Beating your meat (Tenderizing beef..)

[steve knight]

My 81 year old Father recently bought me one of those spiked "meat hammers" claiming it will make my steaks more tender..I usually grill Porterhouses or NY strip, and frankly don't see the need to pound the living bejesus out of an expensive cut of meat..I also doubt whether or not it works..is pounding on your meat to tenderize it a myth or is it for real?

 

[chef willie]

Awww, truthfully...lmao at your post. 'pound the living bejesus outta it'....oh, gawd, freakin' priceless. Now, seriously....nobody with any brain cells left would pound on those cuts you mention. At 81, your dear ol' dad has probably eaten his share of pounded out round steaks in his day and probably only dreamed of eating a Porterhouse, god bless him. It kinda worked to a certain degree though back in the day. I prefer the Jacard piercing tool to tenderize a less expensive cut. Pierce all over and marinate overnight then slowly grill to perfection...something satisfying about that.

 

[hambone1950]

Certainly not a porterhouse ! You're tight about that. You might want to beat on a hunk of top round steak to thin it for chicken fried steak or something like that .....those meat hammers are for cheap cuts that have a lot of connective tissue or maybe for pounding chicken breasts thinner. You could also pound a pork chop out to make pork Milanese or the like , but a nice sirloin or a t-bone? Nay nay!

 

[sqwib]

Usualy Jaccard the hell out of top round.

 

[hooligan8403]

I wont use a meat hammer on a good cut of steak. Ill be honest I don't use square edged meat hammers as for me an old bomber bottle works just fine.

 

[turnandburn]

Yeh what others have said, its not for those expensive cuts that need no tenderizing...it's for the cheaper cuts, or budget steaks as I like to call them. Haha

 and I use that mallet thingy for chicken breasts when I'm gunna fry them up or pound them into submission and marinade them for a pollo asado.

If you're planning on using them on porterhouses or whatever lemme know and I'll save those quality cuts from absolute destruction!!! Hah

a.