Handling Beef with Confidence

Start by familiarizing yourself with food safety tips. Wash your hands before and after handling raw meat, thaw in the refrigerator, keep raw meat separate from other ingredients and perishable items.

Try these tips to make your meal tastier:

•Seasoning: Burgers, meatloaf, meatballs and other ground beef recipes will be more tender if you handle the meat as little as possible as you add seasonings and other ingredients. If you over mix it, you’ll end up with a firm, compact texture after cooking.

•Browning: Dry beef by patting with paper towel before cooking. Liquid sizzles in the pan creating steam that can prevent browning.

•Uniformity: To evenly cook kabobs, cut into equal-sized cubes (but don’t worry if they’re not perfectly square) and leave a little space between each piece.

•Stir-frying: Put beef in the freezer for about 30 minutes, or until just firm, to make the meat firm and easier to cut into strips.

•Salting: Add salt after cooking. Salting before cooking can draw the moisture and juices out of the meat.

•Turn Meat with Tongs: If you use a fork, it will pierce the beef and release flavorful juices. When flipping burgers, you can also use a spatula, but don’t use it to press down on the beef, or you’ll lose the juices that make your burger moist.

•Monitor the Heat: If the heat is too high you might overcook your beef on the outside while the inside is still undercooked. For tender beef, cooked to the desired doneness. Use medium heat with most dry-heat cooking methods, such as grilling and sautéing, and medium-high heat for stir-frying. Low heat is ideal for moist-heat cooking methods, like braising.

•Marinades and Rubs: Marinades and rubs not only add excitement and flavor to many cuts of beef, but with the right ingredients, marinades can also be used to make some cuts more tender.