Steak has become a classic on many people's tables. A few days ago, an Internet celebrity blogger was fined for false publicity because he promoted "conditioned steak" as "original cut steak" in the live broadcast, confusing the true attributes of the product. What is a raw cut steak?What is a Conditioned Steak?So what do sirloin steak and filet mignon mean?How do we make choices when it comes to spending?
1. How much do you know about the types of steak?
According to the definition of the QB T 5442-2020 "Steak" industry standard, steak refers to the lumpy meat products made by the processes of fresh and frozen cut beef (with or without bones) as raw materials, trimmed, marinated (or not cured), shaped (or not formed), quick-frozen (or not quick-frozen), sliced (or not sliced), with (or without matching) convenient seasoning, packaging and other processes. Steaks can be classified in two ways: processing technology and raw meat segmentation.
(1) Classification according to processing technology
According to the processing technology, steak can be divided into original cut steak and conditioned steak.
1.Raw cut steak refers to a steak that has only been physically divided and packaged, without water injection, marinating, or adding any auxiliary ingredients or additives.
2.Conditioned steak is a steak made from beef as raw material, with auxiliary ingredients for conditioning and processing, and through trimming, pickling, molding and other processes.
According to the raw material form of the conditioned steak, it can be divided into original cut conditioned steak and synthetic recombinant spliced steak.
1) Original cut conditioned steak: It is made by using the original cut steak as raw material, adding water, spices and food additives, etc., through pickling and conditioning, tumbling, freezing and other processes.
2) Synthetic, recombinant, spliced steak: small pieces of beef are used as raw materials, water, spices, carrageenan, xanthan gum, transglutaminase and other food additives are added, and they are made by pickling and conditioning, tumbling, stamping or shaping, freezing and other processes.
(2) Classification according to the segmented parts of raw meat
Steaks are divided into tenderloin fillet, ribeye steak, sirloin steak, and T-bone.
Second, there are tricks to distinguish steaks
(1) Read the label
There is a lot of information on the label, mainly depending on the ingredients and implementation standards, to distinguish between the original cut steak, the original cut conditioned steak and the synthetic conditioned steak. The ingredients of the original cut steak only have the name of the beef or steak part, and the product implementation standard is "National Food Safety Standard Fresh (Frozen) Livestock and Poultry Products" (GB 2707-2016) and "Fresh and Frozen Cut Beef" (GB T 17238-2022);In addition, the original cut steak should also have an animal inspection and quarantine certificate or an inspection and quarantine certificate for imported goods. In addition to beef, there are spices and/or food additives behind the original seasoned steak ingredients, which are usually labeled with the words "sirloin steak" and "filet mignon", and the product implementation standard is mostly "quick-frozen prepared food" (SB T 10379-2012);Synthetic conditioned steaks don't usually have the names of these parts on their labels, and the ingredient list will have a lot of ingredients besides beef, such as black pepper steak.
(2) Look at the appearance
The muscle texture of the high-quality original cut steak and the original cut conditioned steak is natural, and the muscle fibers of each group are consistent, not too round and regular, and after natural thawing, the incision formed by physical cutting is natural and smooth, and the meat is pure meat red. Imported steaks, due to prolonged exposure to freezing temperatures, are generally dark red. Synthetic conditioning steak is usually regular in shape, with scattered textures and no consistent direction, short muscle fibers, poor color uniformity, and fine cavities after thawing, which will be more obvious when viewed against light.
(3) Inquiry**
The ** of synthetic conditioned steak will be much cheaper than raw cut steak and original cut conditioned steak.
3. Who is better for all kinds of steaks
From the perspective of raw beef, most of the beef used for synthetic conditioned steak is in the middle and lower grades, and it needs to be sold after reprocessing, and the possibility of using inferior meat cannot be ruled out, and the risk of bacterial infection of ground beef meat is greater than that of whole cut meat. From a taste point of view, whether a steak is good or not really has little to do with whether it is cut or not, it depends more on personal preference. Whether it is a raw cut steak or a synthetic conditioned steak, there is no food safety risk under the condition of meeting the national food safety standards.
Fourth, buy steak to avoid pits
One is to understand steak. Before buying steak, understand the basics, such as steak has a grade differentiation, in the case of the same grade, on **: filet naked eye sirloin.
The second is offline purchase. If you do not have a strong ability to identify, it is recommended to buy at the counter of a large supermarket, and purchase products with full packaging information, and refuse to have three no products.
The third is online purchase. There are many e-commerce platforms, and the quality of the steaks sold is uneven, so try to choose to buy them through regular online shopping channels such as self-operated stores and brands on large platformsIn addition, it is reminded that you need to be cautious when buying online celebrity products.
5. Making fake steaksEasy to identify
1) Observe the packaging and labeling, and regular merchants will usually mark the trademark registration certificate, production date, shelf life, manufacturer and after-sales service information.
2) Pay attention to the ** of the commodity, too low may be a concession in quality, taste, nutrition, etc., should be vigilant.
3) Pay attention to the basic characteristics, such as color, texture, meat quality, taste, etc., which are difficult to fake.
6. Steak doneness knowledge
Unlike most other cooked dishes, steak is usually not cooked until it is fully cooked, but rather depends on personal preference. The name of how ripe when ordering is the degree of doneness that was introduced to China is customary, and the description of beef doneness in foreign countries is not like this.
Doneness is determined based on the core temperature and red percentage of the steak as follows:
Medium-rare steakThe inside of the steak is blood-red and maintains a certain temperature throughout the inside, and there are raw and cooked parts at the same time, and the surface is slightly charred, delicious and juicy.
Medium rareMost of the meat is exposed to heat and transmitted to the center, but there is no major change, and the meat is brown on the upper and lower sides after cutting, turning pink to fresh meat color towards the center, and red juice oozing out with the knife cut.
Medium-rare steakThe inside of the steak is a light gray and tan color with a visible area of pink and mixed with cooked meat, and the temperature and taste of the whole steak are balanced.
Medium wellThe inside of the steak is mainly light gray brown with a small amount of pink, and the texture is heavy and chewy. Well done, the steak is brown in cooked meat, and the beef is cooked as a whole and has a thick texture.