Velveting Beef 101

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CookieMonster

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Velveting in the broadest sense is aimed at making a meat more tender.
Most Asian cuisines incorporate the technique - and having experience crispy tender beef in/on various stir fry type dishes, I set out to accomplish the feat in my own kitchen.

Basic steps:
Slice the beef into thin strips
Salt lightly and let stand
Heavy dredge/coating in corn starch - allow to stand 2-3 hours
Pan fry and drain.

This is a ribeye steak - it's just a tad thicker than I would prefer - sliced and cleaned up from excess fat and connective tissue.
For two - weight was 300g / 10.58 ounces before trim, 230g / 8.11 ounces net after trim.
PixV1s.jpg

Sliced and lightly salted - this should stand 2-3 hours in the refrigerator, allowing the salt time to penetrate. Salted + ready to dredge:
PixV2s.jpg

After coating allow to stand at room temperature. The second photo shows the corn starch coating being soaked; toss/dredge the beef strips once or twice more to keep the coating adequate.
PixV3s.jpg

Preheat the fry pan - use a very shallow oil amount. With the velveting and being so thin, it only takes 45 - 60 seconds on the first side and 30 seconds on the flip side to cook. I like to shake off and lay out all the beef strips in advance so I can pick them clean off the plate and into the pan. I've found trying to do that on the fly the first strips in the pan are cooked before I can get the last strips out of the corn starch....
PixV4s.jpg

These are the finished crispy beef strips:
PixV5s.jpg

Paired with a "Mongolian Stir Fry" - similar to most other stir fry type dishes except ramen noodles are added into the mix vs. served over rice.

PixV6s.jpg
 
For years I had been scratching my head as to why my stir fried beef was grey, tough and rubbery until I discovered this technique (I followed a method from a Chinese takeaway Youtube channel). Once I found out how to do velveting, it was a revelation.

One other thing to point out - it matters which way you cut (across the grain) and it's worth experimenting with the knife angle.

Also, I make a largish batch (1kg) and freeze it, and the freezing also helps tenderize.
 
Interesting technique. But, I'm having a hard time understanding why I would do that to a ribeye steak. Seems like something better suited to a cheaper cut of steak with less fat -- like a sirloin, perhaps.

CD
 
Never heard of that term??
I need to try your way, cant hurt to try it in my stirfry. I saved trim from my fillets and froze.perfect way to use.

Thanks
Russ
 
It's a great technique and I've been using it for decades. My technique is quite different than yours. I submerge in oil and blanch briefly and then is stir fried to finish, and you can velvet in water as well, which I've done and it works well. I also use egg whites, which I didn't think you could leave out along with chinese wine and cornstarch, also sesame oil and soy sauce sometimes.
 
garlichead said:
It's a great technique and I've been using it for decades. My technique is quite different than yours. I submerge in oil and blanch briefly and then is stir fried to finish, and you can velvet in water as well, which I've done and it works well. I also use egg whites, which I didn't think you could leave out along with chinese wine and cornstarch, also sesame oil and soy sauce sometimes.
Click to expand...
I ve used egg whites with chicken and cornflour then fried. Works a treat.

Russ
 
I have not tried velveting beef.

If I remember, I velvet chicken but it only consists of mixing bi-carbonate of soda with chicken pieces (1 tsp to 300 gms), leaving for 20 minutes and then washing off (MG will castigate me again for washing chicken).
 
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