flavoring meat

Re: flavoring meat


Welcome! Lately I've been amazed at the varieties of new products for marinating and adding flavor to meats. Just check out the spice aisle at any large grocery store.
What made you make the odd switch from vegetarian to meat lover, if I may ask?

I'm not really sure, and I guess that is because I'm not really sure why I was a vegetarian for so long, I guess I just thought I didn't like the taste of meat.

Do you have any specific product suggestions?

Lawry's has some good products

http://www.lawrys.com/Main/Default.aspx

Try salad dressings and vinaigrettes. Asian Sesame is great on pork or chicken and sun-dried tomato and oregano is awesome on beef. Sometimes the best things are the simplest, like celery salt on pork chops and montreal steak spice on beef steaks or roasts. TIP: Never put salt on meat before it's cooked. It dehydrates it and can cause it to be tough.

thanks for all the great advice!! any new or unusual ideas? I am hosting a dinner party for the first time since I have started making meat dishes and my friends question my innovativeness for meat dishes since I am great at preparing new and interesting vegetarian dishes but have just started branching into meat. i need something that has the "wow" factor.

If I were you, I'd try to keep it simple since you're not familiar with meat and you're trying to impress. You need to first learn about different cuts of meat and different methods of cooking for maximum taste and tenderness.

Why not try something simple like meatballs? There's a million recipes on the internet (try Rachel Ray's website) for meatballs....and everyone likes Italian food.

jmho :wink:

Chatter, I was just going to mention that about salad dressings!

cooking4life...here's a meat dish that simple to make, and I've alway gotten compliments...

Take a good lean pork loin and poke it all over with a knife.

In a zip lock bag, pour in raspberry vinegarette...or raspberry walnut dressing, maybe a cup. If it's a non fat, really low fat dressing, add some oil...just a tablespoon or 2.

Just let it marinate an hour or 2, or several...this is the type of thing I do in the morning, and toss in the oven when I get home.

Cook at 350 for about half and hour before checking on it...make sure you use a meat themometer..when the needle starts moving up on the themometer, it'll end up rising more quickly than when the meat is cold from the fridge, so keep check every 15 minutes or so.

Remove from the oven when it's at the rare stage...the pork will continue to cook while it's resting, and will remain tender if it's not overcooked.

The raspberry compliments the pork perfectly. I think baked apples would be wonderful as a side.

Also baked beets and couscous.
Walnets would be good on the beets and couscous, and the beat juice will give a lovely color to grain.

mmmm....

sounds deliscious chai, I've also been adding toasted flax seeds to a lot of dishes lately. They are great in salads and on homemade breads. They also add a different dimension to various meats when lightly sprinkled.

The "let it rest" thing is very good to mention. Too many roasts are ruined by leaving them in the oven until completely done. My rule of thumb is to take out the roast when the juices are a clear pink.

Cooking for a crowd? Try kabobs. They're fairly simple and you can incorporate mushrooms, broccoli, chunks of peppers in various colors and they can be BBQ'ed. You can also kabob chunks of potato

Can I piggy-back?

I have some "beef round eye of round" steaks that I want to do something with to be ready to eat in an hour or so. I am profoundly uninspired. I don't have a grill. Would be stovetop or oven. Broiler would be OK even though it scares me (it always takes way longer than it seems like it should).

Any ideas?

Got a cast iron skillet soz?

spinkle salt (kosher if you have it) on the meat, let it sit while you heat up the skillet.

Let the skillet heat up on HIGH heat for at least 10 minutes...let just do each side of the meat about 3 or 4 minutes until there's a good crust. Just your basic steak receipe

This is one of those things that turn out best if you don't keep fiddling with it.

Again, it'll keep cooking when you take it off.

If you want, you can then cut on the slant and serve with brocolli, rice...asian stly.

Eye of Round is one of the more tender cuts you will find. It may seem like a waste, but I really like it in stir fry.

Oh thanks, people!

Chai, I don't have a cast-iron skillet -- I use a really Revereware skillet I like a lot.

It's not no-stick or anything, though.

On salting meat, the thinking among chefs on that has changed. See explanation at the first link...

I had the original article, from, I think, the LA Times, by Judy Rodgers, the primo Zuni Cafe chef, on meat salting, but I lost it in this years computer melt down. Maybe, just maybe, Diane has a copy.

In the meantime, these links, which accentuate the timing of the salting -

http://www.emilykaiser.com/text/000421.php
http://endlessbanquet.blogspot.com/2007/01/zuni-nation.html

The long article I had, sob, described using this method for many other meats than chicken.

It's, like, totally Revereware!

(I left out the "nice." Really nice Revereware skillet.)

Can I just use a bit of oil? Does that mess with crust formation? (No, I don't make steak much.) (Or ever, really. Ahem.)

Well, I think it's worth a try soz. I'm sure it'll taste good.

High heat would cause the oil to smoke.

High heat is the secret really. Locks in the juices.


I don't use cast iron often at all...just for steaks, which is def NOT an everyday item.

Oh, I've also poured corn bread mix in a cast iron skillet, like making a, what is it called, a fitatta? In that you let it get cooked, then flip once.

It really is worth the investment to get one. They're not expensive, last forever, and are a source of iron in your diet.

Remember though, you have to season the skillet before ever using it. The first skillet I bought when I was young and dumb, and didn't season it right....food never cooked right in it ever after..

This one, I bought at Walmart....it was already seasoned, properly, and it made a BIG difference. You pretty much need only one in your lifetime.

Also, of course, you can't clean it in a sink full of water, it'll rust. I use coarse kosher salt to clean, with a little water to make a paste. After rinsing you put back on the stove under fire to dry, then wipe a paper towel with oil on it to keep it coated.

I like cleaning it, I feel like a pioneer woman

OK, I do HAVE one, and it's nicely seasoned too, but we haven't used it in forever and I'm not up to cleaning it and making sure it's all ready before I make dinner tonight.

Point taken about reserving one for steaks though.

I have a whole flock of cast iron pans and dutch oven, etc., that I bought at an army surplus store years ago, very inexpensive. Too bad I left the griddle in one of my abodes (on purpose, they're heavy, re shipping). While I've since gotten some Le Cruset, and my share of grocery store pans, I still use tha cast iron for things like steak, bread baking, and, just yesterday, pizzas....

cleaning it? just rinse...

I dunno. All I ever do is rinse mine. My old O'Keefe and Merritt stove had a lot of pilot lights and dried any pan quickly. Here, the air is dry generally.
I visited a friend in LA and offered to cook, fool, and scrambled to find a pan. Pull out the cast iron one, loaded with some kind of grease to keep it from rusting. Yaaaaaak!! I lived a block away from him for years, in a kind of foggy coastal zone, and just did the gentle oil rub that chai mentioned.

No, I looked at it and it needs some work before I'm willing to use it. Hasn't been used in probably 8 years or so, has some rusty stuff that didn't come off with a swipe, kind of uneven surface, I'd want to mess with it before cooking with it.