3: Collecting Ingredients and Using Them Wisely in VS .NET

Creation EAN-13 in VS .NET 3: Collecting Ingredients and Using Them Wisely

marbling that you want to look for The veins of fat break up the strong, chewy muscle tissue and add juiciness as they melt during cooking

After meat is portioned and packaged, it s delicate as a diva, easily falling prey to bacteria, unsavory flavors in your fridge, and oxidation Refrigeration slows down meat s inevitable decay, and freezing temporarily stops it But freezing is hard on meat Low temperatures irretrievably change meat s composition, and the difference shows up as less-tender meat: Ice crystals grow from the meat s juices and drill holes that later leak the precious fluids that keep meat from becoming tough as it cooks And then there s freezer burn, the discoloration that arises from extreme loss of moisture after meat has spent too much time in the freezer Freezer-burnt meat inevitably has a tough texture and suspect flavor No matter what meat you re buying, don t forget to eyeball the sellby date on the label to make sure that day hasn t come and gone Making friends with your butcher certainly doesn t hurt Customers of local butcher shops generally find services and perks they d never have expected from large chain meat counters

The beauty of barbecue is that it s infinitely adaptable, so this section by no means gives you the full spectrum of meat cuts, but it does give you an introduction to the most-cooked cuts for traditional barbecue cooking

Look for pork that has a faint pink color Darker meat means older meat: Either it came from an older pig that had more time to develop tough muscle, or it was cut and exposed to air for a longer time than is ideal Too much juice surrounding the meat is never a good thing, nor is juice that s cloudy

The shoulder area yields two cuts, Boston butt (so-named not for the hog s hindquarters but for barrels the cut was stored and shipped in back in ye olden times) and the picnic shoulder Both commonly are used for pulled pork, and they re good for nonbarbecue applications like stewing Boston butt is the more tender of the two cuts Picnic shoulder cuts cost lest but contain more large fat deposits Figure 3-1 gives you a look at both cuts

Pork ribs are cut from either the top or bottom portion of the rib cage Baby back, or loin back, ribs come from the top section and are small and pretty lean, which makes them faster to cook Spareribs come from the area closer to the belly, which makes them a neighbor to the bacon area and, as you may expect, fattier than baby back ribs You see an example of both rib cuts in Figure 3-2

You want any beef that you buy to have a rosy hue and abundant marbling (see Figure 3-3) The exception is vacuum-packed beef, which retains the purplish color that beef has before it s exposed to air Pass over any beef that has a gray or brown tinge to it

Figure 3-1: Boston butt comes from the upper shoulder of the pig; the picnic shoulder comes from the joint area of the foreleg

Figure 3-2: The ribs yield two different cuts Leaner baby back ribs come from the top and spareribs from the bottom

Figure 3-3: The meat on the left doesn t have enough marbling to give good flavor and texture; the cut on the right is perfect

Meat should feel firm, and you want to buy cuts that aren t swimming in juices Too much moisture often indicates that the meat got warmer than it should have