![Papaya Paste - Natural Meat tenderizer - How to make & store papaya paste [+Video] - tenderizes red meat such as beef, lamb, mutton, wild game, etc naturally. Tips + video how to to tenderize with papaya paste www.MasalaHerb.com](https://www.masalaherb.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Papaya-Paste-Natural-Meat-tenderizer-How-to-make-papaya-paste-1-150x150.jpg)
Did you know that papaya paste can make your meat super tender? Papaya paste tenderizes meat surprisingly well and very effectively so that the meat melts in your mouth with each bite.
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TL;DR
The first time I heard papaya was used as a meat tenderizer, I didn't believe it. How could such a plainly tasting tropical fruit, which has never been much regarded as a superfruit anyway, turn tough meat cuts into tender, soft, melt-in-the-mouth meat? I thought it was a joke.
Obviously I had to try it out for myself. After having prepared the meat with papaya and cooked it the way I always do, I was completely amazed. The papaya paste on the meat was effective, successfully turning the meat into tender bites.
To make a papaya meat tenderizer, you need to pick a green/raw papaya. This is important! Green papayas are raw and have hard white fruit flesh in the inside. The green papaya is rich in an enzyme known as Papain and this is the compound that has the ability to break down meat fibers.
So, papain basically breaks down collagen, which is the main protein that connects tissues. The greener and rawer the papaya, the more papain it contains, and the stronger the paste will affect your tough meat cuts.
The highest amount of papain can be found in the papaya skin. That is why I use a green/raw papaya, with the skin on, for tenderizing meat cuts. Raw papaya is almost tasteless and not sweet at all, which makes it a suitable choice for marinating meat successfully.
By the way, also the leaves of a papaya tree are high in papain and can be used in the same way as the paste. If you use papaya tree leaves, then just wash them well and wrap the meat in it, leave it to “marinate,” cook, and enjoy a perfectly cooked piece of meat.
Process Overview
Making papaya paste is actually child's play. You need to turn the papaya into a smooth puree. There's no need to add any additional ingredients or flavor the papaya paste.
All it takes to work is a little water and a fresh green papaya with the skin on! Just make sure to discard seeds if there are any.
I decided early on to keep it tasteless, as I would use the paste on different kinds of red meats, and in that case, I like to season them individually at times.
📖 Recipe
![Papaya Paste - Natural Meat tenderizer - How to make & store papaya paste [+Video] - tenderizes red meat such as beef, lamb, mutton, wild game, etc naturally. Tips + video how to to tenderize with papaya paste www.MasalaHerb.com](https://www.masalaherb.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Papaya-Paste-Natural-Meat-tenderizer-How-to-make-papaya-paste-1-300x300.jpg)
Papaya Paste Meat Tenderizer Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 small Green Papaya aka raw papaya, the greener the better
- Water
Instructions
- Make sure to pick green papaya (not orange) and wash it well before cutting it up.
- Cut the fresh raw papaya into chunks with the skin on the papaya.
- Then place the chunks into a blender jar with some water and blend into a smooth paste. don't add too much water, just enough so that the blender blades turn.
- Keep ice trays ready and fill up each with 1-2 tablespoons. freeze and once frozen places carefuly into a ziplock bag.
- Use each papaya paste cube whenever needed. See post for how to use and how much to use.
Nutrition
Storing
Because green/raw papayas are not always easy to find in the market and because you mostly need only small amounts of the paste to your meat, it makes sense to store the papaya paste for the long run.
While you could keep some in a jar in the fridge, I wouldn't suggest you do that with a bigger batch of freshly made papaya paste. Papaya has a high tendency to get moldy, especially the ripe pulp, but unfortunately also the unripe version of the fruit.
So while some people recommend that they keep theirs for a week or two in the fridge without a problem, I wouldn't necessarily do that because water is added to the paste, which accelerates spoilage.
So I decided to just freeze the papaya paste by adding small batches of 1-2 tablespoons to ice cube trays.
After they have frozen, all you have to do is remove them and put the papaya paste cubes in zip-lock bags. Whenever you need to use the paste, take out a cube or two, or whatever quantity is needed, let it defrost, and treat your meat with the paste. It's that simple!
