Meat tenderizers (salt, buy, normal, results)

[swbtoo]

I don't normally use meat tenderizer, but purchased some the other day. It says on the label "unseasoned", so I thought it was pretty much flavorless, but it's loaded with sodium which I did not expect. A 1/4 teaspoon has 400 mg. of sodium. Yikes.

Does anyone know - is the active ingredient, Bromelain, available by itself?

Is there a meat tenderizer on the market without the salt?

TIA

[lilypad]

My grandmother would use a coke to tenderize the roast. Worked very well and delicious! Not sure how much sodium in a can of coke, as I don't drink the stuff. But if not diabetic, you might try it!

[Laura707]

How about one of those meat tenderizers that you pound the meat with? I'm not trying to be flippant or funny but if you don't want the salt, I would give that a try.

[eddiek]

You can obtain the same benefit from seasoning the meat about an hour before cooking
with a simple salt/pepper combination.

I use about 2/3 salt to 1/3 pepper. has worked for me for a long time.

[Mattie Jo]

I don't tenderize meat. I expect it to be tender when I buy it. I also agree with Laura that a mallet would work. I suppose they still sell them; if not you can make your own somehow.

They do. Here is a bunch of them.

Amazon.com: meat mallet