From Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools

The Jaccard SuperTendermatic 48 blade meat tenderizer is simply the best tool I have ever found for turning tough but flavourful cuts, like flank steak and skirt steak, from chewy and hard to eat into tender and easy to bite and chew. To use the tenderizer you simply place it over the piece of meat on a cutting board and push down like an ink stamp forcing the blades through the meat. I am a professional chef and serious foodie from Texas, and I simply cannot imagine making either a chicken fried steak or a good fajita steak without it.

I spent years perfecting a marinade for beef fajitas, fine-tuning my seasonings, timing, cooking, and carving. I wasn't satisfied with the finished product until I found the Jaccard tenderizer. I now a have a beef fajita that is tender, delicious and moist. When you take a bite it separates instead of pulling the whole piece of meat from your fajita. Likewise, my chicken fried steak was a real challenge. Traditionally a steak is run through a cuber which "tenderizes" the steak using a pair of rollers with interlocking grids to mechanically crush the steak. In my opinion this method smashes and "mushes" (highly technical term there) the meat without tenderizing. Yes, it does result in a "softer" mouth feel, but it does absolutely nothing to create a steak that is easier to bite through and chew. The Jaccard, by cutting through the muscle fibres and connective tissue, actually creates a steak that is easily bitten off and chewed without the smashed / mushy mouth feel.

To be fair, we do use a hammer-style tenderizer to flatten and shape our chicken fried steaks, but without the Jaccard you can pound a flank steak until it falls apart without making it any easier to bite or chew. However, if you smash it flat and use the Jaccard the same piece of meat will fall apart in your mouth. This tool is so superior to the traditional hammer-style tenderizer that I use it on almost every beef, poultry, or pork cut I cook, and I cannot stress enough how awesome it is.

• You can purchase it at Amazon.com for under $24