Why is meat sometimes tender and sometimes tough when cooked for a long time?
If you overcook a steak it will end up tough and hard to chew. If you cook ox tail for a few hours, however, it will become extremely tender.
What determines whether meat becomes tough or tender when cooking it for a long time? How can I maximize tenderness?
Best Answer
Fat, collagen or connective tissue, and cooking time and temp, all have an impact on tenderness. Steaks with uniform fat marbling are graded higher because, not only does fat add flavor, but when it breaks down it makes the steak more tender. Collagen begins to melt and dissolve to gelatin between 160F and 180F (71C and 82C). Oxtail (in your example) has much more fat and collagen than your steak. When the fat and collagen break down, you get tender and moist meat. Since steak has some fat, but much less collagen, it will overcook, the fat will melt out, and you will be left with an overcooked and dry product. Of course well-cooked steak can be tender (though, depending on the cut, some more tender than others)...and poorly cooked oxtail can be tough, so applying proper cooking technique to the particular cut of meat to maximize tenderness is critical. If you want maximum tenderness, find a high fat, high collagen cut, and cook it with moist consistent heat until the collagen melts out....short rib, or pot roast come to mind as examples, along with your oxtail.
Pictures about "Why is meat sometimes tender and sometimes tough when cooked for a long time?"
Quick Answer about "Why is meat sometimes tender and sometimes tough when cooked for a long time?"
The more you cook muscle, the more the proteins will firm up, toughen, and dry out. But the longer you cook connective tissue, the more it softens and becomes edible. To be specific, muscle tends to have the most tender texture between 120° and 160°F.Why does meat become tougher the longer it is cooked?
Both factors are influenced by the cut of meat you choose and how long the meat is cooked. The more a muscle is used, the stronger, and therefore tougher, the cut of meat will be. And the longer meat is cooked, the more liquid it loses and the tougher it becomes.Why is my meat tough and chewy?
This is because steaks from muscle rich parts of an animal have more connective tissues due to the muscles. Meat science has it that an old animal has tougher and chewy steak since its meat has more muscle fibers than a young one. The type of food an animal is fed will also determine the texture of its meat.Does meat get tougher the longer you cook it?
Cooking meat does not make it tough, it gets more tender. Meat does get dry at higher temperatures, time does not matter that much. The higher the temperature the more moisture is squeezed out of the meat making it more dry, I guess that it what you describe as tough.Why is my meat still tough?
It's because you haven't let the collagen break down. Extend the cook time, make sure there's enough liquid and keep an eye on the dish. Does meat get more tender the longer you cook it in a slow cooker? Not if you're using a leaner cut in the slow cooker, like chicken breast or pork chops.How To Tenderize ANY Meat!
More answers regarding why is meat sometimes tender and sometimes tough when cooked for a long time?
Answer 2
The answer by @moscafj is spot on - the main contributing factor to this difference is the connective tissue, this is the difference in those slow-cooked pieces of meat that make them fall apart, fork-tender. The connective tissue breaks down into gelatin which provides loads of lovely moisture and lubrication to the meat, and that lovely soft experience we all recognise with slow cooked meat.
What is connective tissue though? It's the part of the muscle that basically holds stuff together (broadly speaking) - so the more strain the muscle is put under, the higher the amount of connective tissue you can expect. This is why you might hear people refer to certain cuts of meat as "hard-working" - this means the muscle gets a lot of use, so it has lots of connective tissue, and will be a good cut to slow cook.
Great examples of this would be beef/ox-cheek (think about how much a cow uses its cheeks to chew all day long! cheek is one of my favourite cuts of beef for this reason), ox tail, brisket (brisket can be responsible for supporting about 60% of the cows weight)
This also isn't limited to beef/pork, but the same factor can be seen in chicken breasts vs thighs/legs - chicken breast muscle doesn't do much day-to-day, so is lean with limited connective tissue, and dries out quickly as you cook higher temps, where as the thighs and legs get constant use, so they can with stand much higher temps of cooking and still be deliciously juicy (also why I prefer cooking thighs!).
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Piotr Arnoldes, Ketut Subiyanto, Yan Krukov, RODNAE Productions