Stew meat, probably the less tender cuts of meat, is a mainstay of my diet. Occasionally, the butcher would kill an old cow and I’d get very tough chunks of meat. I’ve considered using meat tenderizer but some brands contain questionable ingredients, e.g, Adolph’s is supposed to contain high concentrations of sodium:
www.ismp.org/MSAarticles/Sodium.html
Are there any other sources and brands of good quality dry papain enzyme that you would recommend?
get a slow cooker and stew the meat overnight in that with some vegetables. makes everything tender regardless, food won’t lose its nutrients, takes no cooking skill, you can make several days worth at once and you only have to wash one pot.
You can use fresh Kiwi fruit, papaya or mango. Kiwi is probably the cheapest. These have powerful enymes that will break down the meat. If you are worried about chemical additives this is the way to go.
Or pineapple
Or try a Jacard tenderizer; good for when you’re short on time.
http://www.butcher-packer.com/ c_meattenderizers.htm
Bromelain (sold in capsules as a dietary
supplement; Twinlab used to sell it and
perhaps still does) is highly effective.
In fact, you have to be careful to use
only tiny amounts, diluting into water
so as not to use too much, or it will
turn the meat into complete mush. Good
tasting mush actually – could be a good
thing for people who cannot chew at all –
but still probably not what you had in
mind.
Thanks for all the info guys! In fact, I do use a slow cooker to stew beef, but the most recent batch of meat is so stringy I sprained my jaw chewing even after 8 hours of cooking.
Bill, what’s the bromelain dosage for stew beef?
It’s a long time since I’ve done that,
and I had no exact formula. Basically,
an tiny pinch of the powder
from the capsule is plenty for a pound of
beef. If you put the powder directly onto
the beef it will be too concentrated, so
dilute in water first and then sprinkle
the water.