Whether you are making a meat puree for your baby’s food or as part of your soft food diet, the goal is to have a smooth and silky consistency. Having gooey or lumpy pureed meat is not appetizing at all, even for babies. If you are curious on how to puree meat for babies, follow these easy steps so your baby can enjoy a tasty and nutritious meal.
Easy Steps on How to Puree Meat for Babies
Prepping the Meat
Here are some simple steps on how to puree meat for babies.
Choose the tender cuts of meat. For a smoother and better-tasting meat puree, choose and use more tender cuts of meat. Whether you’re pureeing beef, pork, chicken, or lamb, you want to pick a more tender cut that won’t toughen up when cooked.
- More often than not, the cheapest cuts of meat are the toughest, so try choosing a cut like the top sirloin, especially beef.
- For chicken, you can get the boneless or bone-in meat. If you’re buying the bone-in, make sure no tiny bones get blended in with the puree.
Cook meat slowly. The slow cooking method helps the meat retain its flavor and moisture, making it much easier to puree. Whatever type of meat you use, consider cooking it slowly to produce the best possible texture. Here are some recommended methods that surely work well:
- Braising
- Using a slow cooker
- Boiling
Cook it at the correct temperature. The meat must be pre-cooked completely before you puree it. Check the temperature when it’s done to make sure it has reached the proper internal temperature. Here are the proper temperatures for different types of meat:
- Chicken: 165 °F (74 °C)
- Beef: 145 °F (63 °C)
- Pork: 160 °F (71 °C)
- Lamb: 145 °F (63 °C)
Chill the meat completely. After cooking the meat, chill it in the refrigerator for about 2 hours. The meat should be chilled completely in preparation for processing. The chilled meat can be processed into much finer pieces than when meat is still warm.
Chop the meat into 1-inch pieces. Remove it from the fridge and chop the meat into chunks so that it will fit into your food processor easily.
Pureeing the Meat
Put one cup of meat into the food processor. If you don’t have a food processor, you can use a blender, although the puree’s result may not be as silky-smooth as that one made in a food processor.
Blend meat until it’s powdery. ”Powdery” may sound like an unusual word to describe meat, but that’s the texture you want to achieve when you process it cold. Keep blending the meat until they are very fine, almost like a sandy texture.
Add liquid while blending. When processing the meat into a smooth puree, you will have to add some liquid to loosen it up. Add 1/4 cup of liquid per 1 cup of meat, regardless of the kind of meat you are pureeing. You can pick from the following:
- Cooking liquid reserved from the cooked meat
- Sodium-free meat broth
- Water
Store pureed meat in the fridge. After you reach the puree’s desired consistency, put it into a food storage container with a tight-fitting lid. Store the puree in the fridge until use. This will keep the puree safe for 3 to 4 days.
- Before serving it, allow the puree to come to room temperature or heat it lightly in the microwave.
Try some Variations
Mix pureed vegetables to pureed meat. Now that you know how to puree meat for babies, you can vary the recipe for your baby’s next meal. You can easily make a completely pureed meal for your baby by mixing pureed vegetables with your pureed meat. This will surely add flavor and substance to your baby’s meal. You can try out the following combinations:
- Chicken puree and carrot puree
- Beef puree mixed with pea puree
- Pork puree mixed with apple puree
Make a chunkier puree. If your baby is older and can chew on bigger chunks of meat, you can make a puree with more than one consistency. Instead of pureeing until it’s smooth, stop pureeing when there are still chunks. Another option is to add small chunks of cooked vegetables to a smooth meat puree. Know more about baby food.
Conclusion
Meat should be introduced as one of the first complementary foods for your baby when he or she reaches six months old. And what better way to feed your little one than to puree meat for his/her meals. Having a lumpy pureed meat for your baby is not appetizing at all. The solution is to chill your cooked meat and puree it when it’s still cold. Also, adding some liquid to the meat will help you produce a more appetizing texture. Learning the steps on how to puree meat for babies is easy and fun. There’s no better way to feed your little one with nutritious meals than preparing it on your own.