Five experts get their teeth into the tasty topic of meat industry trends, sharing their thoughts on everything from getting creative with lesser-known cuts to the importance of careful sourcing and good animal welfare.

Choosing your cuts
The key factors to consider when selecting quality meat for a particular dish are the degree of marbling, color, firmness and texture. All of these traits contribute to the palatability of the dish and ensure that the meat being served is juicy, tender and flavorsome.

Getting the best from your meat
It’s important to plan ahead by selecting the appropriate meat cut and applying the most suitable cooking method. You can then choose the garnish, seasoning and/or sauce that best complements the meat dish. Seasoning should be added according to your personal taste and to enhance the flavor of the meat. For meats with a high marbling score, seasonings such as salt and pepper are sufficient to accentuate the flavor, while for those with medium marbling scores, basting can augment the taste.

Lesser known cuts
Many chefs prefer to work with primary meats, such as ribeye, tomahawk or fillet, simply because they make excellent steaks. However, I also enjoy preparing dishes using lesser-known cuts, such as the flank steak with a high marbling score. Since we introduced this item with a charcoal crust to the menu, it’s become the most requested dish at our restaurant.

Meat aging and tenderizing
The current trend is for dry aging, where meat is stored in a temperature and humidity controlled environment. However, I find the wet ageing process the most effective technique for increased juiciness and tenderness, resulting in more flavorsome meat. Chefs need to know the length of time required to age different cuts of meat, since they vary. For example, rump steak will take longer than a tomahawk or a ribeye steak.

Favorite cooking methods
My favorite method is to grill meat on natural charcoal and wood, since it produces the best results when cooking certain kinds of cuts, giving them a distinctive flavor and smokiness. However, the appropriate cooking method will depend on the meat cut and the message you want to portray to your customers. With more tender cuts of meat, the preferred cooking method is grilling or seared pan-frying, while slow-cooking or braising techniques are more suitable for tougher cuts of meat.

Global meat trends
The purchase of meat from small farmers that practice good animal welfare principles, such as the ethical humane handling and slaughter of cattle, is a current global trend. We source our meat from small cattle farmers who adopt these principles and it’s always of excellent quality, which is an added value for our restaurant. Customers also want variety and are challenging farmers and chefs to produce and prepare new and different cuts of steak. To meet this demand, we’ve introduced the latest and unique cuts of steak at our restaurants, such as the Japanese wagyu ribeye cap and the Mayura chocolate-fed, full-blood wagyu tomahawk. Barley-fed beef, which has superior marbling and tenderness, is another trend. These cattle are peacefully raised, fed a natural barley ration free of hormones and tender stretched, which contribute to the tenderness and the unique flavor of the meat.

Choosing your cuts
When buying red meat, its color should be bright red although if the meat you are buying is vacuum-packed, the color might appear a bit brownish. This means it is good quality and won’t easily spoil inside the refrigerator. Avoid meat that has dark brown or purple colors since these are signs that the meat came from an old animal or is close to expiring. The meat’s muscle fibers should be clearly visible to the naked eye. Good meat should be dry rather than sticky to the touch and should not appear clear and damp when you cut it.

Getting the best from your meat
Cook leaner cuts, such as top round and eye of round, rare and slice them thinly, like roast beef. Adding fat by barding – wrapping meat in fat, such as bacon, before cooking or basting – can help. For fattier cuts, such as chuck and brisket, low and slow cooking breaks down the sinew and tendons, producing the unparalleled moist richness we love so much in barbecue and braises.

Lesser known cuts
Strolling through the meat aisle of our local grocery store recently, I saw cheaper cuts of beef that included eye of round, chuck steak, “beef for stew,” cube steak, beef shoulder, bottom center roast and top round minute steak, all priced at less than QAR 40. While these more affordable cuts are either full of sinew and tendon or extremely lean, with the proper knowhow, they can become just as tender and delicious, if not more so, than filet mignon.

