How do they make these? The meat processing plant has plenty of trimmings and tough,

connective-tissue-rich meats that are not much good for anything but dog and cat food. But

people food fetches a higher price, so the processors grind up, flake or chop and finally

restructure them into a shape that's easy to handle and slice. Of course, they add many other

things like binders, conditioners, preservatives, salt and flavorings before cooking and shaping.

Consumers recognize their shapes, even their textures as ham, turkey breast, roast or steak but

not their flavor. Low prices more than compensate for the change in flavor for many consumers.

Meat in the Kitchen

When it comes to preparing meat, a cook's major goal is tenderness, juiciness and flavor.

To consistently turn out the best meat, it helps to have a basic insight of what happens to meat

when you heat it. Cooking experience over your stove also helps.

From earlier discussion you know a little about muscle tissues, connective tissues and fat.

These three determine potential tenderness as well as flavor.

The amount and kind of connective tissue surrounding the meat is the most difficult to

deal with in the kitchen, and it affects tenderness the most. Some meat, like flank steak, has a lot

of connective tissue reinforcement, so it is almost as tough as tires. Most of it is collagen, which

fortunately converts to soft gelatin through slow cooking. Elastin and reticulin, the other

connective tissues are less common, fortunately for us, because these remain tough no matter

how long you cook them.

TASTINGS Tenderness to a professional palate

Professional food tasters use three criteria to assess meat tenderness:

a) the ease with which their teeth sink into the meat,

b) the ease with which their teeth break up the meat into fragments,

c) the residue left in their mouth after chewing.

The water-holding capacity of meat has an impact on tenderness, too. The more water it

retains in cooking, the juicier the meat is on your plate. Some meats have better water retention

qualities than others, and some cooking methods promote water retention more than others.

Juiciness is actually a combination of the amount of fat and moisture, up to a certain point.

Chewing on a fatty meat with little moisture, for example, doesn't give the same pleasant

sensation that chewing juicy meat does. What brining of the meat, that I discussed above, does is

to increase its moisture content.

Tenderness and juiciness are somewhat related. A tender meat is usually also juicy, but a

juicy meat may not be tender. No matter how juicy a piece of brisket is, if it is full of tough

connective tissues, it won't be very tender.

Unless you're willing to eat your meat raw and cold, you're going to lose some moisture

in the preparation in almost any cooking method. As soon as you apply heat, moisture begins to

evaporate from the surface. The muscle fibers respond and slowly contract releasing even more

moisture. When you are broiling and grilling, you lose the least moisture because the cooking

process is so rapid, but the lost juices are gone for good. While you lose much more moisture in

roasting, some of those juices, along with their flavor and nutrients, become part of the gravy or

sauce. One of your goals, no matter what your cooking technique is, to preserve as much of the

original part of the meat as possible.

Serious Kitchen Play