You are not cooking it long enough. If it is stews, roasts, beef, or pork, it is not long enough.
Only if it is steak, are you overcooking it. Tell us your dishes, and then we can offer advice.

I have never had ground beef taste hard and chewy. A hamburger with 90% and above can be dry but not hard and chewy.

1. For burgers, add Worcester sauce, grated cheese and or minced onions to the ground beef , mix together lightly and form patties. Heat the grill, throw on grill, flip nice, eat. For meatballs add an extra egg.

2. For chicken, if you are cooking it in the oven brine it overnight in buttermilk.

3. Short ribs and chuck roast, I often find in a slow cooker it takes 2 -3 hours more than the slow cooker recipe to get fork tender. You can cut chuck pot roast into smaller pieces.

4. Stir fry, cut smaller thinner pieces, marinade for 30 minutes, pat marinate off with a paper towel, oil the wok before heating, once wok is hot throw in meat but do not over crowd. If you dump in the whole bowl and there’s a ton f marinade yu are boiling it not stir frying it and it will be tough. I skip the marinade often and use dry seasoning and then combine the meat, veggies and sauce at the end.

Anonymous wrote: I am 76 yrs old so I have been cooking with ground beef for many, many years . In the last two years ground beef has gone to hell. I Don,t care where you buy it ,what percentage of fat it is or how you cook it. It is tough and chewy.

Thata why i grind my own.

I am 76 yrs old so I have been cooking with ground beef for many, many years . In the last two years ground beef has gone to hell. I Don,t care where you buy it ,what percentage of fat it is or how you cook it. It is tough and chewy.

For many lean meats like chicken breast and sirloin or eye-round roast, cut across the grain to avoid toughness. Also try using a meat thermometer to make sure you cook to the right temperature. I also like to add some butter/oil to moisture to the meat. If you are roasting meats, it is important to let it rest (sit on the counter for a few minutes) before you start cutting the meat.

Anonymous wrote:If you're buying 93% ground beef, it won't taste great unless it's slow cooked in some sort of sauce. If you are making a burger patty or meatballs or something, use a fattier beef, like 85%, or even 80% for super juicy burgers.

Different PP. You can easily have moist and juicy burgers with less fat. If you use 90/10 or 93/7 beef then add a panade of bread and milk to the meat base and you'll get moist burgers, meatloaf or meatballs. You can use 80/20 or 85/15 if you want the flavor from the fat but if you want tp reduce fat, you can.

If you're buying 93% ground beef, it won't taste great unless it's slow cooked in some sort of sauce. If you are making a burger patty or meatballs or something, use a fattier beef, like 85%, or even 80% for super juicy burgers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lower fat stuff doesn't do well in the slow cooker, in general.

Specific cuts need different treatments, so it's important to know what cut you have, especially when it comes to beef and pork.

Your short ribs are a good braising cut. I'd throw them in the slow cooker with some red wine, rosemary, garlic, onion, and a bay leaf. They need time.. ideally, hours and hours. You'll go through a period where they will be tough before they become tender. You're basically relaxing the muscle fiber with moisture, heat, and time. You can't rush these cuts!

I actually have had good luck with fat free chicken breasts in a slower cooker - on high at four to six hours. Cook in chicken stock and canned tomatoes.

The chicken stock is basically resupplying the fat you dont' have on the breasts.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More details please - tell us exactly what you are trying to make and we'll help you figure out what's going wrong.

I think I might be overcooking and buying the wrong cut. I've tried everything, I always hate the tester of my meat. I like buying lean meat because I feel guilty seeing any fats on meat, although I love the taste of the fattier cuts.

.I use a slow cooker
.I bake the meat with red pepper, mushroom and spices for free style cooking.
.I stir fry

Right now, I have a chuck short ribs - 3lbs worth. What would do with it? I think I should use meat tenderizer so I don't kill it?

In general, marbling or fat in the meat is good for meats that will cook a long time. The fat will melt and break down in a long cooking process and will keep the meat from getting dry and that texture you are complaining about (hard and chewy). When you plan to cook low and slow (e.g. slow cooker), then look for cuts with some but minimal marbling. You want to be able to see thin white strands throughout the cut side of the meat, not big hunks of fat.

