BajaNomad - Tenderizing Sonoran Beef

Tenderizing Sonoran Beef

LaloinBaja - 2-18-2011 at 12:53 PM

I love the meat here...But it's typically tough...Any new ideas to tenderize like New York cuts????

DavidE - 2-18-2011 at 01:15 PM

Try this:

Purchase a whole, fresh papaya. Blend a chunk of it with water to make a thick sauce. Next take a fork and stab the meat like you hated it. Many punctures. Then slather on the papaya both sides. Rub it into the punctures. Slip the marinated meat into the refrigerator overnight. Remove, rinse and enjoy beef that is about as tender as it'll ever get without grinding it doble molida. This process works up to a point

Papaya to tenderize beef

LaloinBaja - 2-18-2011 at 01:18 PM

OK...Thanks...Will buy Papaya today and enjoy tomorrow

Russ - 2-18-2011 at 01:41 PM

Sonoran Beef : Go to a new store to buy your meat. I haven't had any tenderness issues with the meat I've bought in La Paz at the CCC. It has been as tender of more than most meats from the States. There isn't anything wrong with tenderizing but you shouldn't have to with a good cut from Sanora. Good luck.

bajajudy - 2-18-2011 at 01:51 PM

I agree with Russ...find a new supplier
When we first started coming down here in the early 80's, we used to buy steaks, grill them, chew them to get the flavor out, and spit out the meat. I had never tasted better nor tougher beef.
Now I get terrific meat at any of the super markets. It isnt an issue.
Papaya does work...it has the same enzyme as meat tenderizer, I think.

Cypress - 2-18-2011 at 02:16 PM

Take something in hand heavy and hammer it for a while, then hammer it some more. If not, your jaw muscles will get a good work-out and might cramp-up before you can choke it down. The Heimlich maneuver comes to mind. :spingrin:

BAJA.DESERT.RAT - 2-18-2011 at 02:19 PM

Hola, if you look at one of the main ingredients in meat tenderizer ( at least the ones we've used ), papaya is one of the ingredients.

we've used it for years but i use the hawaiian papayas. i cut it in half, scrape out the seeds, and then take a spoon and scrape the meat to make a paste. then, i put portions of it, about two or three tablespoons in ziploc bags, flatten it out and freeze them.

when used, it thaws pretty fast and i just put whatever meat in another ziploc and just mush it around until it covers the meat. i just leave it in the bag for about an hour or so, and throw it on the grill or however i'm going to cook it, most usually stir fries.

if you cut the meat up into thin slices like a stir fry, about a half hour is all that it takes or the meat will just fall apart.

we learned this method from the owner of a chinese restaurant years ago.

let me know how it works for you.

BIEN SALUD, DA RAT

mcfez - 2-18-2011 at 02:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by LaloinBaja
I love the meat here...But it's typically tough...Any new ideas to tenderize like New York cuts????

Ho ho ho! I use a combination of Lime juice with a splash of Jack Daniels. let set for two hours, then flip it on the hot coals.

I learned this many years ago from the chef of the El Cozumeleno Hotel. His name was Rubin. Had done several gigs at the White House. Gods....that island used to be so much fun before the steel tubs over ran the joint.

Cypress - 2-18-2011 at 02:22 PM

BAJA.DESERT.RAT, Learn something every day on this forum. Thanks. :yes:

captkw - 2-18-2011 at 02:38 PM

when I was a kid,down here the beef was tough....get the sorn0ran beef ,,,better than the calif beef..anyday :tumble:

Oso - 2-18-2011 at 02:39 PM

Read the ingredients in Adolph's etc., definitely papaya. But if you don't want to mess with natural beef flavor, try arrachera (flank steak), it's a more naturally tender cut than other steaks.

Oso - 2-18-2011 at 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mcfez

Quote:

Originally posted by LaloinBaja
I love the meat here...But it's typically tough...Any new ideas to tenderize like New York cuts????

Yeah, but why put it on the meat? Better to just prime the stomach with it.

captkw - 2-18-2011 at 02:42 PM

I alway's get the marinated arrachera and it seems to be a crowd pleaser,,and in come's in a tough plastic bag that handles the ice chest load well.....

