Easy Ways to Make Cheap Cuts of Meat Taste Expensive. Wise Bread Picks.

As one of the big- ticket items on your grocery list, meat can eat up a big portion of your budget if you're not careful. While many of us would love to dine on filet mignon and prime rib regularly, reality requires us to be a little more frugal with our protein. Fortunately many less- expensive cuts of meat can taste deliciously gourmet if prepared in the right way. Read on to find out how to cook these wallet- friendly cuts. See also: Cheap Ways to Add Big Flavor)Beef Chuck. Beef chuck is an economical cut that comes from the shoulder of the steer. It can be cut into chunks for stew, ground into ground beef, or braised whole.

Beef chuck is the perfect stew meat — it is full of connective tissue that softens and makes the meat tender and flavorful. The key with this tough cut is to cook it slowly. Boeuf Bourguignon. One of my favorite "gourmet" ways to prepare beef chuck is to make Julia Child's famous Boeuf Bourguignon, a slowly cooked, hearty stew that is perfect for a company dinner.

In addition to pineapple juice, green papaya does an amazing job tenderizing tough meat. We buy a green papaya at our local Vietnamese store (although our ordinary.

Beef Stroganoff. Beef stroganoff is a Russian stew with sour cream and fresh herbs that make it creamy and a perfect topping for buttery egg noodles. Try switching the parsley in this recipe with fresh dill — it's addictive! Beef Chuck Pot Roast. Pot roast is a traditional one- pot meal that works just as well for a family dinner as for a dinner party. And with the affordable prices of a beef chuck roast, you could potentially have one every Sunday.

See also: A Week of Lunches From One Pot Roast)4. Shredded BBQ Beef. If you love smoked BBQ brisket, but don't want to bother with slow- smoking, try using beef chuck in a braise instead in this BBQ beef recipe. Braising means you can easily cook the beef on the stovetop.

There are only three ways to tenderize tough cuts of meat, and one of them is cooking. There's also something that WON'T work, which might surprise you. Tough - Traduzione del vocabolo e dei suoi composti, e discussioni del forum. Pulling out all the stops in this instructional and showing you how to turn out the most amazingly tender and juicy smoked brisket you have ever tasted. Define tender: marked by, responding to, or expressing the softer emotions : fond, loving — tender in a sentence. Ingredients For Ceviche there.

Just shred and serve on a soft bun. Beef Shanks. Cross- cut beef shanks come from the leg of the steer. They are one of the most overlooked cuts of meat, and as a result tend to be very budget- friendly, even the grass- fed organic versions! The inclusion of bone and marrow makes for an intensely rich stew, as well as lots of healthy nutrients. See also: You Need More of These Nutrients)5.

Osso Buco. Osso buco, an Italian stew, is typically made with veal shanks, which tend to be expensive. But you can make osso buco with inexpensive beef shanks for a fraction of the price — although the flavor of the beef won't be as delicate as the veal, your wallet will appreciate the difference! Beef Shanks Braised in Red Wine. This budget- friendly recipe for beef shanks slowly braised in red wine ("Two- Buck Chuck" does the trick) makes meltingly tender chunks of flavorful beef, and it's easy to cook in the slow cooker. After the beef is cooked, the braising liquid is reduced to make a silky sauce.

Serve it over polenta for a cultured company meal. Beef Shanks and Cabbage Stew. This slow- cooker recipe for beef shanks with cabbage is one of my favorite easy one- pot meals. Hint: After you've finished eating the stew, save any leftover braising liquid and freeze it in an ice- cube tray. Throw the intensely flavorful stock cubes into stir- fries, chili, or anything that needs a shot of beefy flavor.

See also: Surprising Foods You Can Freeze)Skirt Steak. Skirt steak is one of the more commonly found affordable steaks at the supermarket and is often sliced thinly for fajitas or stir- fries. You can of course use it as such (use high heat and don't overcook it), but blast it briefly on high heat on the grill, and you've got a flavorful steak that's much more affordable than rib- eye or filet.

Grilled Skirt Steak With Chimichurri. Because skirt steak is so thin, cook it for only a couple minutes on each side to avoid overcooking. This Argentine- style skirt steak is served with aromatic chimichurri sauce. Soy Marinated Skirt Steak. Skirt steak also takes well to marinating in a soy- based sauce — let it sit for several hours to allow the flavors to penetrate. Then grill it over high heat.

Hanger Steak. Craving steak on a budget? Hanger steak is popular in French cuisine but is much more affordable than better- known steaks like tenderloin or ribeye. It's a large piece of steak that can be tough if overcooked and is best seared or broiled to medium- rare.

Be sure to slice it thinly against the grain. Unfortunately, hanger steak can be hard to find — there are only two steaks per animal — so if you find a store that stocks it, grab it when you can. Garlic and Herb- Marinated Hanger Steak. According to J. Kenji Lopez- Alt of Serious Eats, hanger steak's loose texture makes it perfect for marinating. Here, he marinates the steak for at least two hours in a flavorful mix of garlic and herbs before searing it on the grill.

See also: Cheap and Delicious Marinades)1. Beer- Marinated Hanger Steak. I love the flavor of a beer- marinated steak, and with a full day of marinating, this hanger steak is sure to soak up the flavor.

Rump Roast. Rump roast (or its cousins top round, bottom round, and eye of round roasts) comes from the muscled hindquarters of the steer and is thus quite tough. However, it's perfect for braising and for roast beef where the slow cooking tenderizes this lean cut. Roast Beef. This simple recipe for roast beef is perfect for serving a crowd relatively cheaply while still impressing your guests.