When cooking for baking, you want to have a leaner cut of meat. Wash and pat dry, then season the meat. Put a skillet on the stove, turn on high, then add cooking oil until you get a thin sheen on the pan. Wait for the oil to shimmer and then put the meat on the pan. It should immediately give you a big sizzle. Leave the meat untouched for 60-120 seconds (depending on how hot your pan gets and when you hear the sizzling slow down. Turn onto the other side. You'll need to leave it on slightly longer after turning. When you put the meat on the first side, the pan will cool slightly as the heat goes into the meat. Depending on how good your stove is at getting the pan back up to temp and retaining heat on the heating surface will determine how much longer you have to sear the second side. Don't forget to sear the edges. The "crust" you create by searing the meat will help keep the moisture in the meat when baking. Also, remember when you bake/roast meat that after it is done cooking there will be "blood"/meat juices that come out of the meat during cooking. Put the meat aside after cooking and tent some foil over the meat to keep the heat in and let sit 10-15 minutes. The juices will reabsorb into the meat and will redistribute evenly throughout the meat so that the meat isn't so dry and chewy. This is called letting the meat rest. It's a very important step in getting good texture and moisture in baked/roasted meats.

For stir fry, again you want a little bit of marbling in the meat. You don't need a lot, but you need some. A good cut of beef for stir frying is flank steak. When you slice for stir frying, make sure you cut across the grain. Just in case you don't know what that means, look for the fibers of the meat. You want to cut across the fibers. So, I line the fibers up going left-to-right on the cutting board and then cut across them. The fibers are what make stir-fry meat tough and chewy. If you cut along the same direction, then the person eating has to use their teeth to cut the fibers. If you can across the fibers, then the meat is less chewy as the fibers are already cut.

Hopefully these will help you get better results from your cooking. Let us know if there are any other cooking techniques that aren't working for you.

I am a relatively good home cook, but now that I am a Mom I found things getting overcooked while I was chasing a toddler

The Joule sous vide has been my savior! I literally sous vide everything now- chicken, roasts, steak, burgers... it takes a minimal amount of prep, can sit for an extra hour if you need it. It's amazing. My husband got it for me for Xmas- I think its around $100.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More details please - tell us exactly what you are trying to make and we'll help you figure out what's going wrong.

I think I might be overcooking and buying the wrong cut. I've tried everything, I always hate the tester of my meat. I like buying lean meat because I feel guilty seeing any fats on meat, although I love the taste of the fattier cuts.

.I use a slow cooker
.I bake the meat with red pepper, mushroom and spices for free style cooking.
.I stir fry

Right now, I have a chuck short ribs - 3lbs worth. What would do with it? I think I should use meat tenderizer so I don't kill it?

When I stir fry, I cook the meat first so it is either just done or almost done (cut open a piece to check). Then I remove it from the pan and cook the veggies. Then I throw the meat in sauce in at the end, but just for a short amount of time. Whenever I try to do it all at once, something gets Cooke wrong.

For lean chicken, marinate, make sure to add a little fat. The either grill or broil. Again, be careful not to overlook. I use a thermometer and cook to 160. It will continue to heat up after ypu remove. Put on a platter or plate and cover for 10 minutes before serving. I read this somewhere and it makes all the difference.

Anonymous wrote:Lower fat stuff doesn't do well in the slow cooker, in general.

Specific cuts need different treatments, so it's important to know what cut you have, especially when it comes to beef and pork.

Your short ribs are a good braising cut. I'd throw them in the slow cooker with some red wine, rosemary, garlic, onion, and a bay leaf. They need time.. ideally, hours and hours. You'll go through a period where they will be tough before they become tender. You're basically relaxing the muscle fiber with moisture, heat, and time. You can't rush these cuts!

I actually have had good luck with fat free chicken breasts in a slower cooker - on high at four to six hours. Cook in chicken stock and canned tomatoes.

Anonymous wrote:Oh, lord. Start with some recipes, dear. You clearly can't freestyle. And fat is what keeps the meat tender.

+1

Anonymous wrote:You may find these helpful, OP:

https://www.certifiedangusbeef.com/cuts/

http://www.porkbeinspired.com/cuts/

Each will tell you the best cooking method for the cut you have

Thanks!

You may find these helpful, OP:

https://www.certifiedangusbeef.com/cuts/

http://www.porkbeinspired.com/cuts/

Each will tell you the best cooking method for the cut you have