In an older entry about using baking soda as meat tenderizer, I mentioned that my father once told me how papaya leaves can be used as meat tenderizer. The way I understood him, the papaya leaves are crushed, spread on the meat and allowed to infuse overnight. The papaya leaves are rinsed off before cooking. I don’t know if I did it wrong but nothing happened to the meat so I never tried it again.
Then, someone posted a comment which made me think that, perhaps, I didn’t understand my father correctly. Reader Maricel said:
The juice extracted from shredded green papaya also works wonders. Just be sure to dip the meat in the juice only a few minutes before cooking. I once marinated tapa with the papaya juice, when I fried the tapa, it literally turned into paste.
Now that is something I will try very soon.
The papaya tree in the photo was taken at our old house. And that’s the neighbor’s papaya tree, not ours.
It is the enzyme papain found in unripe papaya that helps break down the proteins thus serving as a meat tenderizer.
Unripe as in the kind used for cooking tinola or even more unripe than that?
yes, as in green papaya used for tinola
I’ll try that. Thanks.
And that enzyme papain also does wonders for some skin diseases, if I remember correctly… parang it has some anti inflammatory action (?) Wait let me check…
Sige nga, may allergy ako eh…
Notice how your hands feels smooth after peeling green papaya for tinola. Its the enzyme papain.