Spearo - 2-18-2011 at 04:16 PM

If you buy the arrachera make sure you rinse it a little or it will be waaaaayyy salty.

Bajahowodd - 2-18-2011 at 04:38 PM

I have always thought that for the most part, Sonoran beef was considered to be a premier product. Thus, the need to tenderize it seems superfluous.

I have memories of beef in BCS many years ago. It was awful. Always figured it was free range stuff from the local desert.

Pompano - 2-18-2011 at 05:28 PM

Where are the vegans? Speak out! Save the Sonoran beef cattle!

All this palaver about tenderizing beef is for city slickers...shucks..a good steak is meant to be chewed..and and chewed..and chewed.

Woooosh - 2-18-2011 at 06:33 PM

Everyone's in a hurry to eat a chunk of beef tomorrow that took years to grow? Dry age some for a couple weeks- just like a Kansas City steakhouse would. Let nature do it's thing.

vandenberg - 2-18-2011 at 06:49 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Woooosh
Everyone's in a hurry to eat a chunk of beef tomorrow that took years to grow? Dry age some for a couple weeks- just like a Kansas City steakhouse would. Let nature do it's thing.

A couple of weeks here in Loreto in the summer would make it liquid and likely consumed by maggots by then. :biggrin:

All the beef we've been getting at the big stores in La Paz have been excellent and tender. Try the filete or the whole diezmillo cuts. Delicious !! Anytime as good as in the US.

[Edited on 2-19-2011 by vandenberg]

Woooosh - 2-18-2011 at 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by vandenberg

A couple of weeks here in Loreto in the summer would make it liquid and likely consumed by maggots by then. :biggrin:

[Edited on 2-19-2011 by vandenberg]

yeah, but rotting is the tenderizing process. gross huh?

Russ - 2-18-2011 at 07:20 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Pompano
Where are the vegans? Speak out! Save the Sonoran beef cattle!

All this palaver about tenderizing beef is for city slickers...shucks..a good steak is meant to be chewed..and and chewed..and chewed.

Assuming your dental plan is up to date and you've taken advantage of it.
My bro-in -law burns and great medium rare chunk of meat after it's soaked in some Jack for an hour or so. Charcoal only no gas for him.

capt. mike - 2-19-2011 at 08:21 AM

never pierce steak - it will take all the juiciness out of it when you grill.

all you need is fruit acids.

Pompano - 2-19-2011 at 08:31 AM

Best beef in the world..does not exist. It all spends way too much time in your colon. Eat asparagus.

DENNIS - 2-19-2011 at 08:35 AM

Cook tough beef in a crock pot.........slooooowly for a long time. I've seen road-kill turned edible in one of those things.
I used to hang out in Loreto in the 60s when there was a meat market across the street from the Plaza. When the butcher got word that a cow had been hit on the road, he'd close up shop and go get that unfortunate critter.
Crock Pots were new on the market then and my neighbor had one. That's when I learned of the magic they can perform.

oldlady - 2-19-2011 at 08:54 AM

You can try dry aging at home. Little bit of effort, but Nomads,( who can't afford asparagus) are often up to the challenge. Here's a link:

http://www.askthemeatman.com/is_it_possible_to_dry_age_beef_...

Pompano - 2-19-2011 at 08:55 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by DENNIS
Cook tough beef in a crock pot.........slooooowly for a long time. I've seen road-kill turned edible in one of those things.
I used to hang out in Loreto in the 60s when there was a meat market across the street from the Plaza. When the butcher got word that a cow had been hit on the road, he'd close up shop and go get that unfortunate critter.
Crock Pots were new on the market then and my neighbor had one. That's when I learned of the magic they can perform.

Dennis, Dennis....you need to spend more time on farms and ranches in the Mid-West. Crockpots were part of every farm & ranch kitchen since forever...the only new idea was putting an electric cord onto them. My grandmother made the best slow-cooked dishes in this world. :yes:

Also put up beef in jars...mmmmm...so tender.

I recall..and saw..all the jokes about road-kills back in the day. And a lot were NOT jokes...We called them Michelin tacos.

oldlady - 2-19-2011 at 09:11 AM

Indeed! Pot-au-Feu! Even a steak lover like me acknowledges it Rivals steak for flavor.

