The red color of meat is, as another poster mentioned, due to myoglobin and hemoglobin . Myoglobin is a richly pigmented protein that stores oxygen in muscle cells, which use oxygen to extract the energy needed for constant activity.
Hemoglobin, the iron-containing oxygen-transport metalloprotein in the red blood cells of the blood in vertebrates and other animals, can be seen in small amounts in animal tissues even after slaughter .
The taste most people are looking for is the sweet spot in a process the meat undergoes called the Maillard reaction:
So the reaction gets going around 120 degrees, which, by no coincidently, is the recommended temperature for a rare steak. As an aside you should never stick a thermometer in a steak to test it.
One good rough approximation of a steak’s temperature is by comparing its feel to the part of your hand right below your thumb when you are touching the tips of your fingers. A well done steak should feel like the area of your hand below your thumb when you are touching your thumb and pinky finger together. A rare steak will feel similar to when you touch you thumb and pointer finger.
I understand some places scald the outside of a cut of meat before grinding it, which enables them to produce a rare burger with a significantly lower population of pathogens (it’s not always possible - or necessary - to eliminate them all, just prevent the ingestion of a population large enough to overwhelm the immune system).
Well, bear in mind that lots of people think that beef fat in large quantities is kinda gross. But other animal fats such as pork and duck are a whole nother story–braised pork belly is hugely popular, and potatoes cooked in duck fat are a little slice of heaven.
Oh, I understand that – I don’t imagine that most restaurants regularly employ thermometers for cooking. To sum up what Cervaise described, it’s like a code work that means, “I want it rare, and I know of what I speak.”
dnooman, probably, but those won’t be probe thermometers. Those will be things to ensure the refrigerators and freezers are properly calibrated, as well as deep fryers, grills, and so on. Got to make the health department happy.
You’re confusing Celsius and Fahrenheit. 120°F is around the recommended internal temperature for rare steak. Medium may be, say, 135°F. The quote you provided was talking about high-temperature chemical reactions that take place above 120 degrees Celsius, or 250°F. You want to expose your steak to 120°C for good flavor, but you certainly don’t want to cook it until it reaches 120°C.
The red color of meat is, as first noted by Blake, caused by the myoglobin (a pigmented hemeprotein involved in oxygenating tissue). Myoglobin is sensitive to temperature, such that the color changes from red to brown with increased temperature.
Speaking as the culinary snob that I am, the only way to order steak is **“Pittsburgh Rare”(**aka black & blue)—charred on the outside, myoglobinously intact crimson on the inside. If you weren’t familiar with this broiling descriptor (most restaurant cooking staff are, at least in the U.S.), consider yourself enlightened and order all future steaks thusly—you will thank me profusely.
Oh, that’s just “bleu,” or “black and blue” as you indicate. Are you from Pittsburgh? I’m not a culinary snob myself, so I’ve never actually heard it called “Pittsburgh Rare.”
Having worked in fast foodservice,* the calibrated thermometers are around to make sure that items that are sitting in a hot bath or a cold bath are at the proper temperature. Refrigerated items need to be in the 34-38 degrees range, whereas hot items (like soups) need to be around 175 degrees or so. Any higher than 40 degrees and lower than 160 is the “danger zone” for food safety in storage, and thus they have to check on that stuff regularly. Bigger restaurants do make use of thermometers in storage conditions, but it is less common to use thermometers while cooking when the cook is experienced.
[sub]*I was the location’s safety person, so it was part of my job to make sure that my coworkers were practicing food and occupational safety; I also would do random checks once a month at other locations on campus for the same regulations.[/sub]
I don’t know if this is a religious issue for you or not. But putting salt on the exterior of a piece of meat will not and cannot remove all of the blood from a carcass. Salt, as a dessicant, draws the moisture of the blood out, and can remove most if given enough time, but I’d hate to eat a dehydrated steak. There will always be relics of blood in an organism when you eat it, since the blood is transmitted (during life) through all (or, rather, virtually all) of the tissues.
As you dehydrate the meat, so are you dehydrating some of the blood.
I went to the Anchor Bar last year, as a matter of fact, but I found myself short of manliness that day and didn’t so the suicide wings (Ontario drains the manliness out of one).
