Best Cut of Beef for Stor Fry
Nosotros take a lot of beef recipes in our archives here at The Woks of Life, so we wanted to show anybody how to ready beef for stir-fry including the step-by-footstep process for velveting beef for Chinese cooking. We'll recommend our favorite cuts of beef to apply and show you lot how to properly cut and marinate beefiness simply like it's washed in Chinese restaurants.
We always requite important details in all of our recipes, including preparation and cooking, but I thought it was time to write a mail service focused on preparing beef properly for the wok!
What Cut of Beefiness is Best for Stir-fry?
Flank steak is by far the about popular cut of meat used by Chinese restaurants in all of their stir-fry dishes. It besides happens to be the most recommended cut of beef nosotros use in our stir-fry recipes.
Flank steak is flavorful, reasonably priced, and readily available. With its intense beefy flavor, all you need to do is brand certain y'all slice and marinate information technology properly to make a bully stir-fry. For $half dozen.99 to $8.99 a pound, information technology won't interruption the depository financial institution either.
Boneless beef chuck steak is a more economical option for beef stir fries. Nosotros like using beef chuck steak for stewing and braising because of the extra fatty that comes with this cut of meat, but it tin can also work nicely for stir-fries.
At $iv.99 to $5.99 per pound, chuck steak is also more than economical than flank steak. You can buy a large piece, slice information technology, divide it into portions for several stir-fries, and freeze it!
A little more trimming and care is required to prepare the beef chuck steak for stir fry. Cutting along the fat lines and remove the thick membrane to get some peachy chunks of beef for slicing. Apply a good chef's knife and as always, be conscientious when working with sharp knives!
How to Cut Beefiness For Stir-fry
If using flank steak, trim off any white muscle membranes, and cut your flank steak along the grain lengthwise into two to 2 one/two inch strips.
Information technology'due south easy to identify the long grains of muscle cobweb in flank steak. When slicing the flank steak into pocket-size pieces, piece against the grain (perpendicular to the long lines of muscle).
Make each slice 1/4″ thick––each piece will be tender and bite-sized.
Now your beef is fix for marinating!
If using boneless beefiness chuck, check out our instructions for how to slice it beneath. If not, skip down to the next section.
Cutting Boneless Beefiness Chuck for Stir-fry
Cut meat against the grain is very of import to yield nice tender pieces in your stir-fry dishes.
Once again, the "grain" refers to the long strands of muscle running through the beef parallel to each other. Cutting against the grain means cutting across those strands, then the long strands of muscle can be made shorter to create small, tender pieces.
It'due south much harder to identify how the grain runs in beef chuck than for flank steak. In this photo, you tin can see the pattern of meat and fatty where the grain runs vertically.
Since we have to cut cantankerous-wise to the grain, for this slice, we demand to cut the long strip into 2-inch broad chunks first.
And so position each piece to cutting them and then the long fibers are cut curt.
See how the knife is positioned where it will cut the beef against the grain?
At present, cut your beef into i/iv″ thick slices
You lot can see the grain and the piece a bit clearer in this photo, but y'all tin can imagine that the soft beefiness can be difficult to handle and slice.
A chef'south secret to slicing beef quickly is to freeze the meat partially for 30 to 60 minutes until it is business firm. This makes slicing much easier and faster, every bit the business firm beef does not slide nether your knife and around the cutting board. Partially frozen meat also allows you to be more precise in cutting to your desired thickness.
How to Cutting Beef for Lo Mein & Other Noodle Dishes
If using beef for noodle dishes or dishes like Beef and Pepper Stir Fry, an extra step to slice beef into thin strips (julienne) is required.
In Chinese stir-fry cooking, the fashion ingredients are cut should be consistent with each other. Rectangular slices of beef are used for stir-fries with vegetables like beefiness and broccoli or beef and tofu. Long strands of noodles like you have in Beefiness Lo Mein crave beef to be cut into similar long thin strips.
Beef fried rice requires small chunks of meat to go with the small grains of rice. Make sense?
How Chinese Restaurants Tenderize Beef
It's time to share some Chinese restaurant secrets on how to tenderize beef. Tenderizing your beef is the showtime step of the traditional process of velveting beef proficient past virtually all Chinese chefs.
Chinese eatery chefs take some actress steps in preparing beefiness for their stir-fry dishes.
The first stride is to add a good amount of baking soda to the beef––near 1 rounded teaspoon per pound of beef.
Next, add 1/four cup water (per pound of beef) or until the beef is simply covered, and massage the beefiness so the baking soda and h2o is uniformly distributed. Set aside for 1-2 hours. This step tenderizes (baking soda) and hydrates (h2o) the beef.
Next, the beef must be rinsed thoroughly under running water to rid it of any excess baking soda, or you volition taste it in the dish.
Utilise your hands to stir up the beef during the rinsing procedure.
