16 Ways to Cook Beef Tendons

Tendons, it’s that nasty looking offal that appears like a skinned appendage, you know what I am talking about. It may look disgusting but once it is cooked properly, the appearance changes and it’s a good contributor of flavour and life to the usually thin stock, but that’s not it, this offal has a lot of benefits for you which we will point out later. Tendons are used as an ingredient in some Asian cuisines like the Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Thai, Taiwanese and Vietnamese, a very tough and fibrous meat cut that becomes really tender after a long period of cooking.

Beef Tendons contains a lot of collagen that helps a lot with skin, hair, nails and joint health, so in short, it’s a youth potion, that’s the secret to why Asians look younger. You might be surprised that Beef tendon is a low fat, low carbohydrate, high protein food, so if you like fatty meat cuts this is the best alternative as it has the same if not better texture than fat, so it’s like eating fat without the fat content. If you look at its nutritional value this is the most calorie-protein dense food you will ever see, in a 100 g serving of this meat cut you will get 36.7g of protein, 0.5g of fat, 0g of carbs in a 150-calorie package.

Convinced? Well if not, then let me showcase to you how good this can get by listing below 16 Ways to Cook Tendons. And if you like Asian stews and soups like Pho, then you had tried it already, you just don’t notice it as it is chopped into smaller pieces or cooked until it, it’s that thing that makes these types of soup thick, the thing that makes your lips feel thick after a nice long slurp, it is those collagen rich cuts called tendons.

Beef and Tendon Curry – Basically an upgraded version of beef curry, you will never go normal curry after you had tried this, its creamy, spicy and meaty delicious.

Beef Cheeks and Tendons Adobo with Fried Pearl Potatoes – Adobo is usually synonymous to Pork and/or Chicken, beef is seldomly used as its fat does not suit the flavour, it makes it really heavy but by using meaty beef cheeks and tendons it feels like eating pork belly and trust it is way much better than that Filipino classic dish.

Pho Bo with Oxtail and Tendons – Oxtails and Tendons together, you must be kidding! These are the two most delicious cuts that can be used on a Pho as it adds a lot of flavour depth and texture that just coats those rice noodles giving you the perfect bite every time.

Beef Tendon Gumtang Collagen Soup – Do you know the secret to look young for long then ditch those expensive facial creams you apply day in day out, this is the Koreans secret to look 20 years younger.

Yum Cha Style Beef Tendons – When you go to yum cha restaurants forget the other items on that car grab only the best dim sum ever created, do I need to explain more?

Braised Beef and Tendon – Sweet, savoury, meaty, gelatinous, sticky, garlicky goodness that you place on top of that freshly cooked jasmine rice or sinangag. Yes! Two cups for rice is not enough.

Bulcachong – You’re not well or feeling a bit ill? You may be thinking chicken soup can give you the comfort? Nah, drop that and replace it with this gingery concoction from the South of Philippines.

Gotong Batangas – Goto is already a nice comfort dish, what’s better than that? Well it’s this dish. While there is no rice involved in this goto, there are heaps of meat cuts that will satisfy that Tyrannosaurus Rex inside you.

Sancocho – This is the Dominican Republic’s comfort food, cheap meat cuts and root crops all in one. Anthony Bourdain tried it and liked it, why wouldn’t you?

Hi-Bol – Who said bitter can’t be delicious, before you judge, try this one first. The name came from High Voltage, give it a go so you will understand why.

Bakso – Show this to any Indonesian, trust me they will drool instantly. This delicious Indonesian treat is highly addictive, specially those meatballs infused with tendons, it’s chunky, chewy and meaty.

Gyusuji Nikomi – Yes, the Japanese eat them too! I know it’s the land of the raw fish, but they make awesome stews as well and like the Koreans this is one of their secrets too.

Kinalas – Yes you can use gravies on Noodle soup dishes. Meats on this dish might not be distinguishable as it was extracted from boiled meaty bones, so it is budget friendly at the same time it is also amazingly delicious.

Taiwanese Beef Shank Noodle Soup – Taiwan is world renowned for its amazing street food and this dish exemplifies it really well. Go to any night markets in Taiwan and this is omnipresent.

Papis – Baked Beans? Nah! Upgrade that thing and make this one instead. Fork tender beef brisket and melting tendons, this is life.

Kau Kee Beef Noodle Soup – This is one of the reasons why you would visit Hong Kong, choose rice noodles or wheat noodles it does not matter because it’s all about the meat, tendons and the broth, no wonder why until now the restaurant that started it all still has massive queues even they had opened for more than 90 years.

Now if you want any or all of these and don’t have the luxury of time as most of their entails patience and perseverance of cooking  tendons for long periods of time, then why not look for a restaurant or a meal delivery service online with good ratings. Ask it to be delivered to your doorstep, I know there will be some delicious tendon dishes out there waiting to be devoured by you.

These 16 dishes that we highlighted are just examples, I know there are many more dishes that this meat cut is used for and trust me they will be good.