As a new-age kitchen newcomer who likes to buy meat ingredients online, we open the app and often encounter such categories:
For example, this day and day fresh, it is easy to understand, that is, the day of the killing, just swallowed the cow, sheep and pigs, is the freshest.
But what is chilled? What is the difference between chilled fresh and frozen, frozen, frozen meat?
The table is also holding a stomach of questions, checked a lot of information, now you can come to answer you!
Let's start with fresh meat:
Refers to the "hot fresh meat" slaughtered in the early morning and marketed in the early morning, and the meat of the animal without any cooling treatment.
Freshly slaughtered animal meat is cooked immediately, it sounds the most delicious and healthy, in fact, it is not, untreated meat, the meat is tough, not easy to cook, difficult to chew, the taste is not delicious.
This is because after slaughter, the meat needs to go through a certain period of "post-ripening" process to make the meat gradually become soft, juicy and delicious.
Taking pork as an example, the pH of freshly killed pork is neutral, and the animal starch is converted to lactic acid under the action of enzymes in the meat, so that the meat begins to stiffen, and this process is generally 1 in summer. 5 hours, winter 3-4 hours. Thereafter, adenosine triphosphate in the meat is rapidly decomposed to form phosphoric acid, so that the pH value is reduced to 5. 4, the meat becomes acidic, so that the meat is completely stiff.
The longer it takes from the beginning of stiffness to complete stiffness, the longer it will maintain freshness, and fresh meat in the stiff period is neither easy to cook nor flavorful.
Under the continued action of enzymes, the meat begins to soften, producing a certain elasticity and gravy, and has an aromatic taste, a process called the "post-ripening" process of meat.
The speed and effect of the "post-ripening" process of meat depends on the temperature of the environment and the physique of the livestock.
The higher the ambient temperature, the faster the "post-ripening" process, the aging and weak livestock, the lack of glycogen in the tissue, the enzyme vitality is not strong, resulting in the "post-ripening" process is prolonged, and even the "post-ripening" effect is not good, which is the reason why the meat of old livestock and lean livestock is not beautiful.
This may be a bit too academic, so I'll just say it:
The meat of the animal that has just been swallowed will be relatively stiff, and it will gradually become soft and delicious after about 1.5-4 hours.
"The older" and "slimmer" animals take longer.
Workaround:
If you stew this kind of hot fresh meat, it is best to do blanching treatment first, put the pot under cold water, the blanching time should be short, remove the blood water.
Alternatively, fresh meat that has just been slaughtered can be placed in a refrigerator freezer (0-4 degrees Celsius) and performed a 24-hour low temperature de-stiffness and maturation phase on its own. Cooked in this way, the texture, taste and nutritional value of the meat are better.
"Frozen meat" refers to the slaughtered meat of livestock, which is quick-frozen below minus 18 degrees Celsius.
Frozen meat has almost no bacterial growth and can be stored for a long time, but freezing will cause muscle cell damage, so that when thawing, the gravy is lost a lot, the nutrient content is reduced, and the flavor will change to varying degrees.
Why is frozen meat darker?
The myoglobin of the frozen meat is oxidized, and the surface of the flesh gradually changes from a bright color to a dark brown.
Why is frozen meat partially whitish?
Sometimes you turn out of the refrigerator to freeze the meat for 3 months and a half months, you will find that the surface of the meat has become white, there is an obvious "fiber", do not wonder, this is because the freezing time is too long, due to the freezing of moisture, the flesh becomes hard, there is a difference between the surface of the frozen meat and the freezing room temperature, causing the evaporation of the flesh water, the aging of the meat dry and tasteless, called "dry consumption" phenomenon.
This kind of meat is actually not recommended to eat. Not only is it not tasty, but there are few nutrients left.
Why is there so much blood and water after thawing frozen meat?
And when we thaw the meat that has not been bought for a long time, we will find that the blood water exudes a lot, which is not your illusion, this is because as the temperature gradually drops, individual ice crystal nuclei are formed inside the meat tissue, and constantly absorb water from the surroundings, and the water in the muscle cells also continues to penetrate into the gaps of the muscle fibers, and the ice crystals increase, so that the cells are dehydrated and deformed.
Due to the compression of large ice crystals, muscle cells are damaged, resulting in a large loss of gravy during thawing, reduced nutrients, and changed flavor. Therefore, the taste of meat after long-term freezing is also the worst.
If it is only a short period of cryopreservation, it is recommended to choose to cook with braised pork, sauce and other ways that require more condiments when eating, and increase the cooking time to make up for the lack of moisture and flavor of the meat itself.
At this time, you have to ask again, the same is frozen preservation, what is the difference between chilled meat, sour meat and frozen meat?
First of all, to clarify a concept, "sour meat" should be called "cold fresh meat" or "cooled acid meat" strictly speaking, which has nothing to do with "excluding toxic substances such as acids, hormones and wastes in meat".
The real acid meat is after the slaughter of livestock, timely cooling, so that the temperature of meat in 24 hours to 0 ~ 4 degrees Celsius, after a series of cooling processes to maintain this temperature, this can inhibit the growth and reproduction of most harmful microorganisms, and decompose a part of the protein into amino acids, so that the meat fiber and connective tissue become loose. Because it has undergone a relatively full (24-48 hours) low temperature de-stiffness and maturation process, the meat of the sour meat is soft and well-hydrated, and after it is matured, the broth is transparent and rich in meat umami.
And between chilled meat/sour meat and frozen meat, there is a difference between the freezing effect and the size of the ice crystals.
As we have just said, if the meat freezes for too long, it will cause the freezing and degeneration of proteins. After thawing, the protein loses its reversibility of recombining with colloidal water, and the dishes cooked with frozen meat are inferior to fresh meat.
However, if the fresh meat that has just been slaughtered can be frozen rapidly at -23 ° C, the formation of ice crystals inside the flesh is small and uniform, will not puncture muscle cells, tissue deformation is minimal, and most of the water can be reabsorbed after thawing, so the taste and taste are good after cooking, and the loss of nutrients is also small.
So let's sum up, in order of meat deliciousness:
Of course, if you really can't tell the difference, just look at the price, expensive meat will always be better than cheaper.
Today a serious meat selection class is here, I wish everyone can choose good meat and make delicious:
A poinsettia of meat, cherry meat, horse's tooth meat, red stewed meat, yellow stewed meat, jar meat, stewed meat, button meat, loose meat, canned meat, roast meat, roast meat, large meat, white meat, soy sauce tofu meat! Red elbows, white elbows, crystal elbows, wax elbows, soy sauce tofu elbows, pickpocket elbows! Stewed lamb, roast lamb, roast lamb, simmered lamb, shabu lamb, spiced lamb, fried lamb, three kinds of stew, three kinds of fried, braised silver wire, braised dan, braised white offal, three fresh shark fins, chestnut chicken, fried live carp, plate duck, tube chicken!
Class!
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