How to properly spike meat

Want to serve your guests succulent meat full of flavour? Take some bacon, bacon or carrots and skewer the meat first. Don’t you know how to spice meat? Never mind, in today’s article we’ll tell you how to prepare the best spiced beef, chop or chicken breast.

Why meat is spiked

• Thanks to the piercing, the meat retains its juiciness, which you will appreciate especially with tougher and leaner cuts.
• The taste of the finished meat is improved. You can take advantage of the salty and smoky flavours of the speck or the flavours of individual fragrant vegetables or herbs.
• Properly spearing the meat will create a beautifully colored mosaic that appears when the slice of meat is cut.

Which meat is suitable for spicing

The tougher and leaner cuts of meat, which tend to dry out during roasting or stewing, are particularly suitable for spicing. The most common meats are beef, veal and pork, but you can also spear chicken breasts or rabbit meat, and you are guaranteed to enjoy the result.

The basis is a skew knife

To spear meat without it falling apart, you need a sharp and thin kitchen knife. Ideally, you should use a special skew knife or skew needle, which will make the job easy and safe.

Tip: Once in a while, check that your kitchen knives are sharp enough and sharpen them if necessary. You can use a hand or electric sharpener and whetstones to sharpen your knives, and a whetstone to sharpen them afterwards.

What to use for pointing

Traditionally, lard is used for spicing, which gradually releases its fat as it stews and naturally complements the juiciness of the meat. To make it easier to work with, it is recommended that it is first cut into thin fries and then frozen for at least 30 minutes.

But you don’t have to stick with just the bacon. The meat can be interspersed with, for example, English bacon, sausage and sausage or vegetables. Carrots, parsley or aromatic celery are particularly suitable. Pickled cucumbers, garlic cloves and stronger herbs such as rosemary or lemongrass are less often used for spicing, but the resulting flavour is definitely worth it.

How to properly spice meat

1. Cut the raw materials you will use to spice the meat into fries half to one centimeter wide. It is recommended to cut them to the tip to make them easier to insert into the meat.
2. Then take a skewer to hand and cut through the meat (towards the grain). Professional chefs recommend inserting the knife into the meat at a 20 degree angle.
3. This will create holes in the meat, into which you will insert the prepared ingredients so that they will evenly decorate the cut when cooked.
4. It is sometimes advisable to tie a string (or dressing) over the pierced meat so that it does not fall apart and the ingredients fall out during baking or stewing. The finished meat will hold its shape better and the individual slices will be the same size.

Tip: If you are using a skewer to skewer, do not make the holes in the meat ahead of time. Insert the skewer into the meat using the sharp tip of the needle.

Spiced meat – recipes

Do you want to prepare spiced meat at home? The following recipes can be mastered even by a complete beginner. So go ahead and have a good taste!

Beef stew spiked with vegetables

First stuff the beef with vegetables of your own taste (a combination of carrots and celery is great). Next, heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the finely chopped onion. Add the meat and sear on all sides. Then season the meat with salt, pour in a few ladles of stock and leave to simmer under a lid. Check the meat as it stews, turning and basting as necessary.

Once the meat is tender, you’re done. Then all you have to do is strain the juices, stir in the flour and simmer for 10 minutes. Cut the meat into slices and pour the thickened broth over the already served meat.

Italian style pork chop

Prepare the chop preferably the day before. Pierce it with a thin knife and insert the pieces of prosciutto that you have left in the freezer to harden into the resulting holes. Season the meat with salt and pepper and put it in the fridge.

The next day, take the meat out at least an hour earlier to loosen it up a bit. In the meantime, place larger pieces of onion, chopped garlic, chopped sun-dried tomatoes, olives and a sprig of thyme in a baking dish. Pour about 2 dcl of red wine over the mixture and finally add the skewered cutlet, which we recommend drizzling with the oil from the sun-dried tomatoes.

Cover the dish and place in an oven preheated to 200 °C. Bake for approximately 1½ hours, turning the meat occasionally and basting with wine or stock, until tender.

Chicken breasts spiked with butter and herbs

First of all, mix the chives, parsley, garlic and a pinch of salt in a bowl. Cut the cold butter into fries, which you then coat in the herbs. Wash the chicken breasts, pat dry and use a skewer to make pockets in the chicken breasts to put the herb butter in. Season the meat with salt and pepper and leave it to rest for half an hour.

In the meantime, heat some oil in a frying-pan, and fry the rested breasts on both sides. Then lower the heat and slowly sear the meat until it is tender. Remove the finished breasts and add the cream to the remaining butter stock, add pepper to taste and let the sauce bubble for a while. Then return the chicken breasts to the sauce, heat together and serve.