I used pineapple to marinate a chuck steak the other day. I decided to write this post to let everyone know how it went. If it is your first time marinating meat in pineapple, then you will want to be very careful not to let it marinate for too long.
Marinate meat in pineapple for an hour or less. Checking the meat after 30 minutes is a good idea. The thicker the piece of meat, the longer you can marinate it because the marinade takes longer to seep through. Some thinner pieces will only need to be marinated for about 30 minutes.
Before I get into how I marinated my chuck steak with pineapple and how long I did it, let’s talk about why pineapple is a good marinade for tough pieces of meat.
Why is pineapple a good meat tenderizer?
Pineapple has an enzyme in it called bromelain. It is found in all of the flesh of the pineapple and can be found in the juice as well. Bromelain is a fast-working meat tenderizer that is great for tough cuts of meat.
Below, I pulled a quote from the site howstuffworks.com about the enzyme bromelain:
“It is a natural mixture of two proteases (protein-digesting enzymes) found in pineapples. It’s been discovered that bromelain is quite effective at dividing proteins such as the collagen in steak.”
howstuffworks.com
Collagen is all of those chewy pieces that you find in your meat and because bromelain breaks down collagen specifically well, it results in making your meat tender.
Collagen is very good for you but makes meat tough.
How does pineapple tenderize meat?
The proteases in pineapple weaken the structure of meat. They break apart the proteins into smaller segments. This makes meat a lot more tender and pineapple is good for tough cuts of steak like chuck.
There is a quote below about this from the site iufost.org.
These proteases target the large protein molecules in meats (specifically the connective proteins called collagen), and break them down into shorter segments. In doing so, they weaken the structure of the meat and tenderize it.
Don Mercer
The structure of the meat is weakened and so if you let a piece of meat marinate for too long, then the proteases will tenderize meat into mush.
Now let’s talk about how I used pineapple to marinated my chuck steak and how long I did it for.
How do you tenderize meat with fresh pineapple?
Blend up the fresh pineapple with its juice and use a container to put the steak in and cover it with the pineapple puree. You do want to use fresh pineapple and not canned pineapple. Because it’s processed and will likely have much less enzymes.
When I made my pineapple marinade to tenderize my meat, I first cut the pineapple’s skin off and cut the rest up to eat later.
The skin that I cut off was what I blended up to make the pineapple puree. I used it because there is bromelain in the skin as well. Although, I would no longer recommend using the skin of the pineapple after tenderizing my meat.
After that, I put the steak into a container and poured the pineapple purée into the container so that it was completely covering the steak. I then closed the container and put it in the fridge for an hour.
Usually an hour would be perfectly fine, but after I pulled them out and rinsed them off I noticed that the pineapple tenderized the meat very well.
The chuck steaks that I used were thin-cut chuck steaks and so the marinade was going to tenderize them a lot easier. They were maybe 1/2 inch thick at the most.
I cooked the steaks in a pan and they began to fall apart because they were over tenderized. This happens when you allow the pineapple to set for too long on the meat and then the meat becomes mushy.
If I would have checked the steaks at 30 minutes, I probably would have noticed that they were tenderized enough. Steaks that are cut only a half an inch thin will take less time to tenderize.
Then I ate the steak. It was tasty and it did have a little flavor from the pineapple even though I rinsed it off. I didn’t mind it and I thought it still had good flavor.
There are not many steps when marinating meat with pineapple but here is a list of the steps I took:
- Make sure the steak is thawed
- Put the steak into a container
- Cut up the pineapple
- Blend the pineapple (do not use the skin)
- Pour the pineapple purée over the steak that is in a container
- Let the steak marinate in the fridge for only 30 minutes if the steaks are thin. If they are thick then marinate for an hour and check at 30 minutes to make sure the steak isn’t falling apart and getting too mushy
My 3 Important Tips
There are three important things to remember when marinating meat in pineapple as pineapple is a very potent meat tenderizer.
- Only use the meat of the pineapple and not the skin to tenderize meat. If you use the skin of the pineapple it may be difficult to wash off some of the scaly parts of the skin that get stuck in the meat.
- Check your meat at 30 minutes at the latest. This is a good idea even if your meat is on the thicker side and you might want to check it earlier if it is thinner. You want to make sure the meat isn’t becoming too mushy and keep in mind tenderizing is an active process.
- If you don’t like the flavor of pineapple then don’t use it as a marinade to tenderize your meat. Even if you wash it off afterwards there still might be some pineapple flavor that you will taste when you eat the meat.
Can you use pineapple juice to tenderize steak?
You can use pineapple juice to tenderize steak as long as it comes from a fresh pineapple. If it comes processed and packaged then it is likely to have less bromelain and then it will not tenderize your meat as well as fresh pineapple. Fresh pineapple will have the most enzymes for tenderizing meat.
I have never used pineapple juice to tenderize meat but you do want to make sure that the meat is fully covered by the pineapple juice.
Conclusion
I marinated my steaks for a little too long because they were cut thin. Steaks that are cut thin should probably be only marinated for 30 minutes in pineapple at the most.
Before I cooked my steak the only seasoning I put on was salt. I tasted the pineapple a little bit but it wasn’t bad.
If you want more pineapple flavor with your marinade then you can check out a pineapple marinade recipe by thespruceeats.com. Keep in mind that you will not wash this off but will cook it with the marinade still on the meat.
