【Men's Cooking】Just soaking in sugar and baking makes the meat tender!? Testing with US beef steak

I saw information online that soaking meat in sugar makes it tender, and I wanted to try it out. Men's camp cooking often involves grilling chunks of meat; how tender will it be? And how does it taste?

I decided to try using an iron frying pan and American steak meat

Since I have felt the effectiveness of sugar when trying it with pork and chicken breast, I thought it might also be useful for steak and decided to verify it.

Also, I decided to conduct the verification using my home iron frying pan and gas stove. Initially, I had planned to grill it over an open fire, but in reality, many people grill with hot plates or skillets, and considering the variations in heat management, I intentionally chose the iron frying pan. By the way, the steak meat is of American origin.

Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of sugar and let it sit in the refrigerator for 1 hour

Recently, I have actually been trying several recipes for sugar brining, and many recipes called for "1 teaspoon of sugar." Following that, I set it to 1 teaspoon this time too. Once the initial preparation of sprinkling is done, I let it sit in the refrigerator for about 1 hour.

After taking it out of the refrigerator, leave it for another 10 minutes or so to bring the meat back to room temperature. On the left is the sugar-brined one, which looks softer and more tender compared to the untreated meat.

Sugar has the property of binding with moisture, penetrating the meat's tissue and connecting collagen and moisture, which has the effect of making it tender.

We'll be cooking in a frying pan. There is almost no difference in appearance, but the fact that the sugar might burn is a bit of a concern. I'm hesitant about whether to lower the heat, but since it seems like it might get dry, I'll continue at medium heat as usual.

It's done! The left is sugar-cured and the right is untreated meat. The sugar-cured one looks a bit fluffier. I wonder if there's a difference in tenderness and taste.

The sugar-cured one has retained too much moisture and is quite sweet.

It's finished a bit rare, but the sugar-cured one feels a little softer. The image above shows the untreated meat.

Here is the sugar-cured one. The sugar-cured meat released a lot of juices and retained more moisture. Both have good flavor, but when eaten with salt and pepper, the sweetness of the sugar becomes noticeable. It's not a problem if you add sauce, but it might be a slight concern.

Reduced the amount of sugar and tried again! This time it was successful.

Taking into account the points for reflection, I cooked it again with half the amount of sugar.

I also adjusted the cooking time to be longer than last time, making it more likely to show a difference, and the results turned out very well! Although it doesn't dramatically change in softness, there is a feeling of the meat falling apart, and the sweetness of the sugar has become less noticeable. However, it remains easy to burn.

This time I tried it with steak, but a recommended match for the taste of sugar is chicken breast. Since it is cooked by steaming, there is no need to use very high heat, and the burnt flavor of the sugar combines with the taste of the meat, making it very delicious. How about adding a spoonful of sugar to elevate your camp meals this coming camping season?

Interview/Text by Kazuma Tanaka

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