Skip The Tenderizer: There's A More Flavorful Way To Marinate Steak

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The journey between raw meat and a flavorful steak isn't always a straight line — sometimes the cheaper cuts need a little extra help. Tenderizing meat breaks down the collagen that makes it feel tough when chewed, and bashing it with a special hammer like this is one effective way to achieve that, but it doesn't really do much for the flavor. A marinade, however, kills two birds with one stone, and pineapple is one of the best — and the very worst.

You might not immediately put steak and pineapple together, but hear us out. The tropical fruit is brilliant for tenderizing steak thanks to its hefty concentration of bromelain. It's an enzyme that splits the protein bonds in collagen, breaking them down and making the muscle — AKA the meat — softer and easier to digest, while also giving it a subtle, sweet twist. We love it when science steps from the laboratory to the kitchen, but using pineapple as a marinade for steak comes with a flashing red warning about time.

A steak can be left to infuse for hours in this canned ingredient or a herby, salty brine, and taste all the better for it. With pineapple, if you stay inside the recommended maximum 45-minute marinade time, you'll be rewarded with a juicy, tasty steak. What happens if you don't? Well, Gustavo Tosta of Guga Foods left took steaks from a New York strip loin in a finely blended bowl of pineapple for one, six, 16, and 24 hours. We can't repeat what was said at the eventual tasting, but take our word for it: Only the first steak was considered edible.

If you don't feel like embracing your inner Thor and wielding a hammer in your kitchen, there is another way to tenderize a lower-cost cut of meat, particularly when it comes to stir-fries. Velveting is often used in Chinese cuisine, and relies on coating the meat in a mixture made of cornflour, bicarbonate of soda, and water. The bicarb increases the pH of the meat's surface, easing the stiff muscle fibers and helping them absorb water, while the cornflour protects the meat from the heat of the wok. It works beautifully for thinner strips of beef, chicken, lamb, and pork. Try it and see!

Home cooks working with a thicker piece of beef, like Bobby Flay's budget-friendly favorite cut, should know that pineapple isn't the only flavorful source of enzymes that effectively break down proteins. Papayas are packed with papain and raw honey also contains proteases, both of which do the same job as bromelain.

You have more time flexibility with a papaya marinade which, depending on the cut of meat you're infusing, can be left for several hours. Likewise, steak can happily be marinated in honey overnight, with delicious results. As well as making meat super-tender, both will also add an interesting sweetness to the finished steak. We also recommend using this iconic sauce as a marinade for steak, but just as with pineapple, timing is everything!