A lot of things in my cooking journey are influenced by J. Kenji López-Alt. His tendency to be backed by science interests me the most. This article is one of them: a technique to tenderise meat (beef, pork, or poultry), and make them taste like the one I got from a Chinese take-out. It’s called velveting.

The idea behind it is to marinate the meat with alkaline, in this case baking soda (bicarbonate soda). Half of a teaspoon is enough to marinate about 1 kg of meat. Too much of it will make the meat tastes bitter.

Baking soda (alkaline) raises the pH level on the surface of the meat and changes the way the proteins in the meat react when heated over high heat (hence, this technique is usually used when stir-frying). This chemical reaction makes it more difficult for the proteins inside the meat to tighten up. When the proteins can’t bond, the meat stays tender.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 tsp of baking soda
  • 2 tsp of corn flour (corn starch)
  • 1 large egg white
  • Soy sauce or salt - to taste, but be conservative. You can always add more salt to your dish, but hard to take them back.
  • 4 tsp of Shaoxing wine1. Btw, Shaoxing wine is salty, too.
  • Optionally, sesame oil - to taste

Steps:

  1. Mix all ingredients above as your marination liquid.
  2. Mix and agitate the meat in the liquid. Marinate for at least 15 minutes.

  1. Fun fact - Shaoxing wine (绍兴酒, shàoxīng jiǔ) is a Chinese rice wine produced in the city of Shaoxing, in eastern China. ↩