pounding, cutting, or grinding. Pieces of veal
pounded into sheets (escalopes, scallopini)
are both tenderized and made so thin that they
cook through in a moisture-sparing minute or
two. Grinding the meat into small pieces
creates an entirely different sort of texture:
the gently gathered ground beef in a good
hamburger has a delicate quality quite unlike
even a tender steak.
A traditional and labor-intensive French
method for modifying tough meat is larding,
the insertion of slivers of pork fat into the
meat by means of hollow needles. In addition
to augmenting the meat’s fat content, larding
also breaks some fibers and connective-tissue
sheets.
Marinades Marinades are acidic liquids,
originally vinegar and now including such
ingredients as wine, fruit juices, buttermilk,
and yogurt, in which the cook immerses meat
for hours to days before cooking. They have