regarding a piece of meat and how to handle it

[Tuesday Afternoon]

do you stab or pierce the meat or do you handle it with tongs in order to keep the meat intact?

[Denninmi]

1. Don't pierce.

Every place you do that, you will lose fluids as it cooks (I am going to assume we are talking a roast of some kind here, cooked with dry heat). The only reason I can think of to violate this general rule is if you need to or want to introduce something into the roast, such as garlic cloves or an injected marinade.

[EFerrari]

2. Or if you want fat to drain out as with a skin-on chicken breast

for purposes of crisping.

[Denninmi]

3. Now that I've not heard of.

I guess the closest thing I've heard of or done is to score the fat cap on a ham to help it to render and crisp.

Does it really work? -- I've never heard of piercing the skin on a chicken.

[EFerrari]

7. Just over the breast when roasting.

It's worked for me. :)

[Tuesday Afternoon]

4. I don't pierce but, I saw it done (to my horror) to a good cut of rib-eye

and a roast. They said they knew what they were doing and to leave them alone. They like their meat well done ... I thought maybe that had something to do with it.

[yellerpup]

5. Tongs, please.

Although I do score hams and pierce the skin of ducks because both are so fatty.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

6. yes, I understand scoring fat but, NOT piercing MEAT

I was aghast. simply aghast, I say.

[hippywife]

14. When I pan sear a good steak

I only cook them to between rare-medium rare so I don't have any problems using a fork to turn them, because they aren't going to be in the pan long enough to dry out and I don't need to flip them often. They always come out perfectly wonderful. :hi:

[Warpy]

8. If you're talking about flipping it while searing, always use

tongs or a spatula. Spearing it is akin to pressing down on a burger, it causes juices to be lost from the interior. You don't want to do that. You don't even want to remove it from the grill with that handy dandy BBQ fork. You want to remove it and let it rest with no holes in it.

Well, unless you're willing to endure shoe leather just to justify having to buy that stupid, useless fork with the rest of the set.

The fork can be used to stabilize meat but it should never pierce that meat.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

9. actually what I watched this person do was stab the raw meat repeatedly

before placing it on the grill.

[Warpy]

10. Maybe he was trying to tenderize cheap meat

There are better ways to accomplish that, along with marinating it to finish the job plus supply lost moisture and supply flavor.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

11. it was a nice rib-eye, although this person does like the meat well done

:shrug:

[pengillian101]

12. Maybe he was trying to tenderize cheap meat

Yup, that had to be it. I have two meat tenderizers. One is a mallet with different sized spikes, and one is a roller version. To clean, an old toothbrush is a must. I store old toothbrushes in the dishwasher. Always a conversation starter with new dining folks who come over and load their own dirty dishes.

What? You store your toothbrushes THERE?


:-)

[Warpy]

13. It's not a bad place to store toothbrushes, actually

since the dishwasher usually uses ultra hot water that gets them cleaner than rinsing in cold water in the bathroom sink.

In addition, they're well out of range of the flush spray that deposits a nice film of coliform bacteria over everything every time you flush with the seat up.

[trof]

15. Pierce before marinating. Cook with tongs.

Or use a spatula if it sticks to grill.