All About Purchasing Meat and Delicious Brisket Recipe

To understand meat; we should know components and structures of meat, reaction to cooking process, quality factors and also, basic cuts.

Major components of meat are water, protein, fat and small amount of carbohydrate. Meat consists of 75 % water. Protein is another important element of meat . When it's time to cook, protein starts to coagulate . And desired coagulation refers to doneness of the meat. The following component is fat. Fat is the source of taste in meat and also affects juiciness and tenderness of meat.

Another important notion is connective tissue . To cook a meat correctly, it's vital to determine low and high connective tissue meats. Thus, you can designate your cooking method and time. Because, if you cook low connective tissue meat on high heat and long time the protein will coagulate more than desire amount and your meat will become tough. On the other hand if you cook high connective tissue meat short amount of time, you will have tough meat again. Another point is the age of the meat. Because, older animals have elastin on their muscles. There is no way to tender elastin so, it should be removed before cooking the meat.

Inspection and grading are another things need to be considered. While inspection is required by law, grading is a quality determine option for consumers.

*Beef Brisket - Raw

Grading of meat:

• Canada Prime—slightly abundant marbling or higher

• Canada AAA—small marbling or higher

• Canada AA—at least slight marbling, but less than small

• Canada A—at least trace marbling, but less than slight

Beef has been consumed by people throughout history. Domestication of beef dates back to 800 BC. Beef cuts are based on two factors; the muscle and bone structure and uses and appropriate cooking methods. There are 8 different primal cuts for beef;

1. Chuck; it is shoulder of the meat and the muscles moves a lot. So it has more connective tissues which create toughness but flavour meat. stew meat is a example of chuck meat.

2. Brisket and shank; comes from breast and fore legs. Because of the amount of exercises tends to be tough but tasty.

3. Rib; since this part do not get to much work out the meat here is very tender.

4. Plate; comes from belly area. This meat full of connective tissue.

5. Short loin; it covers really small area. Most tender and expensive part of the animal. Tenderloin steak is an example of short loin.

6. Sirloin; soft and savoury taste.

7. Flank; has no bones and tough.

8. Round; the biggest part of animal.

Today I will be sharing with you a delicious brisket recipe. Brisket comes from lower part of the animal. Brisket has a lot of tough connective tissue. Should be cooking at low temperature to break down all connective tissues and to have ultra tender results.

Brisket is a expensive part of the animal. It can be purchased $8 per lb to $20 per lb. After cooking progress the meat will be shrink so for selling price this reduction should be considered. For example if 10 lb seems like cost me $200 it's not true. Because the meat will lost water while cooking. Thus, this 10 lb brisket will cost me more likely $250. Hence, while pricing the product the loss of weight should be considered.

The brisket can be cooked various ways such as grilling, pressure cooking, slow cooking. Methods can be vary recipe to recipe but the main point is low temperature and long cooking time to obtain tenderness.

**Brisket

"Barbecued Beef Brisket" (Gisslen, 2018).

Ingredients

meat

8 lb Fresh well trimmed beef brisket,

Rub

1 tbsp brown sugar 2 tsp paprika powder 1 tsp onion powder 1 tsp garlic powder 1/2 tsp cumin powder 3/4 tsp mustard powder 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp black pepper

METHOD

1. Rub the spice mixture evenly over the brisket.

2. Refrigerate the brisket overnight.

3. Place the brisket, fat side up, in a barbecue cooker heated to 225°F (107°C). Cook the meat until tender, approximately 8 hours.

4. Cut across the grain into thin slices, holding the knife at an angle to make broader slices. Serve with desired barbecue sauce."

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*The picture is retrieved from https://applestonemeat.com/shop/beef-brisket/

**The picture is retrieved from https://www.savingdessert.com/bbq-brisket-recipe/

Wayne Gisslen. (2018). Professional Cooking for Canadian Chefs (9th Edition) [Texidium version]. Retrieved from https://texidium.com