Improve the look of your shredded meat
Getting a hand-pulled look from a meat shredder is possible — if you know the science behind cooking and shredding meat.
It’s the proper balance between how you cook the meat and how you shred the meat that produces a finer, more natural-looking shredded meat.
There is a right way and a wrong way to shred your meat product.
It’s why we put together this guide — to help you learn how to properly cook your meat product in order to get a better-looking shred.
The cooking process plays a large role in the quality of your protein shreds.
A hand-pulled look to your shreds is achieved when the connective tissue of the protein is broken down during the cook cycle and the muscle fibers are pulled apart from one another.
Perfecting the look and consistency of your protein shreds starts in the cook cycle. If the cook cycle is too short, or the protein isn’t held at temperature long enough, the connective tissue doesn’t break down as well, leaving you with “clumpy” and mushy shreds. Left in too long, and your shreds will be very fine.
The method of shredding, whether by hand or in a meat shredding machine, affects the quality of shreds minimally. If the protein isn’t cooked correctly, you won’t achieve desirable shred quality and consistency.
The distance between the outside of the product and the core of the product constitutes how long you must cook the product to break down the connective tissue. Generally, this means getting the product up to 83°C (180°F) and holding for a period of at least 30
minutes.
Whole pieces of protein (defined as larger than 4 inches) can take upwards of 12 hours to reach an internal temperature of 180°F. The extended length of time required to cook the product can cause the outside to become “mushy.”
The best method is to cut protein into 3 or 4-inch sized pieces to improve cooking and product consistency.
The smaller diameter:
The most important aspect is to get the internal temperature of the product up to 185° – 190° F and hold it there for at least 30 minutes. The smaller the piece of protein, the faster it will reach the desired internal temperature.
Step cooking is the process of slowly increasing the cooking temperature over a period of time to retain purge. Rather than starting the cooking process at 190° F, start the process at 145° F and work up to 190° F over the course of 1-3 hours.
Step cooking prevents the protein from giving up outside moisture too quickly and retains a greater amount of purge. It also helps prevent the outside from getting “mushy”.
Pork cuts, whether butts, loins, coushins, bellies, or other cuts, respond about the same in the cooking process. It doesn’t matter what cut you use; the main factor is to cut your product down to 3 or 4 inches tall to increase the efficiency of the cooking process.
The best method is to load cook-in-bags with product and spices, and then flatten the bags so the product is no more than 4 inches tall. Steam cook (or as high of humidity as possible) the product in a basic cook cycle:
This process will produce a nice, consistent shred of your pork cut. If the product shreds too fine, cut back the time on the last cooking step. If the product shreds too coarse, add more time to the last cooking step.
Cook-in-bag is not required; however, best practice dictates wrapping the product in foil for the majority of the cooking process to retain moisture, and then take out to smoke for the last half hour.
Beef takes the longest to cook, as the connective tissue within the muscle renders only after internal temperature is held longer at the higher temperature. Beef is also the most difficult to adjust the shred size because it doesn’t break apart until it reaches a certain temperature, then it falls apart.
These properties make it even more important that the total product height is consistent: no more than 4 inches tall to get the longest shred size and still be able to cook in a reasonable amount of time.
Like pork, it doesn’t really matter what beef cuts you are using; they all render about the same.
Most companies choose not to shred beef, as it is costly per pound and shrinks a lot when cooked the necessary amount of time — meaning the overall yields on shredded beef are not as good.
In order to combat this issue, brine can be injected into the raw meat or the product can be vacuum tumbled to add 15-20% weight before cooking. Salt brine binds the muscles to an extent, making the muscle fibers and shreds softer resulting in more chunks.
Sample steam cook process (a smoke step without humidity can be added):
Chicken breast meat doesn’t have much fat and is usually only 1 inch thick, making it the easiest to cook and shred. Many companies choose to boil the breasts in water for 1.5-2 hours and then shred.
Thigh meat, on the other hand, requires almost double the amount of time to cook as breast meat. Cooking thigh meat long enough to shred results in a lot of shrinkage of the thigh, about 30%-35%. When you do shred it, thigh meat tends to become dry, as all the fat is cooked out. Fat can be added back into the shredded meat.
Chicken breast meat should be steam-cooked in a cook-in-bag, boiled (just add to boiling water and adjust cook time based on the desired result), or open cooked (this might be a little longer, but retains a bit more moisture):
The ideal method for shredding protein is to do so when the protein is hot, typically right after it leaves the cook cycle. The connective tissue is still broken apart, the ideal condition for shredding, making the muscle fibers easy to pull apart.
You can shred warm as well, but the hotter the protein (or the closer to it having just been removed from the cook cycle), the easier it will be to shred.
Once the protein is chilled, the product condenses, making it difficult to pull the muscle fibers apart to achieve a fine shred.
Shredding protein after it has been chilled produces a different, more coarse look to the shred.
Chilling condenses the connective tissue in the protein, making it much more difficult to pull the muscle fibers apart and achieve a hand-pulled look. In fact, it is impossible for most processors to achieve a fine-looking shred when the protein is chilled in advance. Shredding cold only produces a coarse, chunky style shred.
Depending on the type of product, you may need to invest in some kind of flattener, such as a roller conveyor or meat press, to break the muscle fibers apart before trying to shred by hand or with a meat shredding machine.
Even with a flattener, shredding cold will not produce a fine, hand-pulled looking shred.
