How do Meat Tenderizers Work?
Meat tenderizers are proteolytic enzymes or proteases, enzymes specialized in breaking the peptide bonds between amino acids found in complex proteins. Meat is held together by a complex protein called collagen, and aside from mechanical tenderization and cooking, enzymes are the only other available meat tenderizers. Meat is often tenderized before cooking, to make it less tough and more suitable for consumption. Meat tenderizers often come in a powdered form that can be sprinkled directly on the meat. Meat tenderizers dissolve some of the sinewy connections within the meat at room temperature. If meat tenderizers are allowed to act for too long, the meat can become squishy and lose its special texture. The most popular meat tenderizer, called bromelain, is composed of a number of protease enzymes and harvested commercially from the stems of pineapple plants, where it is concentrated. The substance can be found throughout the entire plant, but is harvested from the stems because they
Not very well. Commercial meat tenderizers are a preparation of enzymes produced by plants—figs, pineapples and papayas—that break down protein. The problem is that in order to work, the enzyme has to come into contact with the protein. When you sprinkle some of this stuff onto a piece of meat, it only touches the surface. What you get is a mushy surface and a tough interior. Even if you were to use a fork to break inside, you would be doing as much good by mechanically breaking up the muscle bundles as the tenderizer is doing. Pounding is really the only effective way to tenderize meat. Why does milk burn so easily? The proteins in milk are combined in very large particles. When heated, these clump together in heavy bunches that sink to the bottom of the pan, where they first brown and then char. Every cook knows that searing meat on the outside before cooking helps seal the juices in. Exactly how does this process work? Like meat tenderizers, it doesn’t. Experiments have shown that y
