Fork-Tender

Fork-tender refers to cooking food sufficiently to tenderize it to the point where a fork can easily penetrate.  In cooked meat, as in braises, stews or roasting, fork-tender refers to meat that shreds or pulls apart easily.  Meat that has been cooked past the point of fork-tender (“falling off the bone…”) may be very tender but dry because all of the connective tissue has been dissolved into gelatin and allowed to leach out of the meat.

Fork-Tender

Fork-Tender