In order to preserve the valuable substances of meat, as well as to make sure it is tasty and tender when it is prepared, it is necessary to follow some rules during the boiling process.
No matter what meat you boil, you must first wash it and boil it in a tightly closed cookware to preserve its aroma.
When the meat starts to boil, gray foam begins to form on the surface of the cookware, which is the lumped up proteins of the meat. Most cooks discard the foam to keep the broth clear. However, some experts recommend not to do this, since this way you throw away valuable nutrients.
They recommend tapping the foam lightly with a spoon, after which it will fall to the bottom and be absorbed by the broth. Whatever way you decide to proceed, never throw away the broth, even if it is more than needed. It contains some of the most nutritious and useful substances in meat.
An important rule when boiling meat is to place it in the cookware in whole pieces and it must be covered in water during cooking.
If you decide to prepare older beef or veal, keep in mind, that it is prepared much slower than poultry or pork. It is best to tenderize it in advance with a wooden hammer and add 1 tbsp. of vinegar into the water. Another option is to rub it with mustard from the previous day. Then wash it, drizzle it with a little vinegar, wait another 2 hours and then boil it.
The fastest way to prepare boiled meat is in a pressure cooker, which saves up to 4 times of time of the product preparation. This is due to the fact, that the heat treatment is carried out at a much higher pressure, which contributes to less loss of valuable substances during the time the meat is boiled.
When working with a pressure cooker, it is important to know, that you need to add as much water, as you want the finished dish to have, but no more than 3/4 of the capacity of the pot. After you have washed the meat, close the pot and place it on a heated hob, which is preferably as large as the bottom of the pot.
When the dish is boiled, steam will start to come out of the valve. On it is placed the so-called gasket and the heat is reduced. This is how the boiling process is maintained. Keep in mind, that even after you have stopped the boiling process and removed the pot from the hob, it still maintains the same temperature for about 10 minutes, so you will have to wait before opening it. For example, only 20 minutes are often enough for the preparation of chicken and veal and about 30 minutes for beef.
