If you turn the beef patty over and take a look at a burger at a fast-food restaurant, there may be something that scares the scalp of the "terrorist".
What are these things on the hamburger patty??? can you eat them?
Image from Xiaohongshu @Corgi
Beef patties in granules
Pre-punched and then frozen meatloaf
Not only in China, but also many foreign netizens have found a similar situation when eating hamburgers, and they all feel terrible after seeing it, and give a one-star negative review.
What's all the deal with this beef nugget?
In order to meet the needs of quick meals, the meatloaf will be pre-pierced with some small holes and then frozen, and it is more convenient to cook in the oven when eating.
Pre-punching not only evenly heats the meat, but also allows the juice to flow through the holes, and the combination of high temperature and rapid roasting can not only produce aroma, but also increase speed.
However, when roasted in the oven, the oozing blood will coagulate in the pores, and the proteins in the blood will deform and coagulate in the small pores, forming such membranes.
It's not pretty, and it's a bit scary, but it's safe to eat. If you feel that it looks good, you can ...... it next time you eat it. Don't break it down.
Don't break it open to read it when you eat it later...... Out of sight, out of mind. Ah Belly shooting
By the way, let's talk about another "dirty thing" that everyone thinks is that when you cook beef, you often see a layer of foam floating on the surface of the soup. In fact, these foams are substances such as proteins and fats, which are released during the cooking process. Even if you wash the beef properly, it will still foam during the cooking process. This is normal and does not affect the safety and quality of meat.
By the way, let's talk about what is "properly cleaned" of beef.
Properly wash the beef, either by soaking it in cold water. Soak the beef in cold water for a while to help remove blood, proteins, and other impurities from the surface of the meat, and then pour out the water.
In particular, try not to rinse the beef with running water, especially not with too much water, and be careful not to splash and contaminate the surrounding plates, dishes or other food.
Colored reflections appear on beef
In most cases, it can be eaten
Regarding the common "doubtful" phenomenon of beef, there is also the color reflection on the surface, which looks "too inedible".
In fact, under normal circumstances, it is normal for beef to have color reflections, and most of the cases are edible. Metallic reflections on the surface of beef are common, more common in meat processing, and the colors can be different, green, yellow, and orange.
The metallic color of the sauced beef is reflective. Window knocking on the rain shooting
There are two main causes of color reflections in beef:
1
Diffraction effect of reflective grating
This is a common optical phenomenon in food physiology, just like when playing with soap bubbles, you will see a rainbow of colors on the surface of the soap bubbles under different lights.
Animal muscle tissue is formed by the muscle fibers tied together one by one, and the surface of the cut muscle fibers forms a regular concave and convex structure, and when light shines through, it produces a "reflective grating diffraction effect", and we see a variety of colors. Not only beef will have color reflections, but also mutton and chicken will sometimes have this phenomenon.
生肉切片也可能出现彩色反光。 LacToastlnToddlerAnt/reddit
2
The meat is contaminated with bacteria
Another cause of color reflections can be that the meat is contaminated with bacteria, causing the meat to spoil and spoil. For example, protein spoilage will produce maroon, gray or light green, fat spoilage will produce green, and some bacterial and mold activities will also cause meat color changes. This is also what everyone is worried about.
How can you tell which one is the case?
Grating diffraction needs a suitable angle to see, look at the beef from a different angle, if there is no color reflection, it means that the meat is not spoiled and can be eaten with confidence.
However, if you find that the color does not disappear after changing the angle, or the color changes in a large area, or even the smell becomes rotten, it means that the meat may have deteriorated, and it is best not to eat it.
The "blood water" of the steak
Myoglobin and water mixture
Nowadays, more and more people are eating steak, and many people will also challenge the medium-rare steak with "blood water", is the red juice flowing from the steak blood?
Actually, the red juice that comes out when frying steak is "gravy", mainly myoglobin, not blood water.
The red juice is mainly water and protein, and its reddish color mainly comes from the myoglobin in it. Myoglobin is a protein found in muscle tissue and is one of the factors that give meat its red color.
In the formal slaughtering process, it must be bloodletting, and some beef will also be treated by acid removal or aging. The steaks we buy in regular supermarkets, markets or e-commerce platforms today are all beef cattle that have been slaughtered regularly, and there is almost no blood.
Is it safe for steaks to be undercooked?
It depends on whether it is a raw cut steak or a synthetic steak
When you eat steak, you will be asked to choose medium-rare, medium-rare or medium-rare, can you eat undercooked steak with confidence? This should be judged by the original cut steak and the synthetic steak.
1
Raw cut steak: Medium-rare is the conservative line
Properly slaughtered, transported and stored raw cut steak (that is, a whole piece of meat cut from a cow), the quality and safety control of meat is also very strict, generally only the outer surface of the meat will have bacteria, the inside of the meat is "sterile". Theoretically, it is safe to eat by frying the surface.
However, some small beef cattle slaughtering workshops are relatively backward and cross-contamination may occur during the production process. If you're not comfortable with the beef you're buying, it's best to make sure it's safe to eat it.
So what is the safe temperature?
According to the USDA's Food Safety Minimum Cooking Temperature Chart, beef needs to be processed at 145 °F (62.8 °C) and allowed to sit for at least 3 minutes. It's about medium-rare, and it rests for 3 minutes, which ensures food safety and keeps the meat tender to the greatest extent.
In other words, the original cut steak is a conservative line when eaten medium-rare. If you are very comfortable with beef, you can challenge medium rare and medium rare, but if you are not sure about the quality of beef, try not to eat medium rare or medium rare.
2
Synthetic steak: Eat fully cooked
Synthetic steak (spliced steak) is made from a patchwork of ground meat, and during production, the surface of the ground meat is more exposed to the air, making it more likely to come into contact with pathogenic bacteria. So, if it's a synthetic steak, be sure to cook it thoroughly before eating it.
Bleeding white-cut chicken
There are certain security risks
After talking about the "bloody" beef, let's talk about the bloody chicken.
Everyone is familiar with white-cut chicken, if the heat is well controlled, the white-cut chicken is extremely tender, the meat around the bones is slightly peachy, and the bone marrow is still bloody.
Is it safe to have a bleeding white cut chicken?
In fact, this kind of white-cut chicken may have certain safety risks, and from the perspective of food safety, we do not recommend everyone to eat it. If the chicken is not bloody, but the bones in the middle are bloody, it means that the chicken is cooked and can be eaten, but don't bother with the bones.
During the slaughtering process, live chickens may be exposed to problems such as feces, slaughter sewage and peculiar smells, resulting in the presence of some pathogenic bacteria in fresh chicken, leading to human food poisoning, causing diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and other uncomfortable symptoms, and even more serious health problems. Therefore, in order to ensure food safety, it is recommended that the chicken should also be cooked until it is fully cooked before eating.
Some people may say, then I often eat bleeding white cut chicken, why is it okay?
On the one hand, bleeding white-cut chicken is a safety risk, and the risk is that there is a certain probability, which does not mean that it will cause food poisoning; on the other hand, many people often eat it like this, and the body has learned to protect itself in the process of repeated confrontation, and it is less likely to cause food poisoning.