Comments on: Mechado a la Marketman, Revisited

By: rene ocampo

rene ocampo — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 09:22:00 +0000

Mechado was a regular fare in our household in my youth. Coming from a family of Kapampangans, our own version of mechado is sliced into 1/4 ” thick before laying it in a pot for cooking. There is a difference between our mechado and caldereta. We dont put any hot peppers but we employ a lot of garlic and we dont use liver spread as a thickenng agent. Our secret ingredient is adding olives and whole sweet pickles with some of the liquid from the bottle in the pot and simmering it on low heat for a few hours until the meat is soft. We add potatoes on the last 30 minutes of cooking.

By: max

max — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:02:06 +0000

hi marketman, ive always been a lurker of your blog and a collector of food magazines.
today, i made what i called asadong tagalog today. just like your mechado, i marinated pieces of flank cubes in soy sauce and lemon (no calamansi on hand) and some worcestershire sauce. i then simmered it in water and a can of tomatoes until tender. at this point, i should have taken out the beef and browned in oil as my family would do it -but laziness got the better of me.
anyway, i added carrots and potatoes and i think it turned out pretty well, tender and flavorful.
interestingly enough, a guest came over and said the MECHADO was good…and now reading your entry, her comment made sense.

By: Jack Congson

Jack Congson — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:40:31 +0000

One more tip to avoid drying. The magic oven temperature is 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the Dutch oven pot in the middle rack of the oven. After about 2 hours check the internal temperature of the meat. The muscle starts breaking down at 200 degrees. Once you reach this internal temperature continue cooking one more hour. This really works. Good Luck!

By: Jack Congson

Jack Congson — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:08:34 +0000

When you said the meat was dry, I looked at the dutch oven pot picture and I saw the burnt tomato sauce on the pot’s sidewalls. As well you kind of indicated some kind of a roast. Since the mechado is really a braised stew, I think you should have put on the cover of your Le Creuset. This will ensure self basting and not dry the beef. The evaporating liquid will just flow down the pot walls and you should not see the burnt tomato sauce. The larding process is an old European technique to make cheap tough beef cuts juicy and tasty. It is definitely not just a decoration. The tougher your meat , the more lardons you should insert along the grain of the meat. Essentially you are just artificially adding the marbling fat that is otherwise found in more expensive cuts. Beef mechado is really a pot roast, not a real roast exposed to the dry heat of the oven.

I enjoy reading your blog out here in cold Toronto. Thanks.

By: Lito

Lito — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 09:19:42 +0000

I use top round or kabilugan, as the butchers in Manila call it. Best with a thin layer of fat on one side. I ask them to insert the strip of pork fat inside.
I marinate it in soy sauce, kalamansi, a little red wine, and some worcestershire sauce. After about an hour, I take it out of the marinade, allow it to stand and dry, then fry on all sides. I remove the meat and in the remaining oil on the pan, I saute garlic, chopped onions, chopped tomatoes, patis to taste, peppercorns ground roughly. I then add a half-cup of red wine and water enough to cover half of the mechado. Add a few pieces of bay leaf (laurel). Allow it to slowly braise until fork tender.
Now, to make sure it is not dry as in your picture, remove the whole piece of meat, and allow to cool. Meanwhile, strain the remaining liquid (you may add water as needed), fix the salt and seasoning to taste.
Slice the meat into 1/4-inch thick slices, and then return these into the liquid, and set to a boil. This way, the braising liquid enters the meat slices.
Thicken the braising liquid into some kind of thin gravy. Pour into the sliced mechado arranged in a serving platter. Best served with carrots and potatoes.

By: Marketman

Marketman — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:42:22 +0000

chip, thanks for that, I was wondering if the heat in the oven was too hot, as from the stove top to the oven it started to gurgle within 10 minutes… Will have to try McGee’s suggestions, he is usually spot on… I love how everyone has weighted in with their tips and suggestions. I think I definitely need better meat. Then alterations to the cooking process, and an adjustment to the liquid it is braising in… Many thanks to all of you. Will have to try this again before the Christmas holidays roll in…

By: MeSoHorny

MeSoHorny — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:45:18 +0000

MM, as stated above by a few posters, it’s the cut of beef you’re using.

I always use a whole BRISKET when making mechado.

By: chip

chip — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:24:54 +0000

MM, here are some very specific instructions from Harold Mcgee on braising:
1. After browning the meat quickly, start the pot with meat and the cooking liquid in a cold oven, the pot lid ajar to allow some evaporation (and thus cooling to prevent the meat’s temperature to rise too quickly) and set the thermostat to 200F/93C so that it heats the meat to 120F/50C slowly over 2 hours.
2. Raise the oven temperature to 250F/120C so that the meat slowly warms from 120F to 180F/80C (80C is the temp at which the collagen breaks down into gelatin)
3. After an hour, check the meat every half hour and stop cooking when the meat is easily penetrated by the tines of a fork.
4. Let the meat cool in the braising liquid to allow it to reabsorb the juices.
5. Remove to the meat and boil the braising liquid to thicken and concentrate its flavor.

Rewarm the meat in the thickened sauce gently, being careful not to boil out the moisture that you so carefully ensured to stay inside it.

What I gather from his explanation in “On Food and Cooking” is that one can very well overcook braised meat, not so much by the length of time it is cooked (but this is also possible) but more importantly, by the temperature at which it is cooked. As they say, in cooking one should consider heat and time to be ingredients as well that need to be applied in measured doses.

By: sandman

sandman — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:52:09 +0000

Couldn’t help but give my two cents about one of my most favorite comfort foods – MECHADO!

I remember my dad coming home late at night and there would be a table setting waiting for him in the master’s bedroom with a bowl of steaming white rice and a platter of days old mechado with some rock salt on the side.

There’s nothing like that random crunch and bite of rock salt in every spoonful of mechado rice. For me, the mechado was a totally different dish without the rock salt.

Btw, in our household your current version of Mechado ala Marketman was how we had the eye round cut as well. Unless I’m wrong that is how the dish got its name – referring to the fat inserted in the center of the whole slab as the “mitsa” or fuse.

My Lola’s cook “Manang Rosita” learned to prepare mechado from the cook before her and she/they would use only ripe fresh tomatoes (with half as much onions) – sauteeing with garlic, ground black pepper after the meat was browned. They also used “atsuete” generously and it would impart a savory aroma and a distinct (almost nutty?) flavor to the dish.

As for the cut of beef used, I would say that this is precisely how this cut of beef is cooked anyway – as a stew which has to cook practically half a day. The way we do it (maybe you can try this next time) is that after placing the beef back to simmer for 2 hours or so — we would then slice it into half inch thick cuts and place it back in the sauce for another hour or so.

As much as I enjoy this dish I stopped cooking it over a year ago as it always falls short of my childhood memories.

Thanks for the post MM! I may just give it another try…

By: quiapo

quiapo — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:54:49 +0000

Chip has a point about the meat not having enough connective tissue, which melts and tenderises the meat on very slow cooking. Also I wonder if using a smaller piece would mean more flavour permeates the meat. A really low temperature, just barely bubbling, prevents the meat having a “ropy” texture. I haven’t had a traditional mechado since I was a child, so I have forgottern what it would taste like. Everyone I know who has served it takes a short cut by cubing the beef.