Why can't I cook red meat?
Beef is my enemy.
I have tried, for years, to cook beef. I've tried steaks, roasts, london broil, sirloin, ribs, you name it. Everything, no matter what, comes out dry and tough. I have followed recipes to the letter, even down to getting the exact same poundage of meat, and it is always the same.
I don't have problems with any other meat. Hell, I can even make a juicy turkey, and that seems like something most people can't do. Pork, no problems. Chicken is a breeze. I even had an unusual amount of luck with more exotic meats like bison (which is heavenly). But plain old beef from a cow? No luck.
Ever.
I've tried basting and not basting. Fat side up and down, covering with bacon or fatback. Dry, wet, grilling...nothing works. I've braised a ten pound pork shoulder before, and that came out perfect, but the ability to cook beef eludes me.
The only time I have been able to make beef fall apart tender is when I make stew, and it's hard for the meat to get tough when it's been slow cooked for six hours in liquid. Is there some great lesson to be learned from this? Is there somethng I'm just missing here? My mother could cook a steak so tender you could cut it with a butter knife, but me... no. Just no.
I have tried, for years, to cook beef. I've tried steaks, roasts, london broil, sirloin, ribs, you name it. Everything, no matter what, comes out dry and tough. I have followed recipes to the letter, even down to getting the exact same poundage of meat, and it is always the same.
I don't have problems with any other meat. Hell, I can even make a juicy turkey, and that seems like something most people can't do. Pork, no problems. Chicken is a breeze. I even had an unusual amount of luck with more exotic meats like bison (which is heavenly). But plain old beef from a cow? No luck.
Ever.
I've tried basting and not basting. Fat side up and down, covering with bacon or fatback. Dry, wet, grilling...nothing works. I've braised a ten pound pork shoulder before, and that came out perfect, but the ability to cook beef eludes me.
The only time I have been able to make beef fall apart tender is when I make stew, and it's hard for the meat to get tough when it's been slow cooked for six hours in liquid. Is there some great lesson to be learned from this? Is there somethng I'm just missing here? My mother could cook a steak so tender you could cut it with a butter knife, but me... no. Just no.