Page 27 - August 2021 Barbecue News Magazine

might have 1 to 3% “drip loss” which is why they put that little absorbent pad under it. Much of this drip loss is due to the rupturing of cell walls while the carcass goes through rigor mortis, a shrinking and stiffening of the mus- cles after slaughter. Within a day, enzymes kick in and begin the tenderizing and aging process, and the muscles relax. This is why freshly killed meat can be tough. It is usually best to let it rest a day or three.
If the meat has been frozen, water expands and ice crystals form. Remember the last time you stuck a beer in the freezer and forgot about it? Ice crystals in meat puncture the cell walls and, depending on how the meat was frozen and thawed, another 3 to 5% of “purge” can emerge when the meat is defrosted.
During cooking, according to Prof. Blonder, “The first ‘sweat’ occurs with water that is very loosely contained be- tween fibers oozing out through relatively wide channels in the meat. Some of it drips off and some evaporates. As the heat increases, more tightly bound water is freed. Then, around 135 to 145°F, the collagen in the connective tissues that sheath muscle fibers and hold together bundles of fibers begin to shrink and eventually soften into gelatin. This squeezes on the muscle fibers, wringing out additional liquid, some myowater, a mixture of water and the protein myoglobin, from burst cells. So the amount of released juices rises as you pass through 140°F. This is why meat cooked to higher temps gets dry.”
Depending on how hot and how long you cook, there might be 10 to 25% water loss, mostly due to evaporation and dripping. Let’s call it 15%. So a properly cooked steak is
down to about 60% water. Even then, most of that water cannot escape when the meat is cut because it is bound by proteins and held by capillary action.
What about salt?
As we see, meat loses a fair amount of water during cook- ing, which is why lean cuts like chicken breasts, turkey breasts, and pork loins can taste dry. Surprisingly, salt can help you cook these meats to proper temperatures without turning them into shoe leather.
When sodium and chloride ions penetrate meat proteins, the electrical charges alter the proteins so the meat can hold onto moisture more tenaciously, a process called de- naturing. As a result, less water is lost during cooking. Re- searchers at Cook’s Illustrated discovered that a whole chicken soaked in plain water and another soaked in a wet salt brine each gained about 6% by weight. They cooked both birds as well as an unsoaked bird straight from the package. Weighed after cooking, the unsoaked chicken lost 18% of its original weight, while the chicken soaked in water lost 12% of its presoaked weight, and the brined chicken lost only 7%. Lab tests conducted by Prof. Blonder showed that the brine retained by the meat is concentrated near the surface. Thus, brining counteracts one of the biggest problems of grilling by helping hold moisture near the surface, which almost always dries out by the time the center is properly cooked.
What about resting meat?
Mom always said that you had to rest an hour after eating before going for a swim. Likewise it is widely preached that we must let meat “rest” after it is cooked for fear that we might drown in all the escaping fluids when we cut it. Hap- pily, there has never been a documented case of drowning due to swimming after eating. And it looks like the shibbo- leth "rest your meat before cutting into it" is just another myth. Blonder and I have never found a scientific research paper that proves the theory.
We are told that resting prevents juices from gushing out of the meat. People who preach resting say that during cook- ing, muscle fibers, which they think are like tiny skinny balloons, shrink along their length and expand across their width. This puts pressure on the juices between the bal- loons. At the same time, the juices expand putting pressure on the balloons. If you cut into the meat when it is fresh off the heat, they say, the juices come gushing out of the sliced balloons. If you let meat rest and cool, they say, water pres- sure drops, fibers relax, and fewer juices escape.
The pressure theory is a myth, according to meat scientist Dr. Antonio Mata, because " Fibers are not balloons. Water moves back and forth between compartments. It is not trapped in the fibers or the spaces between them." So the pressure equalizes quickly. And at cooking temperatures, water does not expand much. Meat shrinks during cooking
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