Rare, Medium or Well done? The science of a perfect steak
Recent years has seen the emergence of a popular ‘raw food’ movement. Dehydrating food to make it palatable, raw-foodies argue that cooking food destroys valuable vitamins and enzymes, rendering it nutritionally impoverished. It sounds logical, but – especially with vegetables – is often false. Many vegetables actually gain nutritional value after careful cooking or steaming. Furthermore, a strict vegan raw food diet is not good for long term health. (…)
Red meat is notable in that it contains a good source of B-vitamins that are essential for healthy muscles, skin and nerves. It also contains iron and other important minerals. Like most things however, steak should be in moderation as a high intake is associated with colon cancer and other health nasties. (…)
- The longer steak is cooked, the fewer vitamins it contains
- Cooking meat in water reduces its vitamin content further (the vitamins leech out into the water)
- The levels of iron and zinc increase with cooking
- Fat levels drop with cooking
Cook Steak From Frozen or Fresh?
(…)Six ‘trained panellists’ ate and rated the meat according to tenderness, juiciness, flavour and toughness. The shear force of each steak was also measured in a machine (crudely, a measure of how squidgy it is). All the results tabulated and statistically analysed. A lot of work, but all in a good cause…
Their findings, based on a medium-well done steaks (internal meat temperature 70°C) were that:
- Steaks cooked from frozen taste just as good
- Frozen steak looks significantly darker after cooking
- A frozen steak shrinks considerably more than a thawed one (losing 30% in bulk and 20% in size)
- Frozen steaks taste tougher – although incidentally they record the same on the ‘squidgy’ factor (Shear Force) readings.
So, if taste and time are your priority, there’s no harm in cooking a steak from frozen, it just tastes a bit tougher.
To conclude, if you want vitamins: go rare. If you want iron: go well done. Want tender meat? Don’t freeze it. On a diet? Cook it to smithereens. And if you want a long life, eat fish.
(via Dr. Stu’s Blog - click through to continue reading)
