What Is Beef Tendon And How To Cook It The Right Way

You may have come across beef tendon in a bowl of Vietnamese beef pho or perhaps a comforting Taiwanese beef noodle soup. While it's a fairly common ingredient in a variety of Asian dishes, beef tendon is not nearly as common in western cuisines, which could be why you're wondering what exactly it is (and how to go about cooking it). We spoke with Douglas Keane, Chef and Partner at Cyrus restaurant in California wine country's Sonoma county, to learn about the cut of meat. "Beef tendon is the connective tissue between bones and muscles on a cow," he explains. "It has a lot of collagen. It's a mellow beef flavor with a good amount of savory/umami taste. Not as much savory as a seared steak, more like a roast beef flavor. As for the texture, when it's cooked and hits perfectly it's the most perfect gelatinous mouth feel." 

When asked how he likes to prepare beef tendon, Chef Keane notes seasoning it ahead of time with salt — he typically uses around 2% of the weight of the beef tendon — along with garlic and thyme. Then, not unlike a braise, the beef tendon "needs to be slow cooked ... and just left in the final soup" (when it's used in soups, as it commonly is).

There's also a 2-step prep process to keep in mind when cooking with beef tendon, and that's to rinse the beef tendon and then blanch it for 2 to 3 minutes (with an optional second rinse after blanching) to remove any strong beefy and gamey smells. Once that's done, you can cook it on the stovetop for at least 4 hours on a low temperature, in a slow cooker, or pressure cooker. When cooked low and slow, the collagen in the beef tendon breaks down, and as Chef Keane explains, the "texture is pretty magical when done right, all of the tendon is turned into a gelatinous mouthfeel."

Another way to cook the tendon is to steam it, which is the preparation used for the classic Chinese cold appetizer dish of sliced beef tendon in a soy, vinegar, and chili sauce. Beef tendon is also an underrated cut of meat you should consider grilling: To do so, you'll want to braise the beef tendon first, either European-style as Keane does with garlic and thyme (and perhaps rosemary) or Asian-style with ginger, star anise, and Szechuan peppercorns, until al dente. Then chill the beef tendon overnight in the braising liquid, before cutting the beef tendon to size for cooking on the grill.