How to Use the Paste on Your Meats?
The papaya paste is like a paste in addition to your usual marination. There are two ways you can prepare and marinate your meat with the papaya paste:
Papaya paste first, your usual marination after that.
You keep your meat cuts ready and add the papaya paste to it. I like to massage the paste into the meat with my fingers.
Then I keep it for a certain period, depending on the meat and amount, and either remove excess papaya paste or leave it on and add my marination to the meat so that the meat soaks in the flavors.
OR
Papaya paste and marination on the meat together
How to marinate the meat and for how long depends on the following:
- meat type - beef, lamb, mutton, pork, rabbit, deer
- meat quantity
- how the meat is cut - in cubes, slices, etc
- meat quality and fat amounts
- papaya variation, papaya rawness, and if you added the papaya skin to the paste
Know this: the leaner the meat, the better the quality; the less the amount and the smaller the cut, the less papaya paste you will need, and the faster it will take you to tenderize successfully.
That means, for example, if you use 1 kilogram of not-so-high-quality undercut beef cut into big chunks and you want it to be tender after 30 minutes, you would add about 2 defrosted papaya paste cubes to the meat. It will turn out super tender!
For 2 smaller undercut steaks, I add about 2 tablespoons (= ~1 cube) of papaya paste to my beef. Then I let it on for 20 minutes and add my usual steak marination so that it infuses the flavors. I keep it on for another 40 minutes max before cooking the meat.
So if you are intending to marinate the meat for a longer period to infuse the flavors, you might want to treat the meat first separately with the papaya paste and then take off excess papaya paste.
Or you reduce the papaya paste amount to small quantities so that you can marinate the meat over a longer period of time. How much papaya paste you use on your meat to tenderize is up to you; there is no fixed amount that I can tell you here.
If you get hold of a smaller, very green papaya and you would use only the skin but not the pulp, you would have to cut the time again by half at least because the skin alone is a very strong tenderizer!
So you get my point. Try to work with small quantities first so that you get the feel for it. Each meat works differently too.
Try to use my examples to get an idea for how long and how much to use. Of course, you can also combine other tenderizing solutions with a small amount of papaya paste.
I like to pound my meat first, and that is known to break down tough fibers as well. Then I rub salt into the uncooked steak and ginger paste (if it's an Asian dish), as ginger and salt both help in cutting down the tenderizing waiting period.
After that, add some papaya paste, wait for 20-30 minutes, and you are good to cook your steak soft!
Tips
The papaya paste is so powerful that meat fibers can de-integrate completely, and you would be left with meat pieces or even an unappetizing meat mash.
Besides, keeping excessive quantities of papaya paste on the meat for far too long can turn the meat dry while cooking.
That is why you should use the papaya paste in small quantities only, and whenever you do that, you should check on the meat after a certain time to see if it has marinated enough.
The moment the papaya paste is heated up, it stops affecting the collagen proteins in the meat, but don't worry, the meat will be guaranteed to turn out tender.
Buying Tips
Green Papaya Paste can't be purchased so far. Food companies haven't developed such a product yet. However, you can buy a green papaya powder instead, which can be used instead of the green papaya paste.
I haven't tried it myself, so I can't advocate it, but at the same time, I took a while to search a decent option but ended up finding this green papaya leaf powder.
The manufacturers claim all kinds of weight-loss wonders, which you can safely ignore. You want a clean product that can be used as a tenderizing agent on your meat. That's it!
Papaya Paste Uses
Remember you can use the papaya natural meat tenderizer paste with any red meat such as beef, veal, pork, lamb, mutton, goat, rabbit, boar, and deer.
There is no point in using papaya paste for chicken, turkey, or duck meat, as these get easily soft while cooking, depending on the cooking technique and heat.
Thanks for deciphering this papaya mystery after all this time (I had been using the yellow ones, to no avail). Just went down to New York’s Chinatown to a Thai grocer to pick up my first green papayas and can’t wait to throw them into the Vitamix. Will follow with the Foodsaver for preservation. I’m too excited!
