Cooking · Troubleshooting
Why is my steak tough?
A steak is usually tough for one of three reasons: it was cooked past medium, so its muscle fibres squeezed out their water; it was sliced along the grain, leaving long fibres to chew; or it came from a working muscle full of connective tissue that needs slow, moist cooking rather than a quick sear. Each has a fix, and most can be seen on the plate.
At a glance
- Most common cause
- Cooked past medium
- Second
- Sliced along the grain
- Fibres squeeze hard
- Above about 65 °C / 149 °F
- Collagen melts
- Hours above 70 °C / 158 °F
What makes meat tender or tough
The tenderness of a steak depends on two structures in the muscle. The muscle fibres are long bundles of protein that contract when heated: the more they shrink, the drier and firmer the meat. The connective tissue, mostly collagen, wraps the fibres; there is little of it in muscles that do light work, such as the tenderloin, and a lot in muscles that move the animal, such as the shank, the brisket or the chuck.
Heat acts on both in opposite directions. Above about 50 °C / 122 °F the fibres start to firm; from about 60–65 °C / 140–149 °F they contract strongly along their length and squeeze out water. Collagen, by contrast, only begins to melt into gelatin above about 70 °C / 158 °F, and needs hours there to do it. A quick-cooked steak therefore has to come from a muscle with little collagen; a muscle full of collagen has to be cooked long and slowly, well past any steak doneness.
Eight causes, one at a time
| What you notice | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Grey all the way through, dry, springy | Cooked to medium-well or well done | Pull at 52–57 °C 126–135 °F; use a thermometer |
| Chewy strands that will not break | Sliced along the grain | Slice across the grain, thinly for flank, skirt and hanger |
| Rubbery bands and gristle | A working-muscle cut cooked fast | Braise or smoke it, or choose a steak cut |
| Pink but tight and dense | Lean cut with no marbling | Cook no further than medium-rare; slice thin |
| Dry outside, raw inside | Steak too thin or heat too low | Thicker steaks (2.5–4 cm / 1–1½ in), hotter pan |
| Juice all over the board | Cut straight off the heat | Rest 3–10 minutes, by thickness |
| Tough even though cooked right | Little or no ageing | Look for beef aged 14–28 days |
| Mushy outside, tough inside | Long acidic marinade | Marinate 1–4 hours; acids only reach the surface |
Overcooking
This is the most common cause. Between medium-rare (about 55 °C / 131 °F) and well done (70 °C / 158 °F and above) a steak loses roughly a further tenth of its weight in juice as the fibres contract, and the same bite needs noticeably more chewing. The surest fix is a thermometer and pulling the steak a few degrees before the target, because the core keeps rising while it rests; see steak temperatures and resting.
Slicing with the grain
The grain is the direction of the muscle fibres, visible as fine parallel lines on the surface. Cut along them and each slice keeps fibres several centimetres long; cut across them and the same fibres are a few millimetres long. In tender cuts the difference is small; in long-fibred cuts such as flank, skirt and hanger it decides whether the steak is pleasant or impossible. Slice those across the grain, at a slight angle, about 5 mm / ¼ in thick.
The wrong cut for the method
Cuts from the shoulder, leg, chest and shin carry a lot of collagen. Cooked like a steak to 55 °C / 131 °F they stay rubbery, because the collagen has not had the heat and time to melt; cooked to 90–95 °C / 194–203 °F over several hours, as in braising or smoking, the same cuts become soft. Brisket, short ribs and shank belong to the second group. Some shoulder muscles, such as the flat iron, chuck eye and Denver steak, are exceptions that grill well.
What the cook cannot change
Some toughness is decided before the meat reaches the kitchen. Older animals have more cross-linked collagen. Beef that is not aged for at least a week or two has had less time for the muscle's own enzymes to weaken the fibres; most of that gain happens in the first 14–21 days of ageing, wet or dry. Stress before slaughter and very fast chilling of the carcass can also make meat tougher. These are reasons to buy from a butcher who can say how long the beef was aged, and to choose cuts with visible marbling, which helps juiciness more than tenderness.
Rescuing a tough steak
An overcooked steak cannot be made tender again, but it can be made pleasant: slice it very thinly across the grain and serve it in a sauce, a sandwich, a salad or a stir-fry. A tough cut cooked too briefly can still be finished properly: cut it into pieces and simmer it gently in stock or sauce for 1½–3 hours until a fork goes in easily.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my steak tough and chewy?
Usually because it was cooked past medium, sliced along the grain, or came from a working muscle that needs slow cooking. A thermometer and slicing across the grain solve most cases.
Does cooking steak longer make it more tender?
Only for cuts rich in collagen, such as brisket or short ribs, cooked for hours at 90–95 °C / 194–203 °F. A tender steak only gets tougher the longer it cooks.
How do you make a tough steak tender?
Slice it thinly across the grain; if it was undercooked and is a collagen-rich cut, simmer it in liquid for 1½–3 hours.
Does a marinade tenderise steak?
Only at the surface. Acids and enzymes penetrate a few millimetres; long acidic marinades make the outside mushy without softening the centre.
Sources
5
- McGee, Harold. On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, rev. ed. New York: Scribner, 2004.
- Toldrá, Fidel (ed.). Lawrie's Meat Science, 8th ed. Duxford: Woodhead, 2017.
- Myhrvold, Nathan; Young, Chris; Bilet, Maxime. Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking. Bellevue: The Cooking Lab, 2011.
- Savell, Jeffrey W. Dry-Aging of Beef: Executive Summary. Centennial, CO: National Cattlemen's Beef Association, 2008.
- Koohmaraie, Mohammad; Geesink, Geert H. "Contribution of postmortem muscle biochemistry to the delivery of consistent meat quality with particular focus on the calpain system". Meat Science 74 (2006): 34–43.
Related