are used with meat, to make it more tender.
There are two ways of doing this. One is mechanical: breaking down the meat fibres by chopping or grinding. The second is to use a chemical agent. Marinades incorporating acid ingredients such as wine, vinegar, or fruit juice come into this category. The acid does act on the surface of the meat exposed to it, breaking down some of the links between proteins, but it also has a drying effect. Another chemical method is to add enzymes, extracted from plants, which break down proteins. Mixtures containing these are available from companies selling spices and seasonings. Papain (from unripe papaya) is usually the active ingredient. Bromelin, extracted from pineapple, and ficin, from figs, have a similar effect.
The use of enzymes to tenderize meat sounds like a product of modern biotechnology, but is an ancient technique. Mexicans and others have, since antiquity, wrapped meat in papaya leaves before cooking.
However, the use of enzymatic tenderizers in meat cookery is attended by several limitations. These, and the experiments carried out to establish how and why they operate, have been well described by the three ladies responsible for some of the best work on experimental studies of food: see under Campbell (1979) in the bibliography. Briefly, these agents act only on exposed surfaces (including any exposed by pricking the meat); they are most active at temperatures between 55 and 75 °C (130 and 165 °F), i.e. far above room temperature; and they are deactivated at temperatures as high as boiling point. See also McGee (1984).
Laura Mason has written about several aspects of British food in books including Sugar Plums and Sherbet (1998), Farmhouse Cookery (2005), and Traditional Foods of Britain (1999), which she co-authored with Catherine Brown.
McGee, Harold (1984), On Food and Cooking, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
