How to perfectly slice meat to get maximum flavours

Relishing a good meat dish for dinner can be very satisfying as the meat will always have a special place on the dinner table.

However, cutting meat can be a task because of the presence of a protein called collagen, which happens to be very tough and chewy.

Slicing the meat correctly has many benefits and we are talking about the slicing that happens on the cutting board, not on a plate. It helps to tenderize the meat, makes it easier to chew and you can taste it properly.

Slicing roasted meat against the grain can be a critical task. The most important part isn’t about how you slice it but when you slice it.

Roasted meats, boneless and bone-in roasts, like ribs or leg of lamb, as well as flank steak and skirt steak, are sliced into separate serving after cooking.

Here is everything you need to know about slicing meat perfectly:

Before you put a cut on it, remember that the right time to slice your meat is after it had a chance to rest. It means to wait a few minutes after you take it out of the oven. This step before slicing makes the meat juicier. When you cook meat, the heat causes liquid-filled cells to contract, squeezing it just like a hand squeezing a water balloon. This forces the liquid out of the cells and into the space between the muscle fibers. Slicing meat right after would make

the juices spill out on the cutting board. To experience the delectable taste of the meat, let it rest and absorb the juices so that when you slice it, the juices stay in the meat.

You’ve probably heard again and again that meat should always be sliced ‘against the grain’. But what does that mean? The best way to understand is by looking at a steak with a pronounced grain, like flank steak. The individual strands of meat that run lengthwise along the steak are the grain. Slicing the meat this way makes it easier to chew. The methods of tenderizing meat come down to breaking up the collagen. Collagen can be broken down when you braise the meat, among other methods. It can take hours for that. All we need to do is shorten the strands so that your teeth and jaws have less work to do. So, you slice it against the grain and slice it as thinly as possible because thinner slices mean shorter strands.

Use a long knife, longer than usual kitchen knives; a knife which is up to 14 inches long with a thin and flexible blade. It also needs to be sharp. This goes for every knife in your kitchen. To cut fine strokes, you need a sharp knife. A sharp knife will produce clean, neat cuts instead of rough, jagged ones. Do you remember those long-double-tined forks? It is called a ‘carving fork’, which helps you hold the roast steady while you slice. Lastly, when you slice a roast or steak, slice on the bias. It means slicing at a 90-degree angle. Picture a boneless meat roast. You slice it straight down. However, it is different when you are carving a bone-in roast, it is better to slice at an angle, not parallel to the bone.