Italian Cookware Italian Ingredients|Kitchen Tools & Utensils^Meat Mallet

This meat mallet or meat tenderizer is a traditional kitchen tool for tenderizing tougher cuts. The studded end of the tenderizer helps to cut and soften tougher fibres in the meat, making it easier to chew, and more melt-in-the-mouth. The flatter side of the mallet is designed to make thinner, for faster cooking.

The meat tenderizer is an essential tool for cooking many traditional European dishes. Italian veal saltimbocca is made from flattened strips of veal, lined with proscuitto and sage, before rolling and baking. And Austrien wiener schnitzel pounds the veal (nowadays sometimes pork or chicken) to make it thin and tender, before coating in breadcrumbs and frying. Similarly tougher or more economical cuts of steak are beaten with the tenderizer before cooking to make them more succulent.

One side is smooth metal for making meat thinner without leaving marks, and the other side is covered in small points for tenderizing.