Meat Tenderizer

[Yahoomom]

I am thinking about getting a tenderizer that you feed the meat through and crank the handle. Any advise?

 

[thymeless]

I think you should tell us more about what you hope to achieve with it.

For a home cook I think it's a waste in most cases. A Jaccard is probably enough for most and even that is only of limited use.

mallets are useful too, but don't really tenderize.

You might also consider chemical variety depending on your goals. Bromelain and papain do work and are naturally occuring chemicals.

 

[Claire]

To me, it depends on the size of your kitchen. I have a medium sized one, and don't like to buy gadgets that I don't use on a very regular basis. I wouldn't purchase this. But that doesn't mean it wouldn't be a good buy for you. But sit and think about it. Are you going to use it daily, weekly, monthly, annually. Even if you're going to use it often, is hammering the stuff with a tenderizer really hard to do, or is it just fun to have a new toy. If you have a bunch of kids and you need to buy cheap cuts of meat and feed a crew, it might be worth it if you use it on a regular basis. Oh, and let's not forget cleaning it, unless you have servants to do it for you. Oh, heck; if you have servants, you don't need the darned thing to begin with!

 

[mcnerd]

I use the hand held variety and it works quite well when needed.

 

[Yahoomom]

I am looking to use it for veal piccata, chicken roll-ups, etc. I am not a big fan of pounding on my granite countertops. No servants, no kids...the one I am looking at comes apart and goes into the dishwasher.

 

[mcnerd]

I would not recommend pounding directly on your counter top, granite or otherwise. I like to use a nice wooden butcher block.

 

[Yahoomom]

Does anyone have one? I think if it was available, I would use it quite frequently!

 

[Wyogal]

Then I would use a mallet or the back of a frying pan, not a tenderizer. They put holes in the meat. Sounds like you just want to flatten it. and yes, on a board. Use your table top if you don't want to bang on your counters.

 

[Bigjim68]

Does anyone have one? I think if it was available, I would use it quite frequently!

I assume that you are talking about a cutting board. They are available everywhere and range in price from not much to lots. I like wood, others like plastic or bamboo. To me the really important thing is getting the largest that will fit on your counter. My board lives on my counter. I would invest in this before considering a pass through tenderizer. I use one of those hand held gizmos. I would never expose my knives and my countertops to each other.

 

[Yahoomom]

Thanks everyone for your advice...I think next time I make veal I will try the side of my mallet for flattening on my wooden island.