Getting Beef Tender The Chinese Restaurant Way Recipe

Getting Beef Tender The Chinese Restaurant Way

From elgourmand2 8 years ago

Add yours

15 Min + 30 Min to make
Serves Some

I’ve been rattling pots and pans for nigh onto sixty years and I love Chinese food but this just slipped past me. Ladybug has noticed my occasional gripe about tough Samoan beef and found this gem by King Sparta. Read more She passed it onto me. Got a piece of flank steak and tried it. Now I’m passing it onto you. I made a liter of marinade and added a tsp. of baking soda. King Sparta says: Today I had a Chinese customer walk into the store, and I asked her how Chinese restaurants get there beef tender. she laughed and looked both ways and said "Baking Soda". I said Baking soda, and she said "yep". So as a experiment I bought myself a few pounds of beef and sliced it up. made a no brainer marinade and added some baking soda to it. I let it marinade for about 30 minutes and put a few pieces in the frying pan. Low and behold it worked the meat was just like you get at an Asian restaurant. See less

maranade
none
chinese

save
Add tags (comma separated) to categorize your bookmark. Save
Feel free to use any of the below tags. Click one to add it.
- maranade
- none
- chinese
planner
Add this recipe to your weekly planner
- Sun
- Mon
- Tue
- Wed
- Thu
- Fri
- Sat
Schedule your weekly meals and get auto-generated shopping lists.
or go to planner
print
email

Email to Send
groc. list
Add items to your shopping list
- • 1 ltr. low acid marinade.
- • 1 tsp. baking soda.
go view your shopping list

Ingredients

• 1 ltr. low acid marinade. shopping list
• 1 tsp. baking soda. shopping list

How to make it

1. Slice the meat fairly thin.
2. Marinate for about 30 minutes.
3. Cook or add to a recipe.
I wouldn’t add baking soda to any marinade that has vinegar or wine in it. Big time foam. See Photo

People Who Like This Dish 5

whiskyb Wasaga Beach, CA
Ladybug_MrsJ Ottawa, Canada
Karen_B Omaha, NE
NadineM Mississauga, Canada
clbacon Birmingham, AL
elgourmand2 APia, Samoa
Show up here?Review or Bookmark it! ✔

Reviews & Comments 2

All Comments

Your Comments

What do you think?

Add a Link?

Post a link to another recipe or group by pasting the url into the box where you want it to show up. We'll do the rest.

If you made this, attach a rating to your comments.

How Good Was It?

Post Message or cancel

souponaut 8 years ago
Was going to add a note about "velveting" but Ladybug beat me to it. Typically, it's done with cornstarch instead of baking soda, although a pinch of soda usually helps. Something about changing the surface from acid to alkaline. Works great with pork, esp in stir fry with fast/high heat. As little as 10 min makes a big difference.
Was this review helpful? Yes Flag
Ladybug_MrsJ 8 years ago
Hi Elgourmand! Thanks for posting! Since I last spoke with you, I learned in one of my discussion groups that techniques in Chinese cooking for making meat tender are called "velveting." If you do a web search on it (velveting) you will get some more tricks (as well as the one you posted). I personally can't recommend any of them yet though since I personally have yet to try them. I look forward to hearing about any of your experiments!

I myself marinate the meat in plain baking soda for 30 minutes, and then rinse it off. 1 teaspoon baking soda for 1 pound of meat, 30 minutes marinating after working into meat. Rinse meat 3 times, and pat dry. I learned from experience that too much baking soda leaves a baking-soda taste, and I have heard marinating too long ruins the meat.

I will have to try adding the baking soda directly to the marinade. Thanks for the insight. :)
Was this review helpful? Yes Flag

The Cook

elgourmand2 APia, Samoa

Subscribe to My Recipes

Like elgourmand2's recipes? Never miss an upload!

The Rating

Reviewed by 0 people

The Groups

Not added to any groups yet!

Search Inspiration