The Butcher's Secret to Tender Beef (Stores Charge You Extra for It)

There is a machine in the back of a lot of meat departments that turns a four dollar cut into a seven dollar steak. I ran one for years. The only thing it adds is the word tender on the label, and the label has to tell you it was done. Almost nobody reads that line. I am Earl. Thirty one years behind the meat counter in three different stores. Tender was the word customers used most, and the one almost nobody could explain. Twelve things about making cheap beef tender, counting down. The two different kinds of tough, and why they want opposite treatments. What collagen is and why it is the thing that actually melts. What the machine does and how to find it on the label. Why salt is the tenderizer you already paid for. The teaspoon from your cupboard that works in twenty minutes, and why it is only for thin cuts. Why most marinades do almost nothing. Why the direction of your knife does more than any bottle. And which cut wants which method. Number one is not a technique at all. It is a decision you make at the counter, and it moves tenderness further than the other eleven put together. If you have not seen the salt video, watch it next. That one showed you what salt does to a steak. This one puts salt in its place among everything else. Nobody paid me for this. There is nothing here to buy. I do not work for any store. Your homework costs nothing. Next time you are at the meat case, pick up the cheapest steak and read the small print at the bottom of the label. If it says mechanically tenderized or blade tenderized, you have found the machine. Tell me in the comments what you found. I read every one. --- About this channel: this is a fully owned and operated media property. All scripts are written and researched by our team, all voiceover and visuals are produced in house, and every video is edited by hand. We are not an aggregator and we do not republish other people's work.