Meat aging and tenderizing
Dry aging makes the difference between a good steak and an unforgettable one. Beef can be called dry aged even if the process has only been done for a week or so, but the full development of flavor and tenderness requires dry aging of around six weeks. Another process, known as wet aging, involves placing the cut of meat in vacuum-sealed bags, after which it is aged for several weeks. Wet aging helps tenderize the meat through the naturally occurring enzymes but because it doesn’t dehydrate the beef, it does little to improve and concentrate the flavor in the way dry aging does.

Favorite cooking methods
Braised brisket, surrounded by aromatic vegetables, is a favorite of mine since it is the essence of family-centered feasts and comfort food. Grilling is another favorite, usually involving high heat for a short period of time, with or without a finish on lower or indirect heat. The best cuts of beef for grilling are tenderloin steak, chateaubriand, fillet, sirloin steak, ribeye steak, rump, porterhouse, T-bone, prime rib, flank steak, skirt steak and hangar steak.

Spices, herbs and sauces
Rosemary has a piney flavor and is a wonderful pairing with the heavy or greasy flavors that beef dishes sometimes have. Use rosemary to flavor roasts and tough cuts of meat that will be cooked for long periods of time. Parsley has come into its own in recent years and is now much more than simply a garnish, brightening and adding a fresh note to winter beef dishes.

Choosing your cuts
It’s important to use your senses – touch, smell and sight – when purchasing meat.
Always make sure it’s firm to the touch and avoid meat that is brown at the edges. Marbling means meat will be juicier and have more taste. Prime, choice and select are the most commonly recognized by consumers and are considered food-grade labels by the United States Department of Agriculture.

Getting the best from your meat
The main textural characteristics of meat are firmness – toughness or degree of tenderness – cohesiveness and juiciness. The quality of the meat is normally defined by visual appearance, smell, firmness, juiciness, tenderness and flavor. There are many indicators of healthy, good meat, starting with the color, which varies, depending on the breed and age of the animal. Then there is the surface structure, the structure of the fibration, the marbling, the juiciness, the smell, the best before date and the expiration date.

Lesser known cuts
There are plenty of secondary cuts in the beef world, derived from a smaller percentage of the animal, that are equally mouth-watering, many of which are inexpensive, versatile and packed with flavor. My preferred second cuts include hanger steak, which I grill on a Josper charcoal oven and serve with a shallot gravy sauce. Brisket is another which works well, cooked low and slow, which gives the beef time to properly break down and develop its flavor. I’ve also smoked it and serve it as pulled beef with a honey-glazed sauce on toasted brioche bread with Emmental and cheddar cheese.

Favorite cooking methods
Meat-cooking methods generally fall into one of two categories: dry heat – think roasting, broiling, pan-frying, stir-frying and grilling – and moist heat, which is braising, stewing and simmering. Typically, less tender cuts of meat work better with moist-heat cooking methods, since this adds moisture and helps to break down any tough connective tissues, while more tender cuts of meat don’t need the extra help. My preferred cooking methods are sous vide and char smoking.

Spices, herbs and sauces
Cayenne is a terrific spice to use with beef. It gives a great little peppery kick without mouth-searing heat, so it works with the strong flavor of the meat instead of against it and also lets other flavoring agents shine. Sage is fragrant and warm, adding a little bit of herbal flair to even the simplest of beef-based dishes, while thyme is another favorite because it has the ability to round out the flavor of the meat with its lemony notes.

Global meat trends
The world’s meat production has tripled in the last decade, with a wider choice of meat sources and grades now available to chefs for their kitchen. I always look for the best ingredients for my dishes and fortunately, the local market can fulfill my needs with its high quality meat. This marriage of local ingredients and modern style cuisine has enabled me to offer the highest standards to my diners in terms of taste and quality.

Choosing your cuts
It’s important to choose the right piece of meat to apply to your chosen dish. For example, if I’m making stew, then I select a piece of meat that is full of collagen, with a lot of fat covering it. That way when I cook it, I can apply a combination of cooking methods to produce a nice piece of meat that’s tender and also stewed well. If you’re grilling, then you’ll need a piece of meat that is well-marbled from a good quality brand and source. It’s important to buy your meat from a reputable place, whether that’s choosing the right butcher or source country. If you live in a country that imports meat, choose your products from Australia, America and Argentina, while still giving careful consideration to the source.

