When it comes to beef and steak, the French can probably classify them best. I studied beef in the Le Cordon Bleu course for three consecutive weeks, and I became more curious about French beef than ever before. What I learned in class and the information I looked up after class gave me a basic understanding of French beef. , share it with everyone.
The French love cows, very much, because the cows in the cow family not only provide them with the butter and cheese that are indispensable for northern French cuisine, but also the beef cattle from another branch of the family. Providing the best quality meat.
It’s hard to imagine that if you just go into a French butcher shop, more than half of the meat in it is beef, and the categories are complicated. In addition to the many varieties of cattle, there are as many as 40 different types of different parts of the same kind of cattle. , I will definitely get dizzy if I don’t do enough homework in advance, so I can only weakly ask the boss to help me choose the tenderest piece of meat for frying the steak, just like I did a few months ago. But the boss didn't even need time to react. He quickly took out a piece of pink lean meat and cut it for me, and then taught me how to fry it. In fact, I noticed that many French people need to consult the boss to help choose meat when entering a butcher shop, so beef is really a great knowledge that combines theory and experience.
In China, beef is also classified by parts. Although it is not divided as finely as the French, the Chinese will not ignore their favorite ox tail and ox head and tongue in the classification. As for the offal, they are not included. Today the beef judging system is included. Relatively speaking, most Chinese people classify pork more clearly and carefully than beef. This has a lot to do with eating habits. After all, pork is the most consumed meat in my country, and it is far ahead of the second place. Probably no one else in the world No country loves pork as much as China and Spain. In France, it's just the opposite. Among the 70 dishes we have learned so far, only one is about pork, and we have learned no less than 10 beef dishes.
When it comes to beef cooked by the French or Westerners, many people will have a misunderstanding, that is, the only type of beef they make is grilled steak. First of all, from the perspective of those who really understand beef, this idea is unscientific, because no matter how unique the breed of cow is, not every piece of meat on the body is tender enough to be roasted and eaten. So beef needs to be sorted by cut so it can be cooked in the proper way.
I only remember one ancient article from middle school about "The Cooking Man's Understanding of Cows", but it is equally difficult to understand the 40 kinds of cow muscles. It is impossible to completely understand the classification of beef parts in France after reading a few articles or pictures. I am now at the stage of talking about it on paper. My biggest wish is to be lucky enough to dissect a whole cow, and then cook it to compare the changes in every inch of muscle. But the premise is that the talks on paper have already been smooth.
The picture above shows the classification of French beef parts. In French, it is called "decoupe de la viande de boeuf", which is equivalent to the English "cut of beef". Let’s start with the big ones. A cow can be roughly divided into three parts: avant front, aloyau waist and cuisse legs. It can be divided into at least 38 types of parts according to muscle tissue. It is really confusing to explain 38 types of parts by looking at pictures, so here we simplify the parts to 20 types (it is really enough if you can understand them all clearly) ), and are divided into three groups according to the thickness of muscle fibers:
The first group.
Characteristics: the most tender group.
Distribution: Mostly distributed in aloyau i.e. waist
Cooking methods: Grilled roti, grilled griller and fried sauter.
1.romsteck, rump steak, English rump steak
2.gite a la noix, beef shank heart, English top rump/top side
3.tranche, beef shank inner meat, English thick flank
4.cote de boeuf, beef ribs, English rib
5.entrecote, rib eye meat, English ribeye
6.filet, tenderloin or filet, English filet
7.faux filet, upper loin (sirloin), English sirloin
8.bavette, oblique belly meat, English flank steak/undercut
9.onglet, diaphragm muscle, English hanger steak
The second group.
Characteristics: older than the first group
Distribution: distributed at the junction of cuisse legs and waist
Cooking method: braiser roast, ragouts vegetable braised meat
1.aguillette baronne, rump meat, English goose skirt steak
2.rond de gite, beef thigh steak (Niulin), English round steak
3.gite a la noix, coincides with 2 in the first group, this is a part that can be roasted or stewed.
The third group.
Characteristics: the oldest
Distribution: concentrated on the shoulders, neck, abdomen and lower parts of the legs (calf, etc.) in the front of avant cattle.
Cooking methods: Braiser roasting, estouffades stew, pot au four French stew hot pot
1.gite, tendon meat at the end of the thigh and the upper end of the calf (beef show), shin steak in English
2.jarret, shank steak, English shank steak
3.epaule (paleron, macreuse), beef shoulder, English chuck steak
4.collier, neck meat, English neck steak
5.poitrine, pork belly (lower belly meat), English plate
6.flachet, sirloin, English flank steak< /p>
7.plat de cote, short rib, English short rib
8.joue, cheek meat, English cheek
9.queue, oxtail, English tail
After seeing so many names of beef parts, I really can’t remember them without sorting out the logic.
In fact, if you compare it with the picture, you will find the general rule, that is, the most tender parts are usually concentrated in the waist of aloyau, and the higher the position, the more tender (and the higher the price), because this part The cow can rarely move, and the muscle fibers are thin, so the meat is tender; and in the front part of the avant and the cuisse leg, a large amount of the third group of old meat that can only be stewed is concentrated, and the lower parts are almost older, but It is not ruled out that there are some tender meats from the first group, which also need to be summarized and memorized through continuous learning and practice. Or now, you can simulate a cow walking and imagine which muscle will be used the most or least, and then you can know which piece of meat is the oldest or the most tender.
Then let’s have another steak recipe
cotes de b?uf grillees sauce bordelaise Grilled beef ribs with Bordeaux red wine sauce
Sance bordelaise Bordeaux red wine sauce is A classic sauce that is served with steak in French cuisine. It is rich and delicious and has a touch of sourness from red wine. The cote de b?uf beef ribs from the first group are used for this dish. They are very tender parts, so they are suitable for frying directly on the grill pan. Of course, it is not really cooked, but fried to a bloody saignant doneness.
To make Bordeaux sauce, of course you need red wine, then add stock and spices to concentrate, and finally add one of my favorite things, blanched half-cooked beef bone marrow segments, and finally garnish with chopped parsley. The highlight of this dish is the garnish of tomatoes provencales, which I think is simple and delicious. Juicy and tender tomatoes are stuffed with golden and crispy bread crumbs, minced garlic, a mixture of various herbs and olive oil. It is simple and healthy, sweet and sour.