The ripe yellow papaya is sweet too, while the green raw ones taste plain. When you apply the paste on the meat, keep an eye on it or the meat can turn mushy if kept too long to marinate.
Hi Helene,
Thank you for this excellent article!
You are welcome Sreeni 🙂
I have used smashed papaya seeds - from ripe papaya - as a goat meat tenderizer for years. It does not "overly tenderize" goat. The standard recipe is 24 hours marinade. I crush the seeds with mortar & pestle so you see the whitish inner seed layer. And I then eat the leftover ripe papaya.
I have no idea the amount of tenderizer in the ripe seeds compared to using green papaya.
Hi Richard, thanks for sharing this. I have not cooked with goat meat but I can see how the seeds turned into a Pulver tenderize the meat.
Having just returned from Vietnam Green Papaya was used in fish salads and other dishes. Can the paste be used to add the flavour(of sauces pethaps) if not texture to the dish?
The papaya paste in this recipe is meant to be used as a meat tenderizer only. I am not sure how this plain raw green papaya paste could add flavor to any dish. It' s almost tasteless. In that sense, it makes more sense to use raw papaya in bits in salads as you experienced it in south-east Asia.
Now about giving texture to dishes with papaya paste,... Do you mean with texture to thicken a dish? If that's the case then I think there are other ingredients that make a better job of thickening any dish such as Tomato, coconut, nuts in general, wheat and corn flours. In fact, even okra can give texture due to it' s sliminess if it comes in contact with water.
I freeze all my flavorings in flat zip bags. When frozen they fit in plastic shoe boxes in my frigi freezer. I grow my garlic and peal and grind into a paste and freeze. I also do lemon juice If you put binder clips on one side there is room to slide the frozen product out and cut or brake it off
Those are great tips Jacki, love them! That with the lemon juice is completely new to me! But I do something similar with mango pulp.Thank you for sharing Jackie, much appreciated!
Ur receipes are amazing my kids loved ur receipes. Thks a ton
Oh, that' s great! Pleasing the kids with good food is of course paramount. 🙂
Thank you for taking the time to leave a feedback, much appreciated!
Papaya paste stored in a refrigerator with time is bound to loose its potency due to oxidation of some of its components.
During experimental research, synthesis antioxidants
and natural extracts - commercial products used in the
food industry - have been used. Synthesized antioxidants
correspond to different structures: tocopheryl acetate, (Vitamin E) min
15% (DSM Nutritional Products) and coenzyme Q10, min
10% (DSM Nutritional Products); flavonoidic derivatives:
taxifolin (dihydroquercetin), min 80% (Benyo Phyto
Ingredients Inc.); water-soluble vitamins: ascorbic acid (Vitamin C),
min 95.5% (EuroVit Trading Bucureºti); derivatives of
carotenoids: lutein, min 5% (DSM Nutritional Products). So these two would be a cheap alternative.
Regarding use of papain for insect bites, I have read literature where
papain denatures/destroys some protein toxins ( jelly fish, scorpion etc) This could be an alternative to be tried when no appropriate antidote is available.
my compliments on your excellent blog
I had the papaya paste for a month in the freezer now and used it recently again and it didn't seem to have lost potency, in fact I couldn't leave it on more then 60 minutes or it would have turned the meat kind of mashy. So maybe storing in the freezer literally freezes the papain components. The fridge temperature is not that kind to raw fruit flesh.
That with the insect bites I would need to try. I wonder if the milky sap can do something in that regard. About jelly fish and scorpio, I hope not to get stung by those animals.
Thank you for your kind compliment! 😀
You could try papaya paste in insect bites and contact with jelly fish. Some of the toxins can be denatured by papain in the paste.
Helene have you tried adding antioxidants (vitamin E, Vitamin C) to prolong the
efficacy of the paste ?
You mean papain for jelly fish sting burns?
Is there something in the rain forest that they do with papaya paste that the rest of the world is not doing?
In what sense would antioxidants make the papaya paste more efficient?
You opened a Pandora's box of questions Carlos!
