How to roast the meat to make it more tender? Tricks so that it melts in the mouth

One of the objectives when cooking meat in the oven is to get a tasty meat, but perhaps what we value most is that the meat is soft, tender and juicy. That’s why today we tell you the tricks so that you know how to roast the meat to be more tender and the tricks so that it melts in your mouth.

There are many techniques that you can use to make your flesh juicy and tender, and you can use several or a mixture of both. In the end, if you buy good meat, then follow our advice and keep it in perfect condition until the time you cook it and follow our recommendations, you will get a memorable, tender and flavorful roast the meat.

How to roast the meat so tender that it melts

a) What parts to use

For me the first important point is to choose the meat and buy well. If we want a tender meat after going through the oven, this meat should be a large and juicy piece, to prevent the cooking technique from drying it out excessively. We will try to buy meat with infiltrated fat or pieces wrapped in a layer of fat because if we roast very lean meats – as often happens with the round one – it is easy to make it tasty but somewhat dry …

If we want to make a tender pork , it will be better to cook a shoulder of pork, Iberian pork, or a loin of pork with the tenderloin, that if we use sirloin, that being a small piece, it is likely to dry out. It’s a matter of common sense.

If we are going to cook with veal, the meat will be tenderer if it is a high loin or a similar cut that if we choose narrower pieces like the shoulder, the corner or the fish, it is more likely that we will be less juicy and less tender.

b) Techniques to roast the meat and make it tender

Roasting temperature

The first thing we have to be clear about is the question of temperature. One piece of a kilo and a half, will be well cooked after 45 minutes at 200 degrees in the oven, but remain in their point if cooking 2 hours at 120 ° C. In the second case, when baked more slowly, it will be pinker inside and much juicier than the other.

In the cooked at 200 º C, the meat will be cooked well, but will be overcooked on the outside and somewhat raw inside. As for its texture, it will be somewhat harder and more leathery than that cooked at 120º C.

Roast time

To make the meat tenderer it is essential not to use very high temperatures, which contract the fibers and leave the meat harder. It is the Argentine technique of roasting with meat very far from the embers, the slow cooking in which lengthening the time of roasting is achieved very tender meat, without subjecting it to temperatures that burn its surface.

Roasted in the conventional oven

In the domestic oven we can combine the steam function that also causes tenderness – you can also use a tray full of water in the bottom of the oven – with a temperature that does not exceed 140º and lengthen the cooking of the meat to 3 hours checking the results for later uses. Each furnace is a world and has its temperatures and times.

Roasts in the Crock Pot

The slow cooker is a good tool to get tender meat that melts in the mouth. Cooking large pieces in the Low function, for times longer than 4 hours, we get extremely tender meats, which can be crushed by pinching without the need for cutlery.

So we can make pulled pork, prepare meats with a lot of collagen that after long cooking in this utensil, will be tender and sweet. In this slow pot we made this pork shoulder in the oriental style that could literally be cut with a spoon of how tender it was.

The vacuum or low temperature cooking

Undoubtedly, cooking sous vide or vacuum is the best technique to get tender meats like this loin of beef roasted at low temperature with crispy kale, which I remember still enchanted, with that flavor and texture, both incomparable.

In this case the cooking is done by keeping the food in a bag that closes under vacuum to cook food in a constant temperature water bath. A typical cooking would be for example 16 hours at 75 ° for a piece of 1.4 kg in weight .

After cooking the meat, a second cooking or heat treatment is recommended, usually at high temperature using the grill or salamander to finish giving the product a delicious and appetizing appearance.

What after roast the meat?

It is important to let the meat rest after having roasted it. If we eat the meat right out of the oven, the CrockPot or Sousvide, the fibers and juices of the meat have not relaxed and that tension can cause the meat to be hard. These are our tips on the subject

Rest of the meat after being roasted

We use the technique that we use, when finishing cooking the meat, it is recommended to wrap it in aluminum foil and let it rest 15 minutes before serving it. At that time, the juices recirculate through the meat and settle, and at the same time the meat remains at a homogeneous temperature and not hotter on the outside. If you do this the meat will be much tenderer, and also, being juicier, it will still look more like it.

The cuts or filleting of the meat

The cutting of the meat once roasted is essential to take advantage of it. In general, it is necessary to cut perpendicular to the fiber so that the fillets do not crumble or become leathery. Also bear in mind that after the rest we indicated you wrapped the piece of meat before cutting it, the work of cutting is much easier.

Other techniques to roast the meat

The marinated ones

Marinating the meat before cooking can produce reactions that soften the meat, so it is a highly recommended technique. You can make a marinade by mixing olive oil, lemon juice and thyme and marinate the meat inside for an hour. This marinade is also valid for chicken recipes.

Then it is cooked over a high heat to make a golden crust on the outside and then cooked in the oven following the recipe you like. The result after marinating the meat is tremendously tender and with a lot of flavor.

Other marinates that work: fruit juices such as orange, tangerine, papaya or pineapple that are natural tenderizers of the meat. Obviously, after leaving the meat in the marinade or marinade, dry it well and cook it over a high heat to crust and then slow to roast the inside.

The sauces

A good resource when a barbecue is not too juicy or even when we see something dry, is to serve the meat accompanied by a sauce that helps make it more humid. With an onion, a sauce and a little broth, we can do wonders to accompany our best meat roast recipes.

Brute force

It is often said that it is the last resort and for that reason I have left it for the end but a good way to get tender meat is to resort to brute force, hitting the steaks with a special meat tenderizer. The action of this mallet on the fillets manages to break the fibers and make them tenderer. With a espadrille, the surface of the meat is also greater when it becomes thinner. So we can make the typical Asturian cachopos, for example.

For the case of the pieces to roast, this resource does not fit because they are large pieces. The best recourse is to use another utensil, the fryer and with it introduce small strips of bacon, bacon or fat inside the meat to get a greater proportion of fat inside and thus obtain after roasting more juicy and tender cuts.

How to roast the meat more tender

As you have seen, there are many techniques and resources that can make our roast the meat most tender, juicy and tasty in the world. Undoubtedly our recommendation is that you try to use them all depending on the case. Buy good meat, roast it slowly and enjoy a tender and delicious meat.