All right, first and foremost
when it comes to the meat,
no matter the name of the meat is,
whether they call it a road, a steak,
I don't care the name.
The most important thing is to know
where it's coming from on the animal
to determine the method of cooking
that's gonna the best to have the most
flavor and tenderness. So, you're gonna teach
everyone, you're gonna school them
in how to cook wherever the meat comes
from on the animal. Yes.
'Kay, like you start with the front, the chuck.
The front of the animal is the working muscles.
The chuck, the brisket, the plate, right?
These are the working muscles, okay?
The working muscle, a lot of connected tissue.
You want low, low heat, moist, long penetrating
heat to cook to make it tender and juicy and flavorful.
You don't wanna cook this fast.
It'll just be tough.
Chuck is what you cube up when you make stew.
Stew is a slow-cooking thing.
Everybody knows how to make a brisket, right?
Low and slow.
This is the braising meats
I would say. Yes.
You wanna braise, these are the cuts you
definitely wanna braise.
And like I said, it doesn't matter what they call it.
They can call it a steak.
It doesn't mean
you throw it on the grill. Right.
You wanna cook that way and it will always come out right,
no matter what flavor you wanna put with it.
Okay.
Then you go into the middle, the rib, the short loin.
'Kay, the middle cuts, right?
And the sirloin.
These are all for high, dry heat cooking.
It starts getting leaner as you go across,
so you don't wanna do that slow cooking. It'll end up tough.
There's not enough marbling in it to hold it,
so you wanna do high, dry heat, 'kay?
And that's what'll do best for these cuts,
your porterhouse steak, T-bone, your sirloin steak,
your rib steaks, your rib roast.
Those are the things you wanna do that way.
Then you come to the back of the animal,
the round where the flank is, and the shank.
This is the leanest part of the animal,
largest muscles, leanest part.
Again, high, dry heat.
There's a lot of heavy fat cover that'll penetrate
into it and that's how that breaks down.
Like I said, doesn't matter what flavor
you wanna put to it.
If you use the right cooking method,
it will always come out flavorful and tender.
(audience clapping)
All right. All right,
moving on down the line back to Ray.
Rachel, temperature, temperature, temperature.
A lot of people still don't put enough thought
into what the temperature is.
It not only will make the meat healthier for you to eat,
but to retain the most flavor in the meat,
and not overcook and over dry,
you wanna know the temperatures.
'Kay, so when it comes to ground beef,
you know ground meat, you're talking 160.
When you're talking poultry, you're talking 165.
The big key, again, to this day,
how many years we're doin' this Rachel?
Pork people still don't understand,
you can have a pink blush.
So, it's like 145
to 160. It' the most
overcooked thing, I think, that people
prepare frequently are pork chops,
and pork roasts, and pork tenderloin.
I love pork because it is so flavorful
when you do do it right and you don't
overcook it, it's ah-- It's juicy
when you cook at 245. It's got such flavor to it.
It's one of the most flavorful meats.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
And it really is the other white meat.
You can get pork that it as lean as
any other, right. Yes.
Absolutely, and they're raised a lot healthier
today than they ever were.
That's really important to know your numbers,
know your numbers.
And then of course, the beef, lamb,
and veal is 125 to 160,
depending on your choice. Depending on how
you like it, right.
Okay, 'cause again, that you can have that rare
and still be healthy and still eat because
everything on the surface will get--
Exactly, all right.
So it does pay to have the meat thermometer.
Last, not least, Rachel again the grain,
a phrase everybody's always heard
but doesn't understand what it actually means.
We do not have cutting teeth,
so no matter how you cook the meat,
you're not going to be tender
if you don't cut it against the grain
where you shorten the fibers
so that when we mash down,
it comes apart.
Now here's a flank steak.
You can see the lines,
and you wanna go against that.
And when you go against that,
you're gonna see, you're not gonna see lines.
You're gonna see criss-crosses, okay?
That means when it cooks, it'll come apart
when you mash down on it.
The other I brought,
because people really don't pay attention
to against the grain when it comes to your poultry.
That's true.
And it's extremely important, especially the breast.
If it's tough, they'll blame the cook and the chicken.
'Kay, not the way it was sliced.
So again, you wanna see the way the lines
on the breast are running and the way you see this here.
And then you're gonna slice against it,
so that you get a beautiful slice
that's gonna come apart when it eats,
even though it's gonna be smaller than you're used to.
But that's against the grain.
It'll be much more tender when you eat it.
That's a great point.
A lot of people don't, get really confused,
especially when it comes to chicken, right?
(audience cheering)
(chiming)