Why do housewives add soda to minced meatballs?

Experienced housewives know many ways to use baking soda in the kitchen and very often use it as an additive for preparing dishes from any type of meat, be it poultry, pork, beef or lamb. Soda is added to minced meat, shish kebab, and roast, and this only makes the dishes tastier and more aromatic. Sodium bicarbonate eliminates the acid present in muscle fibers, improves the taste of meat, and helps get rid of the pungent odor.

How to cook juicy cutlets?

The cutlets will turn out very juicy, fluffy and tender if you add a little soda to the minced meat. However, when preparing, you need to take into account several important points:

• Soda is added to minced meat exclusively for cutlets. It is not used in dumplings, meatballs or stuffed peppers. The fact is that when frying, bicarbonate releases carbon dioxide, the bubbles of which make the cutlet airy.
• You should not add milk to the minced meat, as this product together with soda will ruin the taste of the meat. It is better to put a small piece of butter inside the formed cutlet.
• The minced meat must be kneaded thoroughly. Don't just mix, but beat like dough for several minutes. This will saturate the mass with oxygen.

The cutlets will turn out tender and airy if you combine the following ingredients:

• 700 g beef and 300 g pork;
• roll soaked in water - 200 g;
• onion - 1 pc.;
• garlic - 3-5 cloves;
• soda - 1 tsp;
• salt, pepper - to taste.

Bread, onion and garlic are passed through a meat grinder. All components are mixed and the minced meat is allowed to stand for about half an hour. Fry the cutlets over moderate heat until golden brown.

If the recipe contains soda, then the amount of salt must be reduced.

Baking soda for tenderizing meat

Sodium bicarbonate reacts with the water in the meat to form carbon dioxide. In addition, sodium retains water within the fibers, drying out the surface of the meat.

There are two ways to make tough meat juicy and tender:

• One teaspoon of bicarbonate is dissolved in 1 liter of cold water. The steak prepared for frying is immersed in the resulting solution and soaked for a quarter of an hour, after which the piece is rinsed with cold water and sent to the frying pan.
• Pieces of meat are rubbed with soda on all sides and left to soak for 1.5–2 hours. If the room is very hot, it is better to put the dish in the refrigerator. After the allotted time has passed, the pieces are thoroughly washed with clean cool water and fried in a frying pan or in the oven. Salt and pepper are added 3-5 minutes before the dish is fully cooked.

In this way, you can cook meat not only from domestic animals, but also from wild animals, such as wild boar, elk, and roe deer (these species are not soft during normal cooking). Meat cooked with the addition of bicarbonate literally melts in the mouth and does not have an unpleasant odor.

The use of baking soda as an additive to minced meat and meat is the secret to preparing tender and fluffy cutlets, soft juicy kebab, and golden-brown steak.