The thinner the slice, the greater the flavor
It all comes down to ratios. There are roughly 25 millimeters in an inch, and most marinades can only penetrate as far as two or three. In a 1-inch thick piece of meat, that’s translates to 12% of your meat flavored. Slice it down to 1/4 of an inch, and that number increases to 48%. Slice it even thinner—let’s say 1/8 of an inch—and the marinade can almost fully permeate the meat. It also increases the amount of available surface area for browning, adding even more flavor and lovely textural contrast.
Slicing the meat thinly can also improve the texture. We love using rich, flavorful pork shoulder when making our Thai Grilled Pork Skewers (Moo Ping) which traditionally are made with cheap, fatty cuts of pork. We initially tried making them with boneless country-style spare ribs, which were easy to slice appropriately thin, but the pork cooked up tough and dry because it wasn’t fatty enough.
Pork shoulder had the appropriate amount of fat—and can be found at a great price point—but it was a challenge to slice, and thicker pieces cooked up chewy. Luckily, the solution was simple. Freezing the meat for a bit—30 minutes to an hour—made it easy to slice perfectly thin (against the grain), essential for cooking quickly, getting the proper charred edges and allowing the marinade to penetrate into the meat.
Partially freeze meat for easier slicing and grinding
Moo ping isn’t the only dish that benefits from a little freezer action. Vietnamese Gilled Lemongrass Pork (Thịt Nướng) also is made with thinly sliced pork shoulder, then rubbed with a seasoning paste made of garlic, shallots, lemon grass, chili, and five-spice powder. The thin, wispy pieces are threaded and folded onto skewers and grilled until lightly charred, then served with nước chấm, a savory-sweet garlic-chili dipping sauce.
Freezing also helped us get the right texture in these Turkish Minced Meat Kebabs. To mimic the coarse, hand-minced texture of the Adana kebabs we enjoyed at Yirmibir Ocakbaşı restaurant in Istanbul, we grind our own meat using a food processor, processing half of it until finely chopped and half until roughly chopped, then combining the two batches. Partially freezing the lamb or beef before processing prevents the fat from smearing and keeps the pieces uniform in size.
Moving things off the grill, our Beef Bulgogi also gets an assist from the freezer. Using partially frozen steak ensures the beef slices in the bulgogi are as thin as possible, so the meat cooks quickly and evenly, while allowing a gingery Asian pear-based marinade to really get in there; the fruit is full of tenderizing enzymes that do quick work on thin pieces.
And while the recipe for our Stir-Fried Sichuan Pepper Chicken doesn’t specify it, popping some chicken thighs in the freezer for half an hour will help you slice them to the requisite 1/4-inch. There’s no marinade to speak of, but keeping the chicken pieces the same size helps it brown uniformly and ensures each bite is coated with its fair share of tingly, mouth-numbing Sichuan pepper and gingery honey glaze.
You can even use your freezer to make a better steak salad, like we do in Straccetti di Manzo, which translates roughly from the Italian to “little rags of beef.” The version we enjoyed at Armando al Pantheon in Rome inspired our riff on the trattoria staple. The cooking here is minimal and quick, making this ideal for a weeknight dinner, but the beef must be thinly sliced. We freeze the meat for about 20 minutes to firm it a bit, which allows a sharp knife to glide through the grain. After a quick sear in a hot skillet, the steak slices go directly onto a bed of peppery arugula and sweet-tart tomatoes. Balsamic vinegar, reduced as it deglazes the pan, and shaved Parmesan are the finishing touches.
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