Whether you’re cooking steak or chicken, making sure the meat is tender enough to soak up spices and marinades can be a challenge. There are dozens of meat tenderizer products on the market, but a little-known cooking secret is that fresh papaya can be used to soften up even the toughest cuts of meat. Papaya contains the enzyme Papain that breaks down all types of meat within seconds.
You can make a tenderizer at home in a few simple steps. Here’s what you need to know about using papaya as a meat tenderizer:
Making the Papaya Meat Tenderizer
All you need to make your own meat tenderizer at home is one medium-sized papaya fruit and ¼ teaspoon of salt. Rinse the papaya under warm water, then cut into the papaya about ¼” deep and peel off the skin. You should be left with a slightly soft, fleshy fruit.
Chop the papaya fruit into small cubes and place it in a small bowl. Add ¼ teaspoon of salt, and then mash the papaya with a fork or the back of a spoon. You want to make a thick paste, so keep mixing until all the lumps are out of the mixture. You will need about one tablespoon of papaya mixture or every half pound of meat (all types).
Tenderizing Meat with Papaya
After you’re prepared your meat tenderizer, you will need to activate the enzymes. This requires heating the meat to at least 140 °F, so all you need to do is heat the meat with the tenderizer on the stove, or in the oven. Different types of meat require different heating times, but you want to raise the temperature to no more than 160 °F or the tenderizer will become inactive. According to EnzymeDevelopment.com, Papain becomes completely inactive at a temperature range of 170-185 degrees Fahrenheit.
Check the temperature regularly when cooking the meat using your preferred method so you don’t burn the meat, or lose the effects of the tenderizer.
Other Information About Papaya as a Meat Tenderizer
If you prefer not to make your own meat tenderizer with fresh papaya, you can use a shortcut method. A product called Adolph’s Meat Tenderizer is made with pure papaya, and works in a similar way as a homemade papaya paste. It’s an MSG-free formula manufactured by Lawry’s, the same company that makes the lineup of tasty marinades. You can use it to cook chicken, pork and various cuts of beef and it’s available in both a seasoned and unseasoned version.
Some people prefer to use a combination of pineapple and papaya when making a meat tenderizer. Pineapple also contains enzymes that help to break down the connective tissues in meat, and you can make this type of tenderizer by combining fresh pineapple, fresh papaya and water. Take a look at this recipe for Papaya-Pineapple Meat Tenderizer to see how this works.
Sources:
EnzymeDevelopment.com
FarawayFoods.com
