Dry, flavorless, gross meat? Here’s 5 quick fixes:

Mastering this 1 technique will instantly level up your cooking game… (Read more) Have issue viewing this email? [Click here]( Hey {NAME}! Raise your hand if you love ordering roasted chicken at restaurants, but just the THOUGHT of cooking it at home stresses you OUT 🙋🙋 Cooking can be intimidating. Figuring out how to properly season a protein… How to get crispy skin, or a great sear… Not overcooking the darn thing… I totally get it! Sometimes getting in the kitchen can be daunting enough to make you want to give up and order pizza again. (Is 3 times this week too much?) But mastering this 1 technique will instantly level up your cooking game. That’s why today I want to talk to you about the top 5 mistakes home cooks make when they’re cooking meat: Mistake #1: Cold Meat, hot pan (Or grill, or oven) Do you take meat straight out of the fridge, and immediately cook it? No shame! Most people do. If you struggle with meat and consistently overcook it (but you DON’T understand how), then you might be surprised to learn that this is the cause! Here’s what happens: The meat cooks unevenly because the outside cooks the fastest, and is already done while the inside catches up! The fix: Let cold meat come up to room temperature before you cook it! 20 minutes+ would be a good start, but scientific experts agree you can leave fridge-temp meat out for up to 2 hours. Mistake #2: Not drying the meat Have you ever put meat into a pan, and needed to dodge boiling oil? NOT fun! That happens because there’s water on the meat’s surface. You don’t get a sear on the meat because the outside steams instead! (AKA the recipe for a grey, unappealing steak!) The fix: Pat your meat dry before you put it in the pan! (After you’ve brought it to room temperature 😉) Mistake #3: You’re overcooking it All meat has a temperature range for maximum juiciness. Most guesstimated "cook times" in recipes aren’t based off of temperature readings, let alone your meat’s actual temperature. That means you could be chronically overcooking meat and not even know it! Another thing to keep in mind is "carry-over cooking". After you take any food off the heat source, it continues to cook because the heat dissipates from the outside, in. The fix: The truth is that recipe cook times will never be able to account for the size of your meat, how thick your baking dish or pan is, hot/cold spots in your particular oven, how often you open the oven, and tons of other factors like that… The only way to know for sure is to get a meat thermometer, and learn what temperature to cook your meats: Chicken: 165° F (74° C) Pork: 145°-160° F (62°-71° C) Ground meat: 165° F (74° C) Steak: 115°-155° F (46°-68° C) Lamb: 130°-155° F (54°-68° C) Mistake #4: You don’t let it rest Meat is made of 2 main parts: protein, and water. Raw meat is ~70-75% water. The muscle shrinks because it’s heating up while you’re cooking it. The water is squeezed out, and the juice moves towards the center of the protein. So what happens when you let meat rest? The meat cools down after it’s off the heat, the fibers relax, and the juice gets sucked back into the meat! That’s why juice goes all over your plate if you cut meat before it rests. The fix: Let ANY meat rest for 3-5 minutes before you cut into it for maximum juiciness. Mistake #5: You’re cutting it wrong Ever served a piece of meat that seemed PERFECT while you were plating it, only to be met with a disappointingly tough and chewy bite later? It’s not just the cut of meat that determines how tender it is… It’s also how you cut the meat. You’ve probably read in recipes that meat should always be sliced "against the grain," but what exactly is "the grain"? And why is it so important to slice against it? Think about muscles like a piece of fabric: they’re both made up of round "cords" of material bunched together. In a muscle, the muscle fiber "cords" create a striped appearance on the surface of the meat. That’s the grain. The longer the muscle fiber is, the tougher the meat is to chew! Cutting the muscle fibers "against the grain" makes the meat more tender since a lot of the hard work of breaking up the muscle fibers has already been done for you. The fix: For tender slices, cut against the grain. REMINDER: Are you ringing in the new year by learning how to cook? (Or how to kick your cooking up a notch?) If you loved this tip, then you’ll love the weekly step-by-step recipes you’ll get when you join the [Six Sisters’ Menu Plans!]( Something you learn cooking for big families is that everyone has their own unique tastes, so finding dinners that everyone likes is HARD. You know that EVERY dish will be a success because all of the meals we share have personally been tested by the Sisters and our families. They make eating more home-cooked meals a breeze because we’ve done all of the research, planning, organizing, and grocery list-ifying FOR YOU. (Let’s be real, this is usually the most time consuming part!) All you have to do is grab your groceries, then you’ve got a week’s worth of meals. If you’re ready to stop sweating "What’s for dinner?", then [click here to check out the full details and build your menu plan!]( Happy cooking! Elyse - Six Sisters PS Happy New Year!! Did anyone else set a cooking New Years’ resolution? 🙋🙋 We asked you what you’re working on in 2020 across our social and some of the most common answers were "Learn how to cook", "Get better at cooking", and "Eat out less" 🎉 If there’s 1 technique that can bring your cooking to the next level, it’s mastering your proteins! Above I’ve shared 5 of the most common mistakes we make cooking meat. When you follow those tips you’ll magically change your meat from dry and tough to WOW! Seriously, overcoming them will LITERALLY transform your cooking overnight. If you want to develop your cooking skills even further, and eat out less this year, then I highly recommend you join our Six Sisters’ Menu Plans! One of the best ways to learn how to cook is to cook more! Unfortunately, not all recipes are created equal… Online there’s no way to tell which recipes are bland, and which will rock your world. Unfortunately, practicing "meh" recipes will only engrain bad habits into your own cooking! That’s why all of the meals we send you have been battle-tested by us and our families. So, ready to kick your cooking up a notch, and eat out less in 2020? [Then click here to explore the full details of the Six Sisters’ Menu Plans!]( Follow Us    Six Sisters Stuff 42 North 650 West Farmington, Utah 84025 United States [Unsubscribe from our newsletter](