Easy Recipe: How to tenderise meat using pineapple

Have you ever tried to cook a red meat dish and the meat doesn’t become tender no matter what you do?

We all know that it is not fun to try to chew a tough piece of meat so it’s best to tenderise it before cooking it.

The simplest way to do this is to marinate it in an acidic liquid such yoghurt (contains lactic acid) or lemon or lime juice (citric acid). This helps break down the tough proteins.

You can also beat or pound the meat using a mallet or slow cook the meat but this takes long.

You can also marinate meat in enzymes from fruits such as pineapple or papaya. Try puréeing these fruits and adding some of your favourite seasonings to make a marinade that will leave you with super tender meat. 

Today, we use my favourite tenderiser pineapple juice, squeezed directly from the fruit to the steak. 

What you need: 

1kg T-bone steak, thinly sliced 

200g piece of fresh pineapple 

1 teaspoon salt 

1 teaspoon black pepper 

1 teaspoon garlic ginger paste (optional)

What to do:

Sprinkle salt and black pepper and rub well on both sides.

 Add the garlic ginger paste and continue to rub it all over the steak.

Now it’s time for the magic ingredient, the fresh pineapple. Please note you only want to use the thin juice from the pineapple and not the purée for a small amount of meat or steak. Pineapple is a powerful tenderiser and too much of it can easily mash the meat. 

Hold a pineapple chunk in your hands and squeeze the juice over the steak. Continue to rub it all over the steak so that all the ingredients marry well.

Let the meat stay in the marinade for only about 10-15 minutes. Finally, your meat is ready to use for your recipe -- whether you’re pan searing or grilling it.