In one case the water runs clear, drain the beef thoroughly in a colander and transfer information technology to a bowl for the marinating procedure (details in next section).
Shortcut to Tenderize Beef at Home
If the process used by Chinese restaurants to tenderize beef described higher up sounds a bit involved and a hassle, you can all the same tenderize beef using an at-dwelling shortcut. Baking soda is a powerful ingredient for tenderizing beef, but if besides much is added, information technology can add an off-gustatory modality to the beef which is why beef is rinsed off after adding larger amounts of baking soda to the beef.
The solution is to add a smaller amount of blistering and increment the marinating fourth dimension. Adding 1/8 teaspoon to i/four teaspoon (for tougher cuts) of blistering soda and ane to 2 tablespoons of water to the beef and mixing and working it into the beef before marinating will also do a fine job tenderizing! Increase the marinating fourth dimension for your beef at to the lowest degree 15 minutes. I will too say that adding water to the beef is a personal choice. I feel in that location are merits to having a moist hydrated beefiness or a drier beef for stir fry dishes.
How to Marinate Beef for Stir-fry
Marinating beef for your stir-fry is an important 2nd step of velveting that should never be skipped. The marinade isn't every bit much well-nigh soaking the beefiness in a lot of liquid or calculation a agglomeration of different flavorings like you may exist used to.
It'due south nearly giving the beef an extra juicy texture. Have you ever tried to make a stir-fry at home, but the meat comes out dry and not at all similar what y'all've been served in Asian restaurants? Master this marinating technique, and you lot'll successfully gear up Chinese stir-fry dishes at home.
After the beef has been tenderized:
ane. Add together oyster sauce and/or soy sauce to give your beef an extra flavour heave. Add together nigh 2 teaspoons of each per pound of beef.
2. Add together cornstarch and oil to give the meat a velvety texture. Add near 2 teaspoons of each per pound of beef. The cornstarch and oil gives the beef its velvety smoothen texture sealing in juices and protecting the meat during the searing or cooking. Adding Shaoxing wine (2 teaspoons per pound) also adds flavour only is totally optional for those of you who are strict about alcohol consumption.
3. Mix everything together and set it bated to marinate for 15-30 minutes while you lot're preparing your other ingredients.
What is Chinese Velveting?
Velveting is a procedure used in traditional Chinese cooking to prepare meats for stir-frying. Chinese velveting techniques vary, depending upon the cut and type of meat used for the dish, and besides involve tenderizing, marinating and different cooking methods.
Through the process of velveting, meats retain their wet and have on a soft and velvety texture that is a signature quality of Chinese cuisine. The velveting of beef is probably nearly common, since beef benefits more than other meats from this cooking technique.
How to Velvet Beef for Stir Fry
Velveting beefiness begins with the steps we have explained above (involving tenderizing the beef and so marinating information technology with seasonings, oil and cornstarch).
The tenderizing step makes any beef soft and moist, while marinating the beef gives it more umami flavor and that velvety coating you experience when eating at Chinese restaurants. Pictured below is the marinated beef before cooking.
The last step of velveting is cooking, which really depends upon the dish you are cooking and the outcome you're looking for.
The traditional method for velveting beef is to laissez passer the meat through hot oil (essentially deep frying) which is literally referred to every bit zǒu yóu (走油) in Mandarin or "jau yau" in Cantonese.
In most cases, we prefer to sear the meat in a hot wok, since having a wok full of oil at home is simply not practical. That said, we call back searing beef imparts more flavor than the jau yau deep frying method.
Some recipes, including soups, will but require cooking the beef in h2o every bit the final pace.
And that's it! Allow us know in the comments if you lot have any questions!
Prep: 1 hour 30 minutes
Full: 1 hr 30 minutes
- 1 pound beefiness flank steak or chuck steak (450g, sliced against the grain)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- h2o (one/four cup per pound)
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- two teaspoons oyster sauce or soy sauce
- two teaspoons cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons Shaoxing Wine (Optional)
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Add together blistering soda and water to the sliced beefiness and massage with hands until most of the liquid is absorbed. Let stand 1-two hours.
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Rinse the beef thoroughly under running water until the h2o runs clear. Drain.
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Add together oil, oyster sauce/soy sauce, Shaoxing wine (optional), and cornstarch to the beefiness. Ready aside to marinate for fifteen-thirty minutes, and then your beefiness is set up to utilise.
Short-Cutting method for Tenderizing beef
Add together ane/8 teaspoon to ane/4 teaspoon (for tougher cuts) of baking soda and one to 2 tablespoons of water to the beef and mixing and working information technology into the beef before marinating will likewise exercise a fine chore tenderizing!
Follow step three and increase the marinating time for your beefiness at least 15 minutes.
Source: https://thewoksoflife.com/prepare-beef-for-stir-fry/
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