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To Make Meat Tender

A method for tenderizing beef or mutton using salt, vinegar, spices, or sour milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,759 recipes. Both carry 1-hexanal, which smells fruit. The science ↓

To Make Meat Tender

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Hang a large piece of beef or mutton in a dry, cool place for up to six weeks to tenderize.

  2. In summer, soak tough meat in vinegar for 3-4 days, adding spices as desired.

  3. To soften a tough steak, pour a few tablespoons of vinegar over it and let it sit for 12-24 hours.

  4. Alternatively, use sour milk for tenderizing, changing it daily and washing the meat afterward.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  2. Beef + vinegartop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,895 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Vinegar + milktop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,949 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Its acidity gently breaks down tough muscle fibers, softening the meat during soaking.
Sour milk
Its mild acidity softens tough meat fibers, and daily changes keep the soak fresh.
Beef or mutton
The main cut being tenderized; its connective tissue is what softens during hanging or soaking.

The step that matters

Hanging the meat in a dry, cool place. Hanging for weeks relies on slow enzyme activity in cool conditions. Too warm a place lets surface spoilage start before the meat softens, so keeping it cool and dry matters.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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