After spending a fortune on a beautiful piece of meat from a local butcher, you're often excited to immediately create a sumptuous feast. Often, one of the biggest letdowns is serving up a chewy, and tough cooked steak. It's no fun and a chore to eat it and the flavor you were expecting just doesn't come through. That's the reason why, tenderizing beef before cooking is so important, especially for chewier meats. That's when the magic of papaya comes in — this awesome fruit can transform any tough cut of meat into a mouth-watering, melt-in-your-mouth feast. The tenderizing power of this magical potion lies in an enzyme called papain.
This enzyme is works as a protease, meaning it helps break down proteins into smaller, more manageable components. The beauty of papain is it works its magic without effecting the flavor profile of the meat, making sure that your steak turns out to be a delightful package of taste and texture. Interestingly, while the enzyme can be found throughout various parts of the papaya plant, the raw form of the enzyme reigns supreme in tenderizing and taste. As the fruit ripens, however, the papain content gradually lessens, making it important to select a green papaya for optimal quick tenderizing trick.
Select a green papaya. In case you can't find one or if you have is ripe papaya, just double the amount for coating your meat to get the same results as with the green one. No need to be fussy, if you don't want to wash or peel it, you can leave the skin intact if you like. Chop it lengthwise then discard the seeds. Cube the two halves, and pop them into a blender with little water, and blend them into a paste. Add to the meat to tenderize it, you can just combine the fruit paste with the rest of the marinade all at once. If you are worried about the taste, you can tenderize first and marinade is separately.
Coating your meat with the pureed papaya in the amounts of one tablespoon of the paste per pound of steak is ample. Put the meat in the refrigerator for about two hours if the meat is very tough and chewy, or 30 minutes to one hour for more delicate or thinner cuts. Adjust this length of treatment as you gain more experience handling the meat since there are no fixed timings. The ultimate goal is to allow the enzymes in papaya to work its magic without overdoing it . Finally, when you are ready to cook, wash off the blended paste, pat dry the meat using a paper towel, marinate the meat as usual, and then turn on the burners. Now get ready for the most sumptuous, melt-in-your-mouth steak you've ever eaten.