Pineapple the natural meat tenderizer.

miscjames

Well I have been reading online about natural meat tenderizers. And come to find out I have been throwing away the best natural meat tenderizer there is. What is that you might ask? The stem of a pineapple. I like to do grilled fresh pineapple with some cinnamon and sugar. And I have been just tossing the stem. This time I decided to give it a try on some ribs. These ribs I was planning on soaking in apple cider and lemon juice overnight. So I peeled the leafs off the stem and I ended up with a golf ball size stem. I ground it up in a magic bullet and tossed into my marinade. When I was done I could feel the effect it had on my hands. Well when I cooked the ribs they were too tender (it worked too well). Great flavor but the texture was too soft. If I do it again I will limit the pineapple stem to maybe a teaspoon. But I am thinking this will be great for some tougher meats like bottom round.

I found out that the enzyme “bromelain” in pineapple stops tenderizing at 158 so once its cooked it no longer works. Powdered bromelain is used for tenderizing meat, as well as treating inflammation, swelling, indigestion and even excessive blood clotting. Bromelain if found all throughout the pineapple but most concentrated in the stem.  

I hope this helps someone.

SmokeyPitt

That's a really cool tip- thanks for sharing!