No More Overcooked Meat

For meat lovers, there are few pleasures in life that can rival the satisfaction from biting into a thick juicy slab of steak. How many times had we encountered dry, tough, and severly overcooked meat? But before we actually start to cook, we need to first understand the composition of meat and how they affect our cooking, the proteins’ reaction to temperature changes and so on. Meat is made up of three basic components: muscle fibres, connective tissues, and fat

Connective Tissues

Meat is form up from bundles of long muscle fibres which are connected and held together by connective tissues. Understanding connective tissues in meat is essential as they will determine the way you cook them so as not to end up with overcooked meat. Connective tissues in meat are real tough, and the wrong methods used to cook meat that are high in them will result in meat that is tough and chewy.

Connective tissues are most abundant in muscles that exercised and worked hard. That is why the legs of a cow are higher in connective tissues than its back. Older animals also tend to be higher in connective tissues, and they are much tougher compare to younger animals.

The two main connective tissues in living animals are elastin and collagen. Elastin, which cannot be broken down by heat should be removed by cutting it away, or breaking it up mechanically as in pounding or grinding. Fortunately, they account for only a small percentage of connective tissue in meat. The other major connective tissue, collagen, dissolves in heat to form gelatine. They are concentrated in the skin, bones, cartilage, and tendons of animals.

Ever had a very good short-ribs or lamb-shank before? The meat feels so smooth and slippery as if lubricated by jelly-like substances. That is tough collagen dissolved into gelatine.

Fat or Flavour?

Who says that fat is bad? Fat provides tenderness, juiciness, and flavour to meat. It is the over consumption of too much fat that is bad. Marbling is used to describe fat are intertwined in between meat, and is highly prized. What happens in cooking is that the intramuscular fats melts and lubricates the muscle fibres; so when you bite into it, it separates easily.

No More Overcooked Meat – Cooking it like a Pro

Anyone can throw a piece of meat into an oven to cook. Easy stuff. But it takes a person with skills and knowledge to know when to take it out of the oven at the right time, so as not to end up with overcooked meat.

Raw meat is soft and difficult to chew. When cooked just right, meat undergo some physical changes to become firmer, juicier, and easier to chew. When cooked for longer periods of time, its muscle fibres fall apart and break away easily.  Let’s take a look at the temperature effect on meat.

When heat is applied to meat, its proteins start to coagulate at around 50°C and its muscle fibres start to contract and become firmer. There is minimal water lost at this ‘rare’ stage. Meat is tender and juicy. As the temperature rises, the muscle fibres become tighter, and more water is squeezed out of it. Meat becomes progressively drier. When meat reaches 70°C, which is also the well-done stage, it is firm and dry and had already lost a lot of liquid. Further cooking for hours will break apart the muscle fibres making it soft, but the meat will still be dry unless there is enough gelatine lubricating the strands of muscle fibres.

We like our meat to be nicely tender and juicy. This means that we should never cook it beyond 70°C to avoid the full tightening of the muscle fibres and to minimise fluid loss. But as we learned earlier, meat from some parts of animals that worked hard are high in connective tissues. Even if the temperature does not exceed 70°C, the meat would still be tough because the collagen is not broken down. Collagen dissolves into gelatine during prolonged cooking at 70°C and above. At higher temperature, it dissolves even more rapidly. Therefore, it’s a fine balance between minimising protein coagulation and yet maximising collagen breakdown. There is no one size fits all method in cooking meat.

The trick here is to understand the different cuts of meat. Cuts of meat like the loin or the breasts, which contain minimal connective tissues; its core temperature should never exceed 70°C to maintain tenderness and juiciness.

Tougher cuts that are high in connective tissues like the legs and shoulders should be cooked long enough at 70°C or above to transform the tough collagen into gelatine. In a traditional braise or stew, cooking temperature is higher and will dissolve the collagen faster; but the internal temperature of the meat will usually exceed 70°C. Yes, the melted gelatine will lubricate the meat fibres making it smooth and succulent, but meat fibres will be tight and dry as it is severely overcooked! We can make it even better.