Getting the best from your meat
In general, if you’re grilling or broiling, cuts such as tenderloin, striploin, flank or skirt, which have their own flavor and a good texture, are all suitable. There is also a big difference between charred meat, which will have a smokey, charred and caramelized fat flavor, and other varieties, like short ribs, which you’d braise for eight hours to make tender and bring through their deep flavor.

Lesser known cuts
I love the lesser-known cuts like flanks, oyster blade and rump. The oyster blade, in particular, is a fantastic piece of meat which is highly versatile, suitable for braising, steaming, stewing or grilling. It has an incredible flavor, especially when you buy a higher grade, like the wagyu, which is naturally highly marbled.

Favorite cooking methods
I choose my cooking method depending on which part of the animal the meat comes from. If it comes from a moving part, like the leg, it usually needs to be braised or slow-roasted. Tenderloin, striploin and sirloin can be grilled with fantastic results. I love slow roasting, slow grilling and braising. Each method gives me a different flavor and a different texture. For example, with the oyster blade, I can use three techniques and the result is amazing.

Spices, herbs and sauces
I always want to taste the meat, so I don’t like to add anything to it, preferring to place extra flavors, like a teriyaki, oyster or sweet chili sauce, for example, on the side. That way I have the freedom to play with the piece of meat and savor the taste. For this reason, I am also against marinating meat, preferring to just balance it with Himalayan salt or “fleur de sel” (flower of salt).

Global meat trends
Fifteen years ago, I was delighted to introduce the global trend of smoking brisket to the Middle East, when I launched the first place selling it in Jordan. Trends change, however, and now we are looking for different techniques. In this way, braising is proving popular and on trend, since it enables you to really use the entire piece of meat, including the fat, skin and connecting tissues. Take short ribs, for example. I sell a lot of short ribs risotto at my restaurants and we can use them in their entirety, even as part of the sauce.

Choosing your cuts
In my role, choosing the right suppliers is the first essential part of selecting our meats. Meat traceability is crucial to track the origins of meat in the farm-to-fork process, which ensures quality, ethics, safety and something I personally care about – animal welfare.

Getting the best from your meat
Giving beef as an example of how I balance flavor and texture, I like to use a prime cut with a secondary cut, like a shin or oxtail. This involves reducing the portion size of the expensive primary cut and enables me to showcase my skills by being creative with the secondary, less expensive cut. The secondary cuts have more depth of flavor and texture. Items I’d make, for example, would be a bon-bon, ravioli or an addition to a sauce or ragout.

Lesser known cuts
I like to use the flat iron steak as it’s just as tender as a fillet steak and is a fraction of the price. Just like any premium steak, I cook it with rapeseed oil, salt and fresh-milled pepper, and then finish the steak with some cubed butter, rosemary, thyme and crushed garlic.

Meat aging and tenderizing
I do enjoy using dry aged meat, but from the perspective of day-to-day operations, we use lots of sous-vide techniques in terms of tenderizing. Our Italian restaurant uses many low-temperature cooking methods for cooking the protein dishes and it’s been a pleasure to see my executive sous chef train our local Omani chefs in this.

Favorite cooking methods
I prefer to pan-fry steaks in the hotel, but on my days off, the barbecue is always a favorite of mine, especially a matured ribeye steak on the bone.

Spices, herbs and sauces
For larger items, like briskets and
legs of lamb, I tend to choose dried marinades. With large cuts of meat, I like to experiment with brines and have many different recipes which use lots of aromatics, like star anise, bay leaves, cardamom, cloves and fresh herbs.

Global meat trends
I’ve noticed businesses trying to reduce meat products in their menus due to climate change concerns. Farming livestock causes 14.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and contributes significantly to water pollution. We’re creating our own burger for the hotel which is 50 percent ground beef and 50 percent vegetables and have trialed it at events where customer feedback has been fully positive. From a cost, environment and culinary point of view, I see this small change as potentially having a big impact, representing our contribution to helping the environment.