Tenderizing

In cooking, tenderizing is breaking down collagens in meat to make it more palatable.

There are a number of ways to tenderize meat:

• Mechanical tenderization, such as pounding, piercing, or even explosives.
• The tenderization that occurs through cooking, such as braising.
• Tenderizers in the form of naturally occurring enzymes, which can be added to food before cooking.
  • Examples of enzymes used for tenderizing: papain from papaya, bromelain from pineapple and actinidin from kiwifruit.
• Marinating the meat with vinegar, wine, lemon juice, buttermilk or yogurt.
• Brining the meat in a salt solution (brine).
• Dry aging of meat at 0 to 2 °C (32 to 36 °F).

See also

• Food portal