Against the grain
Meat is sliced across the lines you can see in the muscle, so each bite is shorter.
What to do
- Look at the raw or cooked meat. The grain is the long parallel lines.
- The knife goes across those lines, not along them.
- Cut thin. A long fibre left whole stays chewy even when the meat is tender.
A common slip. A cut along the grain leaves strips you have to chew, even if the meat is soft.