It also makes a great family meal. It uses a tough cut — the rump roast — and cooks it slowly for 2 to 3 hours. Be sure to use a thermometer to keep an eye on the doneness. Rump Roast Au Jus.

1. Cut it across the grain: One way to make tougher meats tender starts with your knife and fork (or on your cutting board). Cutting meat “across the grain.

An easy way to cook a rump roast low and slow is in the slow- cooker. Just put it in the slow cooker in the morning and a delicious roast is ready when you get home from work. See also: Best Slow Cookers)Pork Shoulder.

Pork shoulder is one of the most budget- friendly meat options I've come across. Recipe Mushroom Pasta Sauce more. A medium bone- in shoulder roast can feed a family of four for $1. It takes tremendously well to slow- cooking and shredding, making it a set- and- forget kind of meal. Pulled Pork. Roast a Boston butt low and slow in the oven with plenty of seasonings for delicious pulled pork. Warning: You will need to leave your oven on for several hours (1.

Cilantro Shredded Pork. One of my favorite ways to cook a pork shoulder is to dump it in a slow cooker with onions, a cup of salsa verde, a handful of chopped cilantro, a generous sprinkle of cumin and garlic powder, and salt and pepper. Set it on low for 8 hours or on high for 6.

How to Tenderize Tough Cuts of Meat. Some cuts of meat are more tender than others. That's just a culinary and biological fact.

If you like tender meat (and who doesn't?), there are a few things you can do. The most straightforward are to buy tender cuts of meat and prepare them properly. In general, this means not overcooking them. Or you can learn how to tenderize cuts of meat that would otherwise be tough. There are exactly three ways to do this. Which one to use depends on what type of meat it is, and why it's tough in the first place. What Makes Tough Meat Tough?

In general, exercise toughens muscles, whether it's your muscles or an animal's. And meat is a muscle. So the more exercise a muscle gets, the tougher the meat will be. That means that in the case of a steer, the big muscles around the leg and shoulder, which are used for locomotion and supporting the animal's weight, are tougher. Muscles high up along the back and ribs get less exercise, so they're more tender.

This is where the expression "high on the hog" comes from, but it applies equally to beef, lamb, and veal (although lamb and veal are pretty tender all over). Muscles also toughen with age, so the younger an animal is, the more tender its meat will be. Finally, overcooking meat can cause it to become tough.

That's because heat causes the proteins in the meat to become firmer. It also basically squeezes the juices out of it, and dry meat is tough meat. What Makes Meat Chewy? Chewiness isn't exactly the same as toughness — although tough meat is certainly chewy. Chewiness is related to connective tissue, and the length of the muscle fibers.

Connective tissue can mean thick pieces of gristle in between muscles, or it can mean the sheets of fibrous collagen that surround muscle fibers. Either way, connective tissue is chewy. You need to deal with it somehow. Finally, not all muscles have the same structure. Within a muscle, the muscle fibers are grouped together in bundles. Some bundles have more fibers in them than others, which causes the grain of the meat to be more coarse.

Long, thick muscle fibers will be tougher to chew. Cooking Meat Can Make it Tender. There are three ways to tenderize a tough piece of meat.

The first way is to cook it. Meat that's high in connective tissue can be tenderized by cooking it until the collagen melts away, which starts to happen when it's heated to between 1. F. And when it melts, it turns into gelatin. This doesn't happen right away. It can take hours. Tenderizing in this manner will require patience. But your patience will be rewarded.

Gelatin is soft and moist, and it coats and surrounds the muscle fibers, giving the meat a moist, succulent texture — even though it's been cooked well- done. One of the main techniques for accomplishing this is braising, which is a moist- heat cooking technique where the meat is immersed at least partially in some sort of liquid which is then maintained at a gentle simmer for a period of time sufficient to break down the collagen. Another method is a traditional barbecue, which basically involves heating the air around the meat to about 2. F and letting it cook for a long time, sometimes 8 hours or more. And it doesn't have to be plain air — sometimes it's smoke, which adds flavor.

Either way, melting the collagen in meat is a great way to tenderize it. Pound It With a Meat Mallet.

Another way to deal with the collagen is to break it up by force. There are a number of fancy machines and tools to do this, but the most basic way is with a meat mallet. Meat mallets usually have two surfaces — a flat side and a side with a lot of pointy bits on it. Pounding a steak with the pointy side of the mallet will cut up the connective tissues as well as the muscle fibers themselves. This allows a steak with a lot of connective tissue to be cooked over high heat without being too tough to eat. Steaks tenderized like this are sometimes called cube steaks, because the indentations created by the mallet are shaped like cubes. Cube steaks won't be as succulent as braised beef chuck, for example, and you'll certainly never mistake them for beef tenderloin.

But pounding is a quick and easy way to tenderize a steak. Pounding also has the advantage of flattening the meat, which allows it to cook more quickly. The longer a steak spends over the heat, the drier it gets. And since dry meat is tougher, preserving the juices will produce a more tender steak. This also works with chicken cutlets, like for making chicken piccata.)Slice It Thinly Against the Grain.

Finally, there's slicing — specifically, slicing thinly and against the grain. We talked about those muscle bundles earlier. Flank steak happens to have very long muscle fibers, and they run the length of the steak.

You could cook a flank steak perfectly medium rare, but if you sliced it along the grain, it would feel like you were chewing a mouthful of rubber bands. Slicing against the grain shortens those fibers, which means much less work for your jaws and teeth to do. But Wait. What About Marinating? You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned marinating. One of the most common misconceptions out there is that you can tenderize a piece of meat by marinating it. However, this simply isn't so.

Although it's a great technique for imparting flavor, marinating does not tenderize meat.