Meat mallets

Meat mallets – the best tool to tenderize your meat

What is the point of pounding meat?

Pounding meat is a cooking method that entails using a mallet or a rolling pin to soften, flatten and tenderise meat. The main objective of pounding meat is to break down the muscle fibres and connective tissue, resulting in more delicate and digestible meat. This method works especially well with harder meats but all meat types can be softened with a meat tenderizer depending on the recipe.

Pounding the meat helps also to flatten and even meat chops, ensuring that they cook or fry consistently. This is particularly crucial when grilling or pan-cooking meat because it ensures that the meat cooks evenly throughout without burning or drying out on the exterior.

Ultimately, pounding meat is a useful technique for enhancing the flavour and texture of tough meat pieces, and it can also help you cook with greater uniformity.

What are the differences between a meat pounder and a tenderizer?

A meat pounder and a meat tenderizer are both used to prepare meat, but they serve slightly different purposes.

A meat pounder can be characterised by a flat, sturdy surface. It's mainly used for flattening and thinning meat. A meat pounder's primary task is to level out the thickness of the meat, making it thinner and more tender while ensuring even cooking.

A meat mallet or meat tenderizer is a type of hammer with a long handle and a head with two types of surfaces - a flat surface and a surface with teeth for softening and breaking down the rough fibres in a slice of meat to make it more tender and simple to chew. The process of tenderising meat can be specifically beneficial for harder types of meat, such as steak or roast, which can be challenging to prepare in a way that results in a moist, tender piece of meat.

In conclusion, a meat mallet is mostly used to flatten meat, whereas a meat tenderizer is used to dissolve tough fibres and render the flesh more tender.

You can also browse the other culinary tools we have available at Kulina, such as electric meat grinders, grill pans, universal frying pans, and food thermometers.