Dicing beef

corblimey

Ok, this might be a silly question, but it occurred to me over the weekend so here goes. It seems to be the accepted wisdom to slice beef against the grain, it makes a better cut of beef. But this can no longer apply when you're dicing it. If you slice of a bit, in order to dice that slice, you need to cut with the grain.

Does it no longer matter simply because the diced beef chunk is so small that grain or no grain, it will still be tasty and not stringy?

And if this is the case, can you just chop the beef in any old direction if the chunks are small enough (say an inch square)?

The Hill Billy

i have diced meats of all types in any number of ways & can't honestly say it made any difference at all.

What about your own experience? I am sure that you have diced meat many ways - across & with the grain. Have you noticed any difference?

the beer revolu

The idea of slicing against the grain it to give a less chewy mouth feel when eating as the long fibres are shortened but this really applies when the meat is cooked relatively quickly eg. roast beef, steaks or meat sliced for stirfry.

Diced meat is usually for stewing where the meat is cooked to a very tender state so the grain direction isn't as important.

Essentially, it is not possible to dice meat and always cut against the grain, do I wouldn't spend time worrying about it.

corblimey

I didn't really think about this slicing with or against the grain thing until fairly recently, and have really only just started dicing and slicing my own beef (instead of getting the pre-chopped from the butchers). beer_revolu, I would be cooking quite quickly, but prefer smaller mouthfuls, hence the dicing even on a stir fry.

The Hill Billy

If that is the case I would cut the meat across the grain in thin strips rather than dice it.

Alun

I'm confused ... if you're slicing meat thinly then it makes a big difference whether the grain is running along the long edges of the meat or along the short edge, but for a cube, then surely it all depends on which way you look at it?

BaZmO*

Alun wrote: »

I'm confused ... if you're slicing meat thinly then it makes a big difference whether the grain is running along the long edges of the meat or along the short edge, but for a cube, then surely it all depends on which way you look at it?

Exactly. It wouldn't matter as a cube.

corblimey

Exactly.