DENNIS - 2-19-2011 at 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by oldlady
Indeed! Pot-au-Feu! Even a steak lover like me acknowledges it Rivals steak for flavor.

Yep....you do remember. Rival was the crockpot brand name.

Here's a mess of Pot-au-Feu to warm you on a rainy day.

http://cache.boston.com/resize/bonzai-fba/Globe_Photo/2008/0...

DENNIS - 2-19-2011 at 10:05 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Pompano

Dennis, Dennis....you need to spend more time on farms and ranches in the Mid-West. Crockpots were part of every farm & ranch kitchen since forever

Oh, well...wadooIknow. I was raised at the beach in California. Everything was electric or we didn't know about it.

oldlady - 2-19-2011 at 10:19 AM

I've noticed of late that the inventory of crock pots in the Segundas has increased and most of them look like they have never been used. My widower neighbor picked one up and is slow cooking everything imaginable. Loves the darn thing.

DENNIS - 2-19-2011 at 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by oldlady
I've noticed of late that the inventory of crock pots in the Segundas has increased and most of them look like they have never been used. My widower neighbor picked one up and is slow cooking everything imaginable. Loves the darn thing.

That's good to know. I'll start hitting the Segundas.
Every household should have a pile of Crockpots. When the freezer burns up, you can put all that thawed meat in your Crockpots and it will last for at least a week before it's vaporized. By then the new appliance should be in place and you can take everything out of the Pots and freeze it.

mcfez - 2-19-2011 at 10:55 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by DENNIS

Quote:

Dennis.....you should had been on stage as a stand up comic. :cool:

Marc - 2-19-2011 at 11:37 AM

Possibly the best steak I ever had was at the Sonora Steak House in Hermosillo. They wheel out a huge chunk and cut it as thick as you want. Very generous with the tequila also.

Marc - 2-19-2011 at 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Don Jorge
I’ve often wondered why Sonoran beef no longer is synonymous with tender, grain fattened animals yielding quality primal cuts. Of course, the answer is simple enough. Grain fed cattle is fed grain and lots of it.

Pre NAFTA corn was subsidized very, very heavily in Mexico and heavily in America. Today corn is no longer subsidized in Mexico but is still subsided in America. Subsidies combined with commodity price infaltion due to currency hedging, growing worldwide demand and production variability make corn very expensive in Mexico. Thus feedlots are very, very expensive to operate in Mexico.

Consumption habits are changing in Mexico and USA exported box beef when allowed to cross the border south bound drives the price of hung beef in Mexico lower and lower. To cut cattle production costs in Mexico most beef animals are not finished properly.

I’m a fan of any beef that has been finished on the long gain. Animals which have been gaining steadily for several months, be it on grain or preferably sweet grass, yield tender meat.

Dry aging firther tenderizes the meat. Dry aging is usually done immediately after the carcass is hung and allows naturally occurring carcass enzymes to act as tenderizers. This dry ageing is done at controlled temperature and humidity. Two weeks is about the time it takes. It can also be done at home on cuts under refrigeration if you are careful. It works.

Sonoran beef was the best beef I ever tasted back then, but then was 20 years ago. IMO Sonoran beef is just another dear memory of old Mexico.

Oh yeah, back to the question. Use papaya to tenderize meats, but try to use green, unripe papays if you can. Papayas contain the enzyme papain which is a digestive enzyme and is more abundant in green, unripe fruits. This papain is the tederizer. Now I'm hungry.

My Grandfather, always dry aged his beef. First in Spain, and then here. I remember my father describing the process, and having to cut/scrape mold from it.

MitchMan - 2-19-2011 at 01:44 PM

Hey, Nomads, I got a tip for you meat eaters.

I don't care what quality butchers/stores here or in Baja represent their meat to be (eg, select, choice, prime, or even Sonoran). The way to get good meat is to squeeze it/depress it with your thumb. If you can press a steak at least 50% of its thickness (more is even better) and to the extent the meat holds the impression of your thumb (sort of like clay), then that is the degree of its tenderness. This works for rib eye, New York, chuck, and especially top steak. Also, the meat is usually junk the more 'white' the fat is.

