Score These Meats and Vegetables Before Cooking [Video]

When I’m cooking, I always keep a lookout for flavor and texture opportunities, particularly for tough ingredients. One of my favorite ways to do this is by scoring them. (“Scoring” as in partially cutting them, not “scoring” like obtaining them. But that’s important too.) Not only does this simple technique build in more flavor and texture opportunities, but it can also improve tough, unpleasantly chewy, or fibrous foods.

How to score food

Lightly scoring is a trick that’s been around probably as long as sharp knives have been. Scoring is any time you purposefully slice shallow cuts into a food. The slices don’t go all the way through, only about halfway to three-quarters of the depth. If you’re scoring a fat cap on meat, consider the depth of the fat as your guide. For foods that aren’t quite as thick, fatty, or fibrous, you can keep the score to about a half-inch deep. Use …