Over the long history of cooking, mankind has come up with thousands of ways to cook beloved by many meat. One of the oldest is roasting over hot coals, but baking, stewing, salting and smoking, boiling, etc., have been used for centuries. There are many recipes. It is good that the equipment needed to bring them to life is much less.
Pick your recipe
The first thing you need, no matter what cut and what recipe you are going to cook, is meat knives. Most often, when cutting meat products, the so-called chef's knife is used. It is suitable for grinding, slicing and dicing, along and across the fibers. It is easy to recognize by the wide slightly curved blade. Usually the length of such a knife, together with the handle, is about 25-30 centimeters.
Cleaver is not only good for cutting bones and tendons in large pieces of meat. A little practice and you will be able to cut them meat for julienne better than with a chef's knife. For precise cutting, professionals prefer the Chinese or Spanish cleaver, on the wide blade of which, in addition, it is so convenient to deliver pieces of meat directly to a pan, frying pan or any other utensils.
A knife with a thin pointed blade (at least 12 centimeters in length) is called a boning knife. It is used to separate the meat and connective tissue from the bones during cutting and trimming the cut. If you often deal with meat covered in hide or skin, then you may need a special blade with a blade curved along the entire length.
The knife, which is called - for cutting meat - is intended for cutting an already finished product. It is used, as a rule, with a special double-toothed fork to cut into pieces boiled beef, roast beef, ham.
All knives should be with a comfortable handle and well sharpened. Professionals know that getting hurt with a well-honed knife is almost impossible, but a blunt blade is the cause of many work-related injuries.
You will need at least two chopping boards for meat. One for the raw product, and the second for cutting finished large pieces. Although plastic boards are recognized as hygienic, they often do not provide the necessary stability, moreover, they often deteriorate from long-term use, and are “excised”. Marble and glass boards are hygienic and stable, but the knives on them are quickly blunt, and the hand of an inept cook can slip. Heavy wooden boards are loved by many, but it is important to remember that they are the ones that need especially thorough disinfection after each use.
Contrary to popular belief, a meat grinder is not a mandatory equipment when cooking minced meat. Moreover, from chopped by hand, with a knife or two, meat, more juicy and tasty cutlets, sauces and filling are obtained.
A meat hammer is a useful tool, but you can also do without it. Almost the same effect will result in shallow cuts along and across, which can be done on a piece intended for beating, using a boning knife.
In order to properly bake meat or poultry in the oven, you will need a special thermometer. It is a thin and long needle, on the other end of which the measuring device is mounted. By showing the internal temperature of the cut, it allows you to get the meat exactly the degree of roasting that you need.
For stewing meat, pots with a thick bottom or special pots are used, for baking - baking trays and roasters, for boiling - deep pots with a large capacity. It is most convenient to fry meat in cast-iron frying pans – grill. For dishes prepared according to the recipes of the Asia-Pacific region, you need to buy a special deep frying pan with a domed bottom - wok.