtight lid that does not release steam. Because of this, the pressure rises in the tank, and the temperature of the water rises from the usual 100 ⁰С during boiling to 121 ⁰С. Therefore, all food in the pressure cooker cooks faster. It has been experimentally established that it will take 50-70% less time to cook meat.

The modern analogue of a pressure cooker is a multicooker. It also has a tight sealable lid and plenty of different programs, so you can quickly cook pork or beef through it.

Meat in onion sauce

How to cook meat quickly? Experienced chefs advise pre-marinating it in some kind of sauce. We are not talking about sharp and too expressive dressings. You need to use one product, such as onions. To do this, a piece of meat, previously thawed, must be sent to a bag with onions, chopped into large rings and half rings, and closed tightly. Onions and meat will give juice, which will become a marinade. The holding time is 7 hours, that is, you can marinate the meat overnight.

Then the pork or beef is cleaned of onions and washed under running water. After that, the piece is sent to the pan. In this way, the cooking time can be halved.

Mustard dressing

How to cook meat quickly? Instead of onionsauce, you can use mustard. Pork or beef is coated with it, and also sent to the refrigerator overnight. Then the mustard is washed off or left. This seasoning is very appropriate in many dishes and will enrich their taste.

Egg Marinade

There is another way to quickly cook meat. A piece of tough beef or pork should be soaked in a raw egg. Exposure time - from 5 to 12 hours. As a result, it will become very tender and will literally melt in your mouth. However, before cooking, the remains of the egg must be washed off. Otherwise, they will cook and there will be ugly inclusions in the dish.

Quick meat soup

How to cook soup with meat quickly and tasty? If the beef or pork is on the bone, besides being tough and old, then it will take a long time to cook. But when cooking a fillet, it can be divided into small pieces - so they will reach readiness twice as fast. To make the broth rich, put the meat in cold water.

The fastest way to cook soup with meatballs, that is, process pork and beef into minced meat. The twisted product is ready in 10-15 minutes.

However, experienced chefs do not recommend using old meat for cooking soup. It is more suitable for long stewing or baking.