How to choose the right meat for kebabs

Soft juicy kebab all associated with the spring holidays. It's nice to eat in the summer at the cottage. Kebab has long been a hit in many countries around the world. Dish Caucasian cuisine does not need additional advertising. However, the success of cooking depends, first of all, on the correct choice of raw materials. Skewers are fried on the basis of pork, beef or lamb. We will analyze the important aspects.

Freshness is the main criterion

1. No matter what kind of meat you make kebabs, raw materials must be fresh. It is easy to determine. A quality piece does not have mucus on the surface; it is without blood and extraneous liquid.
2. No less important is the structure of the meat. For kebab fit dense elastic specimens.Look at the cut color, a good kebab will come out of a bright red piece.
3. The surface must be wet, but not wet. Touch the selected raw materials, make sure that it is not sticky. When pressed, a juice suitable for a shish kebab composition will stand out.
4. Determining a stale product is easy: it is wet, sticky, with turbid secretions and an unpleasant smell. The aroma of good raw materials will not cause you a negative reaction.
5. Meat that has good freshness is dense. This means that the piece has not been pre-frozen. Otherwise, it will be loose and too wet.
6. Click on the selected instance with your finger. If the resulting hole is quickly aligned, the piece holds the shape, you can safely buy it. In cases where freshness is in doubt, the indentation will level out slowly.
7. Pay attention to the streaks of fat. If the raw material is not to be consumed, the fat usually has a grayish-yellowish tint and a sticky surface. Sometimes it is muddy with dull overtones.

Good meat - young

1. The most juicy kebab is obtained from young meat.It needs less frying and pickling, besides, such a product even with the most inexperienced cook comes out great.
2. Be interested in the seller age of meat. The more years the animal, the darker the color of its meat. This means that the muscles will make the dish rubber.
3. Judge by shade. A copy suitable for frying is not glossy, but not matte. It has a uniform shade with a natural color palette. Beef is red, lamb is reddish with white stripes, pork is pink.
4. If the color is too dark, the animal is many years old. To make it easier to determine the age category of raw materials, you need to take a thin layer of meat and try to break it. A suitable product is easily torn.

Type of meat - chilled, fresh, frozen

1. Meat that has passed the freezing procedure is suitable for cooking kebabs only if it has been subjected to the procedure 1 time. Repeated procedure is unacceptable, the composition becomes friable and tasteless. It is easy to distinguish such a product: touch it with a pad of your finger, remove your hand. If a dark circle has formed at the place of contact, the meat can be eaten. When the product is frozen 2 or more times, there will be no stain.
2. Meat is considered fresh if about 3-4 hours have passed since slaughter. Many people believe that such a piece should be preferred. But this statement is erroneous. As a raw material for barbecue, this type of meat is the most inappropriate. After roasting the piece will be rubber, it is extremely difficult to chew. This aspect is due to the fact that after slaughter the muscles of the animal are not relaxed. Meat will have to pre-stand before frying.
3. Chilled meat is also suitable. His taste is beyond praise. If the storage conditions are observed (temperature is from 0 to 4 degrees), the kebabs will be tender, juicy and very pleasant to taste. Particular attention is paid to the marinade, do not use vinegar, so as not to spoil the dish.

Important!
If you choose chilled meat, you must distinguish it from frozen. When pressed, a clear juice will stand out from the piece, while a dark circle will remain on the meat. If the meat has been thawed and frozen several times, the raw materials will be too wet. Good meat is moderately moist.

The subtleties of the choice of lamb meat

1. The Caucasian people have long been cooking kebabs solely on the basis of lamb meat. The most juicy, delicate and fragrant will be a dish made from lamb up to 60 days old.
2. As a rule, young lambs are sent for slaughter in the middle of spring. Therefore, if your meal did not come during this period, you will not be able to eat such lamb. In this case, choose raw materials up to a year.
3. Mutton skewers will be extremely tasty if cooked from the pulp taken from the hind legs. Also perfect tenderloin or loin. Ribs fry reluctantly, but if you like to gnaw bones, they will also fit. It is important to remember that the lamb kebab is eaten immediately, then it becomes tasteless.

The subtleties of choice of pork meat

1. Most people, who often cook kebabs, prefer pork. First of all it is important to know that the animal product should not be too fat.
2. To prepare a tasty kebab, it is recommended to take near-the-meat meat, which is located on the neck and along the ridge. In this case, the fatty streaks are evenly distributed. In the end, you get a juicy kebab.
3. No less popular in this issue are tenderloin, ribs and brisket. If you take the meat along the ridge, do not forget to cut the fat. A dry kebab is obtained if you take a ham. In this part of the carcass the minimum percentage of fat.
4. If you have purchased meat from the ham, it is recommended to marinate it carefully, giving more time. Pork is good because almost all of its parts are suitable for frying on skewers.
5. The only question remains is how and how much to marinate each part. Do not buy pork from the back of the animal. In this case, the marinade will not help, the kebab will turn out dry and tough.

Subtleties of choice of beef meat

1. Few people use beef for cooking kebabs. In this case, the dish turns out to be tougher, unlike pork. You can spend more time and attention to make the kebab tasty and juicy. The marinating procedure is recommended in highly carbonated mineral water.
2. If you decide to cook shish kebab from beef, you should buy a filet or meat from the breast. For the dish you can also take the back of the leg. Meat is better to choose from the inside.To cook a unique kebab, it is recommended to purchase a young calf fillet.

Meat cutting rules

1. Meat is recommended to cut into pieces of medium size. Small specimens are quite dry. Large pieces of meat, in turn, can not fry inside. Ideally, it is recommended to chop meat into forms resembling a cone.
2. You should not seriously go into such trifles, classic square-shaped pieces of meat from this will not become less tasty. To determine the size of the future kebab, try to visually imagine that about 6 pieces should fit on the skewer.

Marinade subtleties

1. To cook a truly delicious barbecue is not enough to get the right meat tenderloin. The most important aspects are the preparatory activities and the right marinade.
2. Juice and taste of meat will depend on the manipulation. Also, the dish should be roasted and tender. Prefer marinade to your taste. Currently, meat can be prepared in different ways.
3. Be sure to use onions, a classic ingredient, without which the dish would not be so tasty.Choose the right dishes for the procedure. It is not recommended to marinate meat in a plastic or aluminum container.
4. If the meat is in a similar dish for a long time, the product begins to absorb harmful compounds. During cooking, toxins will not evaporate anywhere. There is a risk of poisoning. It is also not recommended to marinate meat in a wooden container.

In order to cook a tasty and tender kebab, it is necessary to approach the procedure of meat selection and marinating with responsibility. First of all, decide on the type of dish. Do not stint and get a quality product. Remember, the younger the meat, the tastier the meal will turn out.

Video: how to choose the meat