{"id":110372,"title":"How to Tenderize Meat for Asian Dishes: The Baking Soda Method","modified":"2025-10-29T17:11:11+01:00","plain":"Asian cuisine, with its rich diversity of flavors and techniques, places great importance on texture, and meat is no exception. Tender meat is essential for dishes like Chinese beef with onions or caramel pork.\n\n\n\nTender meat not only delivers a better eating experience, it also helps the spicy, aromatic marinades typical of Asian cuisine penetrate more deeply.\n\n\n\nChicken Fried Rice uses the velveting technique\n\n\n\nTraditional tenderizing methods across Asia\n\n\n\n\nMarinating: Marinades based on soy sauce, rice wine, ginger, and spices are commonly used to tenderize meat while adding deep flavor. Technically, the meat sits in an acidic solution (vinegar or lemon juice) or an enzymatic one (pineapple or papaya juice). These agents help break down muscle fibers and connective tissue, making the meat more tender.\n\n\n\nThe \"velveting\" technique: Popular in Chinese cuisine, this method coats the meat with baking soda or starch (such as cornstarch), then quickly blanches it in water or oil. This yields a soft, velvety texture\u2014hence the name. Examples include Cumin Beef and my Chicken Fried Rice.\n\n\n\nSteaming: Certain Asian traditions, such as Cantonese cuisine, rely on steaming to achieve tender meat without drying it out.\n\n\n\n\nDivinely tender beef with onions\n\n\n\nThe baking soda method: a surprisingly effective technique\n\n\n\nUsing baking soda to tenderize meat is a widely used trick in many Asian dishes.\n\n\n\nUnlike other methods, baking soda works quickly\u2014ideal for the high heat of Asian stir-fries. The chemical reaction it triggers helps prevent meat proteins from contracting, leaving the meat incredibly tender.\n\n\n\nThis method is used in Crispy Orange Beef\n\n\n\nIn Asian cooking, it\u2019s common to mix baking soda into marinades, such as soy sauce, to both tenderize and season the meat. This technique is especially effective for thin slices of meat used for stir-fries or grilling.\n\n\n\nIt works on everything: beef, chicken, pork \u2026 pure magic!\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\tThe Baking Soda Method for Tenderizing Meat\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\tMethod for large cuts of meat1 meat (any weight)1 percent of the meat's weight of baking sodaMethod for small cuts of meat1 thinly sliced meat140 ml water1 teaspoon for every 140 ml of water needed to cover the meat\t\n\t\n\t\tMethod for large cuts of meatSprinkle the baking soda over the meat and rub it in with clean hands.Refrigerate the meat for a few hours or overnight.Before cooking, rinse the meat well to remove any excess baking soda.Method for small cuts of meatMix the baking soda with the water.Let the meat soak for 15 to 45 minutes.Rinse well before continuing with the rest of the recipe (whether cooking or marinating).","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110372"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110637,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110372\/revisions\/110637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}