Chuck cuts for cooking

The goal of most cooks is to serve a tender piece of beef. The key is to correctly match the cut of meat to an appropriate cooking technique, although the grade and age of the beef also come into play.

Chuck cut, the boneless item is prepared from any chuck item with the brisket and foreshank removed. Although less tender, chuck (shoulder area) wholesale cuts provide many popular retail cuts. The chuck extends from the point where the rib of beef and chuck are separated to and including the neck.

These are the toughest cuts and should be cooked in a small amount of liquid and may need to be tenderized.

The large section of been known in England as ‘Neck, Shoulder and Rib’ as primary cut, this entire primary cut is known as ‘Chuck’ in America, and is divided into three cuts in that country as: Neck, Blade, and Arm and Shoulder

The chuck roasts most suitable for slow –roasting are (in order preference):
*Bone-in-blade roast
*Cross-rib roast
*Chuck eye roast
*Chick fillet or chuck tenderloin
*Shoulder or arm roast
*Boneless center blade roast

Slow roasting is particularly useful for lean beef cooked for cold, rare roasts beef sandwiches or salads, where little or no fat is wanted. There’s less shrinkage with slow roasting, it will give juicer results.

The chuck has plenty of connective tissues that melt down when the heat is cooked. This helps to add flavor and also helps to tenderize the meat.
Chuck cuts for cooking

Tenderizing meat by enzymes

Tenderizing meats may be desirable prior to cooking. The less tender cuts of meat may be artificially tenderized to break down the proteins of muscle or connective tissue.

The amount and distribution of connective tissues and the size of both muscle fibers and bundles of fibers determine the tenderness of meat.

Meat can be tenderized by the use of natural and artificial tenderizers. The tenderizing action results from the hydrolysis of the amide linkages of the protein in the meat. Most powdered tenderizers use the plant enzyme papain as the tenderizing agent. The art of using enzymes for tenderizing meat is an old one. Wrapping of meat in papaya leaf before cooking results in tenderization.

Commercial papain sprinkled on the surface of meat penetrates to a depth of 1 mm per hour. In general tenderizers work on the surface of the meat.

Some enzymes treat the muscle tissue and others treat the connective tissue. For example, the enzymes chymopapain, or papain and ficin exert a greater effect on tenderising muscle fibers than connective tissue, while bromelain degrades connective tissue more than the myofibrils.

Meat tenderizers enzymes extracted from a number of plants, including papaya, pineapple fig, kiwi and ginger.

The enzymes act slowly at refrigerator or room temperature, and some five times faster between 60 and 70°C, so nearly all the tenderizing action takes place during cooking. Exceeding 85 °C denatures the enzyme, thus inhibiting its activity.

Some of the best tenderizers for meats have an alcohol base as beer and hard coder. The fermentation chemical process gives these products the tenderizing quality.
Tenderizing meat by enzymes