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Have you ever noticed that when you eat at a Chinese restaurant, the meat is always so soft and tender? It seems like your knife just slides through it without any effort at all. A lot of Chinese recipes recommend tenderizing beef and other meat with Baking Soda . Salt can help tenderize meat, and since baking soda is made mostly from sodium, it makes sense that it can be used as a meat tenderizer. If you’ve got a particularly tough cut of meat or beef, and you’re looking to make it more tender, but don’t want it to turn out as dry as a bone, try baking soda. Here’s how to tenderize beef with baking soda.

This method is for raw beef.

If you use this method on precooked beef, it will leave the meat with a baking soda taste. It’s most effective on small cuts of beef that you use in stir-fry dishes or stews. You may want to slice the beef into the desired size before tenderizing. After the meat has been tenderized, it may just fall apart as you’re cutting it later. First, take your beef and determine how much you have. You want to use one teaspoon of baking soda per pound. It doesn’t matter if it’s an exact teaspoon, just make a rough estimate. It will all be washed off in the end. Once you determine how much beef you have, use the correct amount of baking soda to sprinkle over the meat. Use your fingers to work it into the beef, making sure you cover the entire piece.

Next, you’ll want to let the beef sit for a while.

You want to let it marinate in the baking soda for 15 to 20 minutes. You can put the tenderized beef in a bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and either put it in the refrigerator, or leave it sitting on the counter for the set amount of time. Some people say you should marinate it over night. Be warned, however, if you leave it marinating that long, the meat might end up with a distinct baking soda flavor.

Once you’ve let it marinate for about 20 minutes, rinse the beef thoroughly.

The baking soda is used as a tenderizer, not to add any flavor. Rinse it off in the sink, then shake or wipe off any excess water. Pat the meat with paper towels to get it dry. You can also pat it dry with a cloth, but make sure that it’s been properly washed and hasn’t been sitting where it could have gotten dirty. Paper towels are preferable, because cloth tends to get dirty quicker, even if it hasn’t been used.

All that’s left for you to do, is to cook the beef according to whatever recipe you’re using. You can marinate it in something else without a problem if the recipe calls for it. The baking soda was used only to tenderize the meat, not as a normal marinade.

The next time you’re looking for a way to tenderize beef or other meat, try the baking soda method. Using this method of tenderizing beef will ensure you get meat so soft, you’ll be able to slide your knife through it with no problem at all. Your dinner guests will be curious to know how you got it to turn out so tender. You’ll be the one to know the secret on how to tenderize beef with Baking Soda . You now know the secret as to how so many Chinese restaurants get their beef so tender. This tenderizer works well with other meats, including pork and chicken.

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