connective tissue softens to a jelly-like
consistency, and the muscle fibers that it had
held tightly together are more easily pushed
apart. The fibers are still stiff and dry, but
they no longer form a monolithic mass, so the
meat seems more tender. And the gelatin
provides a succulence of its own. This is the
delightful texture of slow-cooked meats, long
braises, and stews and barbecues.
How cooking forces moisture from meat.
Water molecules are bound up in the protein
fibrils that fill each muscle cell. As the meat is
heated, the proteins coagulate, the fibrils
squeeze out some of the water they had
contained and shrink. The thin elastic sheet of
connective tissue around each muscle cell
then squeezes the unbound water out the cut