I personally prefer to slow-cook tough cuts at 65°C – 70°C using sous vide for its precision in cooking. When the immersion circulator heating the water bath is set to 65°C, the core temperature of the meat will never exceed 65°C. You can leave it in there as long as you like and the meat will still not be overcooked. We take the meat out when it is done, that is when enough collagen had dissolved into gelatine. How do we know if it is ready? Just by pressing lightly, we can determine if the meat is tender enough and will yield lightly to pressure. At such low temperature, it will take a long time, usually one to three days to dissolve the collagen. But the end results are worth it; meat that is tender, juicy, smooth and succulent.

To summarise, the core temperature of tender cuts of meat should be cooked just long enough to hit the range of 50°C – 65°C depending on your preferred doneness for tender, juicy meat. Tough cuts from the well exercised parts of animals should be cook at around 70°C for a prolonged period of time until the tough collagen had dissolved into gelatine. Any longer is detrimental as the gelatine will dissolved from the meat into the cooking liquid. This is good in making stock or sauces, but useless in meat cookery.

Table on Temperature Effects on Meat

No More Overcooked Meat – Flavour and Colour

Anybody like to eat boiled or steamed meat that is pale and flavourless? Not really. We generally prefer meat that is grilled or roasted because they look more appetising and also taste better. What happens is that at high temperatures above 120°C, meat undergoes complex changes called the Maillard reaction. In addition to browning the meat, this reaction also generates new complex flavours and aromas. The Maillard reaction will not occur in moist cooking methods as the temperature of water will never exceed 100°C. This is the reason why people sear their meat first before adding them into a stew; for a deeper colour and more meaty flavours.

However, with such high heat, it is very easy to overcook meat. The high heat at the surface of the meat will continue to conduct into the center of the meat. This “carry-over heat” will continue to cook the meat even after you stop cooking. The core temperature of a small piece of meat or steak can go up by 1°C – 2°C, while a larger roast can have a carry-over heat of as much as 5°C – 10°C. It all depends on how hot the surface temperature of the meat is. It takes only a minute or two to go from rare to well done on a thin piece of meat, therefore much care must be taken to prevent overcooking.

 It had been found that cooking proteins over high heat like grilling and frying will result in the creation of carcinogens. The darker the colour, the more carcinogens contained. But it should be fine as long as you are not having grilled or fried items for lunch and dinner every day. As with anything in life, moderation is the key.

No More Overcooked Meat – Techniques for Tender Meat

Here are two techniques which I frequently use to make meat tenderer before cooking; slicing technique and brining.

Meat is a bunch of long muscle fibres held together. Always slice meat across the grain of the meat fibres, as it takes more effort to bite and cut across long strands of fibres then shorter strands. If you slice along the grain of the fibres, the jaws will have to work harder to tear apart the long fibres.

I love to brine meat, especially poultry as it imparts added juiciness and flavour to the meat. Brining is basically soaking in a salt solution to allow osmosis to occur. What happens when you brine, is that the salt solution will diffuse into the meat together with any added flavouring from herbs and spices in the brine. Moisture loss during cooking is compensated by the moisture absorbed during brining. Thus the meat will be juicer than if you had not brined.

The strength of the brine and the length of brining will depend largely on the thickness and size of the meat. I recommend starting with a 5% salt solution and you can make your own adjustments to the strength of the brine and duration with experience.

Of course there are meat tenderizers out there. They are usually made from enzymes that break down proteins.  I personally do not use them as I feel it makes the surface of the meat overly mushy before the interior of the meat is penetrated. Chinese cuisine uses baking soda or sodium bicarbonate to marinate and tenderise meat which also works in a similar way.

With this article on meat cookery and techniques, The Chef Story hopes that there will be no more overcooked meat for you ever again.