Tenderness: How to Cook Meat
Leader Training Handout
Tenderness: How to Cook Meat
Steps for cooking meat
1. Choose the type of meat (beef, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey, etc.)
2. Choose the cut
Cuts from less exercised parts of animals will have less connective tissue and can be cooked
quickly with dry heat methods such as broiling, grilling or pan frying. The more exercise the
part of the animal receives and the older the animal, the more success you will have from
choosing methods that keep moisture around the meat as it cooks such as braising or
stewing.
3. Choose the cooking method
Types of cooking methods
 Dry heat—No water based liquids are present during cooking, but you can use fat or oil;
dry heat is used for tender or medium-tender cuts
o Roasting: Meat is cooked uncovered, in hot air, in an oven. Meat may also be
roasted revolving on a spit over a fire.
o Grilling (broiling): Quick cooking by direct heat from a gas flame or an electric
element. Meat may be placed under or over the heat source.
Barbecuing: Meat is cooked on a grid or spit over glowing coals or gas flame.
o Fan-grilling: Cooking in a multi-function oven using radiant heat from the grill
(upper) element and heated air circulated by a fan. A thermostat controls the
temperature and the oven door is kept closed. Suitable for tender grilling cuts
and some roasts
o Pan-grilling: Meat is cooked on a pre-heated heavy, dry fry pan or ridged iron
grill pan (griddle pan), or metal hot plate. This is not frying. The cooking surface
may be lightly greased, or the meat brushed with oil before cooking, but no
further fat is added. Any fat drippings should be poured off as they accumulate.
The meat is cooked uncovered.
o Pan-frying (shallow frying): Meat is cooked in a small amount of hot fat or oil
(usually about 3-12mm depth), in an uncovered pan. A suitable method for thin
cuts of tender meat.
o Sautéing: "Sauté" literally means "to jump". Small pieces of food are tossed
(either by shaking pan or using a spatula or similar utensil) as they cook in a little
hot oil or fat in a sauté pan (like a fry pan but slightly deeper). A suitable method
for thinly sliced, small pieces of tender meat. A sauté may be finished with a
sauce cooked in the pan.
o Stir-frying: Finely cut food rapidly stirred and tossed as it is fast-cooked in a little
hot oil, usually in a wok, over high heat.
o Deep-frying: Food cooked by being immersed in hot oil or fat.
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Tenderness: How to Cook Meat
Leader Training Handout

Moist heat—Best for cuts from highly exercised, less tender parts of animals and older
animals. These cuts have high content of meat extractives that provide flavor and are
higher connectives tissue.
o Braising: Meat is first browned in a minimum of fat or oil, then cooked gently
with vegetables and a small amount of liquid in a tightly covered pot or casserole
on the stove top or in the oven. Used for serving-sized pieces of meat as well as
for larger cuts.
o Pot-roasting: The term used for larger cuts or joints of meat cooked as for
braising, but without any (or with barely any) liquid. A good method for less
tender roasting cuts such as fresh beef silverside, topside and chuck roasts.
o Stewing or Casseroling: Meat cut into small pieces or cubes is cooked at a low
temperature or gentle simmer in liquid, usually with vegetables, in a covered pan
on the stove top or in the oven. The meat may be browned first.
o Simmering: Gentle cooking in liquid just below boiling point so that the surface
barely ripples. Meats for simmering may be cut small, or in large pieces, e.g.
corned beef silverside.
o Poaching: Food is cooked very gently in liquid below simmering point. Liquid is
hot but should not exceed a mere tremble, i.e. less movement than simmering.
o Pressure Cooking: Cooking in liquid and steam under pressure, which increases
temperature and reduces cooking time to about one third of normal time. A
suitable method for less tender meat cuts, which normally need long, moist heat
cooking, e.g. ox tongue and beef shin.

Combination methods: Methods that use both moist & dry heat.
o Microwave Cookery: Microwave cookery is electro-magnetic. It is neither a dry
nor moist technique, but the microwave oven can be used to roast, simmer,
braise and casserole meats. However, it gives different results from conventional
cooking methods and it is not always a time saver. Generally, meat cooks better,
and more evenly, at lower power settings. Size and shape of the meat cut affect
evenness of cooking and the time required.
o Covered Roasting: This is not true roasting as the meat is enclosed, either in an
oven-bag or covered roasting pan, thus trapping in some steam, and cooked in
the oven. A variation is fry pan "roasting", example: small lamb leg cuts are first
browned in a hot fry pan. Heat is then lowered, the lid put on, and cooking is
completed.
4. Cook to an adequate endpoint temperature and rest before serving
a. Undercooking meats result in:
i. Safety issues
ii. Underdeveloped flavor
iii. Raw texture
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Tenderness: How to Cook Meat
Leader Training Handout
b. Overcooking yields tough, rubbery, stringy, dry, excessive shrinkage of protein with
loss of water from muscle fibers, collagen converted to gelatin so fibers no longer
adhere to each other (strings)
c. Color is not a safe indicator of doneness—Any cooked, uncured red meats –
including pork – can be pink, even when meat has reached a safe internal
temperature
d. Only sure way to determine doneness is with a meat thermometer
e. When meat is removed from heat, it needs to rest
i. Allows juices to equalize throughout the meat, less lost when cut
ii. Tent with foil to keep the meat warm
iii. Resting time for particular cuts vary
iv. Usually between 10 and 20 minutes
Endpoint Cooking Temperatures and Rest Times for a Variety of Meats
Category
Ground Meat & Meat
Mixtures
Fresh Beef, Veal, Lamb
Poultry
Pork and Ham
Food
Beef, Pork, Veal, Lamb
Turkey, Chicken
Steaks, roasts, chops
Chicken & Turkey, whole
Poultry breasts, roasts
Poultry thighs, legs, wings
Duck & Goose
Stuffing (cooked alone or in
bird)
Fresh pork
Fresh ham (raw)
Temp (°F)
160
165
Rest Time
None
None
145
165
165
165
165
165
3 minutes
None
None
None
None
None
145
145
3 minutes
3 minutes
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