Have you ever heard about rubbing steak with baking soda

[lemans]

Anyone done this?

 

[demosthenes9]

What's the reasoning ?

 

[highlife4me]

Baking soda will tendering the meat, if you put it on chicken it will help crisp up the skin. I have never used it but seen it used on a few cooking shows.

 

[mneeley490]

But then wouldn't it taste like baking soda?  

 

[welshrarebit]

I've heard Chinese restaurants do this to make their beef more tender. No you won't taste it. I've also heard that if flash blanch vegetables in boiling water with baking soda the vegetables will look better afterward but the texture of the vegetable will be mush!

I've never done it and never seen it but I have heard of doing this.

 

[welshrarebit]

I forgot to mention that I do add baking soda to my water tank to neutralize the acidity from our local acid rain.

 

[thinblueduke]

Sorry to dredge up an old thread, but I saw this recently on an old episode of America's Test Kitchen and decided to give it a try.

I live in Japan, and most of the raw pork I get is pre-sliced, so I figured it'd be a prime candidate for this.

I mixed about 1 teaspoon of baking soda in about 1 cup of water, and "marinated" my sliced pork in it for about 15-20 minutes, then rinsed the pork thoroughly.  Then I sauteed it in a pan with some olive oil before adding to some yakisoba.

I did notice quite a difference in texture.  The pork was much more tender, with no difference in flavor.

I'm going to continue doing this, and will try it some time this summer on the smoker, too.  Apparently, the way it works is by changing the pH of the meat, which keeps the protein strands in the meat from tightening up too much when cooking.

BTW, I tried it once on chicken thighs for paella, but didn't notice much of a difference.