You may have come across Mutton Cubes when you visited a grocery store or supermarket. You may have even seen them being used as ingredients in different kinds of dishes like soups and curries where they are cooked until they are nicely made soft and tender on various cooking shows and channels. However you may still be wondering: How exactly should Mutton Cubes be cooked for their meat to achieve that ideal tender softness? We will be exploring this very intriguing question. Interested to know more? Join me as we get to know some ways to cook Mutton Cubes till they are nicely made tender and soft.
Why do soft and tender Mutton Cubes matter?
Let us first discuss why being able to cook Mutton Cubes until they are soft and tender matters. Firstly, Mutton Cubes are nice bite sized cuts of Mutton that can be easily chewable. This makes them ideal food ingredients in dishes that cater to school children (aged 5 and up who do not have issues when it comes to chewing food),the elderly (those who do not have issues when it comes to chewing food) as well as any adults or teens who may find eating large cuts of Mutton to be tedious. So whether you are making a broth dish or curry dish or any other dish that involves the use of Mutton as an ingredient, Mutton Cubes are a very good cut of Mutton to use.
Building on the point made about the chewable nature of Mutton Cubes, making them soft and tender will make Mutton Cubes very much easier to chew and consume. This will be specifically beneficial to children (aged 5 and up who do not have issues when it comes to chewing food) and the elderly(those who have no problems with chewing their food) because it will help them to enjoy the Mutton Cubes to a much greater extent due to them being nicely made soft and tender.
What do you need to do to make Mutton Cubes soft?
With that said, we shall now approach the question of what you need to do to make Mutton Cubes soft. We shall discuss how you can make Mutton Cubes soft and tender.
How Marination is a very useful technique that can help
One of the methods that you can use to soften Mutton Cubes is marination. Marination is a good way to make mutton cubes soft and tender because the ingredients in them help to break down the meat in such a way that they become soft.
In terms of how marination helps to tenderise Mutton Cubes, it is thanks to the ingredients in them. We shall discuss some ingredients that you can use to tenderise Mutton Cubes in the following table.
| Ingredient Name | How it can help to tenderise and soften Mutton Cubes |
| Papayas | .Papayas have an enzyme called Papain that can help to tenderise Mutton Cubes by breaking down the protein in them and making the meat lose its tension, thus making the Mutton Cubes soft and tender. .You can use Papaya slices or paste to marinate your Mutton Cubes. |
| Tomatoes | .Tomatoes being acidic, make them a useful ingredient to use as a marinade due to the acid in them being able to break down the proteins in Mutton Cubes. |
| Pineapples | .Pineapples contain an enzyme called Bromelain that can help to tenderise and soften Mutton Cubes by helping to break down the protein in it, thus making the meat lose any tension within it. .You can use Pineapple slices or juice to tenderise Mutton Cubes. |
| Yoghurt | .Yoghurt is another ingredient that you can use to marinate Mutton Cubes because it helps to break down the proteins in Mutton Cubes thanks to the acids within it. |
How you can use Salt to make Mutton Cubes soft
Another way to make Mutton Cubes soft is to use Salt. You can create brine (brine is a saltwater solution) and soak your Mutton Cubes in it. The salt in the brine solution will alter the protein structures in the meat and help keep it from drying out. This will make the meat of your Mutton Cubes very juicy as well as soft and tender.
Cooking techniques to make Mutton Cubes soft
Now that you have been introduced to some ingredients that help to make Mutton Cubes soft, let us explore some ways in which you can cook Mutton Cubes until they are soft.
| Cooking Technique | How it makes Mutton Cubes soft |
| Pressure Cooking | .The hot steam from pressure cookers help to make Mutton Cubes soft. .On average it is good to cook Mutton Cubes for about 30 minutes or slightly longer depending on your taste. |
| Stir Frying | .Stir frying is another way in which Mutton Cubes can be made tender thanks both to the heat and the mix of ingredients that you are using to tenderise the meat interacting with each other. .On average it is great to stir fry Mutton Cubes for about 30 minutes. |
| Slow Cooking | .Slow cooking with a slow cooker is a great cooking method that can help to soften Mutton Cubes because it helps to soften the meat. .On average slow cooking mutton cubes take a while to cook with cooking times of about 3 hours or even longer depending on the heat level. .Some examples of Mutton Cube dishes that can be made using the slow cooking method as described in the point above are Mutton Stew or Mutton Curry. .The combination of the slow cooking method together with any good marinade concoction, makes this cooking method a great way to cook deliciously soft Mutton Cube dishes. |
Recap
Let us now recap what we have discussed so far.
| What we have learnt |
| .We have understood that Mutton Cubes are nice bite sized meat cuts that can be easily chewable. .We have understood the importance of making Mutton Cubes tender so that they can be conveniently enjoyed by children (aged 5 and up who do not have problems regarding chewing food) and elderly (those who have no issues when it comes to chewing food). .We learnt about some of the ingredients that can be used to marinate Mutton Cubes such as Papayas, Tomatoes, Pineapples and Yoghurt as well as how these ingredients can help to soften and tenderise Mutton Cubes. .We also got to understand how Salt could be used to make Mutton Cubes soft, tender and juicy. .We were also introduced to some cooking techniques that help to make Mutton Cubes soft. |
Places where you can find high quality Mutton Cubes
You might now be wondering about the places that you can go to to find high quality Mutton Cubes to use as ingredients for any soft and tender Mutton Cube dish that you intend to make. There are a few places that you can go to, let’s take a look at some of them. One option is to purchase Mutton Cubes from online shops such as Pickme, Shopee or Redmart to name a few. Another option is supermarkets such as NTUC Fairprice, Giant or Sheng Shiong. A third option would be to go to your local butcher shop.
Some final thoughts
Armed with what you know now, it can be said that you may have developed a deeper appreciation for Mutton Cubes. On top of that you were also introduced to some innovative ways to make Mutton Cubes soft and tender through the use of various marination ingredients. Furthermore, you were introduced to how Salt can be a useful tool to use to soften Mutton Cubes. You also got introduced to how these many tenderising techniques help to make Mutton Cubes soft. Additionally, you understood why making Mutton Cubes soft was very important and how it could greatly impact how your loved ones can enjoy Mutton Cube dishes.
All in all, this was an enlightening journey in many ways. Till our next adventure, take care and enjoy your food both gastronomically and intellectually.