I eat only sonoran rib eye steak purchased from Walmart in La Paz when I am there, every 5 days of my stay. I drop in there every day to buy stuff, mostly food. Every day I go into Walmart and search for good rib eye. I buy it when I find it passes my thumb test, and freeze it until the fifth day. I pull it out of the freezer about 5 hours before cooking it. In two hours, after it is thawed, I salt and pepper and garlic it and soy sauce it and let it set out for the next three hours covered air tight in seran wrap to absorb the seasonings and get to room temperature.

Then I barbecue it over mesquite charcoals. Oh Mama!

By the way, the chicken in Mexico is the absolute best. They are smaller than US chickens, but he meat, especially the white meat, is always very tender and very, very tasty compared to the stuff in USA, IMO., and the stuff in USA isn't bad. Love the chicken wings, marinate those guys in salt, pepper, garlic, a little soy sauce, cooking oil, and a little fresh jalapeno and put in a plastic bag air tight and let stand in the refrigerator for 24 hours, lovingly turning it over when ever I think of it. Then, barbecue over mesquite coals. Man, that is good with a very cold Modelo Negro with a lime. You don't need barbecue sauce, gets in the way of the smokey flavor.

How come some of you use briquettes? The baja is loaded with Mesquite wood, it's everywhere. Or, maybe I am spoiled because I have two giant mesquite trees in my back yard and two smaller ones in front of the house. But the field next to the house is loaded with them.

[Edited on 2-19-2011 by MitchMan]

JESSE - 2-19-2011 at 03:18 PM

The quality of beef from Sonora ranges from poor to sublime depending on the producer, just like anywhere else in the world. When you go into a mercado, don't be fooled by the word "Sonora beef", yes it means the beef comes from Sonora, but it doesn't mean its HIGH QUALITY Sonora beef.

Beef quality

First thing you need to inspect, is the marbling. If the beef has plenty of marbling (amounts of intramuscular fat), then chances are the beef will be tender enough.

The second test is the one you make at your table. Some beef has plenty of marbling yet the quality of the fat (due to poor or low grade feed) is not very good.

Tenderizing

If you need to use tenderizers for your beef, you probably need a different supplier. There is no way you can succesfully tenderize a piece of beef without implanting the taste of the tenderizer on the meat, and thus, destroying its natural flavors.

Any tenderizer only works on the surface of a steak (assuming your steak is about 3/4 to 1 inch thick), so it would only work on thin slices of beef not on thick ones.

A better way

There is one way you can improve both the taste and the tenderness of a steak. Its called Salt curing a steak. Basically you buy at least two bags of coarse grain sea salt, you place all the contents of one bag in a plate big enough for your steak, and place the steak on top, then add the second bag of salt and completely cover the steak with the salt (your steak wich should be at least about an inch thick).

Add salt

Cover with salt

Pat dry after an hour or so

Cook

Let the steak sit in the salt for at least 1 hr, no more than 2. Then rinse the steak with cold water, pat dry, add olive oil and grill, preferably not cooked over medium or medium rare. Almost at the end, ad VERY LITTLE salt, or it will taste salty. And you should have a more juicy and tender steak that tastes natural.

Why?

Salt initially draws water from the steak. As the water comes in contact with the salt, it disolves, and then its re-absorbed by the steak via osmosis. Since salt relaxes protein cells, now you have salt INSIDE the steak, not only on the surface for flavor, effectively making your steak more tender, more juicy, and more flavorful.

Saludos!

Marc - 2-19-2011 at 09:30 PM

Thanks Jesse!!!

LaloinBaja - 2-20-2011 at 09:17 AM

OK Ya'll...I think I try th Jack on myself and then the papaya recommendations...A little lime or grapefruit seems to help too

MitchMan - 2-20-2011 at 11:51 AM

Thanks, Jesse, great post.

Where in La Paz can I get such sea salt?

Cypress - 2-20-2011 at 11:54 AM

Cut into small cubes and place in meat grinder. :tumble:

yeah!! that's how i make

capt. mike - 2-21-2011 at 05:21 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Cypress
Cut into small cubes and place in meat grinder. :tumble:

steak tartar, using only prime filet of course. i use a food processor tho not a grinder as i have to add many secret ingredients while the carne is blending down.

Jesse's method is killer too.