On Food and Cooking

isn’t needed right away, then it’s also safe to thaw it in the refrigerator. But cold air is an es ...

microbes and more than double the shelf life of carefully wrapped refrigerated meats. There is, however, ...

will kill the bacteria and leave the meat edible for three months. However, it will still be adulterate ...

and texture, and the challenge of cooking meat well. These changes are summarized in the box on p. 152. Heat ...

fruity and floral, nutty and grassy (esters, ketones, aldehydes). Surface Browning at High Temperatures If fres ...

The appearance of meat changes in two different ways during cooking. Initially it’s somewhat translucent bec ...

myoglobin can escape in the meat juices; denatured brown myoglobin has bonded to other coagulated proteins i ...

oxidized, denatured form of myoglobin is brown; in meats cured with nitrite, including corned beef an ...

Raw and Cooked Textures The texture of raw meat is a kind of slick, resistant mushiness. The meat ...

denaturing of its myoglobin and cytochrome pigments. But two cooking methods can leave well-done m ...

the pigments become vulnerable, there are few other proteins left to react with them, so they stay intac ...

Early Juiciness: Fibers Coagulate One of the two major contracting filaments, the protein myosin, begins to coagulate ...

tube of liquid: so the meat gets progressively firmer and moister. Then between 140 and 150ºF/60– ...

connective tissue softens to a jelly-like consistency, and the muscle fibers that it had held tightly ...

ends of the cells. The Challenge of Cooking Meat: The Right Texture Generally, we like meat to be tender a ...

are the usual fast methods. Tough cuts are best heated for a prolonged period at temperatures approachi ...

rate of temperature increase at the center can exceed 10ºF/5ºC per minute. Solutions: Two-Stage Cooking, Ins ...

dough. These materials insulate the meat surface from direct cooking heat and slow the heat penetration. Th ...

The Effects of Heat on Meat Proteins, Color, and Texture Cooks can also avoid zooming through the zone of id ...

Knowing When to Stop Cooking The key to cooking meat properly is knowing when to stop. Cookbooks are ...