I was picturing a papaya all wrong, I think I confused it with passion fruit? Any way, this is a really good idea! I never knew it could be used as meat tenderizer.
This is such an informative post! Thanks for sharing! We use raw Papaya to make dal. It tastes amazing! Making the paste and freezing it in ice cube tray is such a clever hack! Saves time, energy and money too!
Hi Priya
I had heard from somebody that they added papaya paste to daal to make it soft, however I haven't tried it yet and also I wasn't sure if it would work because the papain stops reacting on proteins the moment it gets heated up. So I figure this could be done while the daal is soaking. Something to try!
Okay, I had NO idea papaya paste would work as a meat tenderizer! That's so interesting. I don't know if I can even find papaya in my grocery store, but if I do I'll have to try it out
What a great idea!! So much better than using MSG. Sometimes no matter what you do some meats just aren't as tender as I'd like them to be -- this will be perfect for those meats. Now the quest is finding a green papaya.
well I know it might not be always easy to get a green papaya, in case you can use an almost ripe papaya. The point is to have a papaya that is not too sweet and the greener and unripe the stronger it would react to meat.
Yum!!! Love papaya, so I can only imagine that this would be delicious. Love it!
The papaya paste is meant to tenderize meat 😉
Thanks a lot ! Your article on raw papaya is very informative and elaboration was excellent.
Wow I've never heard of this before, it's so interesting. I'll be saving this page!
I remember my god mother us to make papaya paste to use as meat tenderizer. She had a papaya tree in her garden.
This is a great idea to freeze it so you dont' have to make it again and again
I wish I could get green papaya here.
Veena maybe you can make it with an almost ripe papaya? or a the skin of the papaya and the harder fruit flesh (of organic papaya)? You could also just use a ripe papaya but then it would not react that well on the meat and also ripe papayas are sweet, so sweetness would be added to the dish.
What an interesting idea - I have heard of using other fruits for tenderizing, but never papaya. I'll never look at one the same again!
Awesome tips! I have never tried this, but I might have to. It seems like it works well!
This is really neat to know! I guess it's similar to how bromelain in pineapples breaks down collagen.
Exactly! 🙂 Pineapple does the trick too with breaking down tough meat fibers, however its more suitable with pork meat and pineapple is sweet. That is why I like the papaya paste as it's almost tasteless. 🙂
I have never even heard of papaya paste! What a great use for it though!
Wow, that's pretty clever! I would have never thought that would be one of those things culinary things that were true.
It's actually a well kept kebab restaurant secret. They treat the meat cuts first with papaya.
This is such a great kitchen hack! I had no idea that papaya could do that. I am amazed and will definitely try that.
Thanks for sharing this
This is such a great idea! I've used papaya as a tenderizer before, but never thought about freezing it for later. Brilliant!
I used to have a pet bunny. The strange thing about bunnies is that they constantly groom but have no natural way to digest their fur because they are true vegans! So, we wete advised to give our pet super papaya enzyme in a pill form. Our bunny thought it was candy, she loved it! I am not surprised that it is a good meat tenderizer, I understand that pineapple is too!
Oh little bunny. I have a bunny obsession since childhood. So the papaya helped the bunny to digest? Quite a smart vet I would say!
Yep you are right about the papaya Eva, in fact the kiwi fruit does something similar, just that kiwi and pineapple are sweet and the green papaya not.
Wow this looks amazing! Never knew you could use papaya like this!
Great lesson on preparing papaya paste and freezing it too. I use the ice cube trick on many items. This is great and will make me take advantage of papaya more often. Thanks!
I have heard that papaya is good for tenderizing meat, but wasn't sure how. Now I know. I am using this the next time we have steaks!!
What a great little trick! Who knew fruit could be so useful in making meat? Thanks for the awesome and easy tip.
I have never used green papaya, I would definitely give this a try.
This is absolutely fascinating, I would love to try making this, if I can find the right papayas. I don't eat alot of meat, but when I do, I like it to be super tender 🙂
Wow, what a cool idea. I had no idea that you could use papaya paste like this