At What Temperature Does Beef Muscle Break Down

Sous vide provides precision, prevents moisture loss, and guarantees the best-tasting steak, chicken, or roast you lot've always cooked.

For most dwelling cooks, the first test of their make-new sous vide ­circulator is a steak. A simple steak. About 1½ inches thick. Set the h2o bath to 130°F/54.5°C for the ­perfect medium-rare. Put nothing but salt and pepper and a drizzle of oil in the purse forth with the steak. Seal information technology. Circulate information technology. Sear it—fast—on the stove. Washed. This steak is perfect. It's juicy and tender, rosy and pink from end to end. One bite and you realize: Steak can be this perfect from hither on out. And that's why many domicile cooks—non to mention professional chefs—choose sous vide. Read on to learn more.

Why Sous Vide is Platonic for Cooking Meat

• Meat consists of musculus fibers, connective tissue, water, and fatty
• Sous vide provides precision and prevents wet loss
• Enzymatic activity around 130°F/54.5°C tin can give meat an incredibly tender texture

Microscopic Meat and Poultry Basics

Humans learned to cook meat for three main reasons: It gets rid of microbes that could brand us sick; it turns bland pink lumps into delicious meals; and it changes meat'due south physical structure in crucial ways to make it more eatable and digestible. This is possible because of the microscopic structure of meat and what happens when information technology is heated—whether with traditional cooking methods or sous vide.

Whether it comes from a moo-cow, pig, or craven, meat and poultry consists primarily of muscle fibers, h2o, connective tissue, and fat. Muscle tissue resembles many bundles of wire, each surrounded past a covering of connective tissue. Each bundle is made up of numerous muscle fibers. These fibers are made up of many smaller structures chosen myofibrils. Cooking changes the construction of those muscle fibers, and whether a piece of meat comes out tough or tender depends on cooking time and cooking temperature. When red meat and poultry are heated, the long poly peptide molecules brainstorm to contract, outset (betwixt 104°F/40°C and 145°F/63°C) in diameter, so (above 145°F/63°C) in length. A single muscle fiber can shrink to one-half its original length during the cooking process.

When proteins contract, they squeeze out some of the liquid trapped within their structure. The rate of wet loss becomes significant effectually 140°F/threescore°C, the temperature at which the connective tissue surrounding the muscle fibers begins to tighten as well, squeezing the fibers fifty-fifty more than firmly. Raw muscle fibers contain a lot of water (around 75 percent!), and this water loss can crusade a cooked piece of meat to end up quite tough. We rest meat later on cooking via traditional high-heat methods, allowing the contracted proteins to relax and draw some moisture dorsum in.

The connective tissue surrounding the cobweb bundles is a membranous, translucent roofing that consists of cells and protein filaments. It provides both structure and support to muscles. Collagen, the predominant protein in connective tissue, is composed of three protein chains tightly wound together in a triple-stranded helix and is therefore virtually unchewable when raw.

Just collagen begins to relax when it hits heat, unwinding into individual strands. This happens very slowly at temperatures equally low as 122°F/50°C and far more rapidly between 160°F/71°C and 180°F/82°C. Eventually, the triple helix of collagen turns into gelatin, a unmarried-stranded poly peptide able to tenderize meat, retain up to 10 times its weight in moisture, and add a thick richness to the sauces of a braised dish. Tough, collagen-heavy meats are frequently held in the college temperature range for a few hours to encourage the triple helix of collagen to unwind and course gelatin more than quickly.

The Benefits of Sous Vide

Precision: Nosotros know a lot almost the science of cooking meat, but that doesn't make all of our cooking fool proof. A roast comes out dry and mealy instead of delicious, and the center of a steak is nonetheless likewise rare though the exterior is perfectly crusted. Sous vide gives us precision, allowing us to cook meat (and poultry) to an exact temperature all the manner through, guaranteeing that yous will never again overcook your fancy rib-eye.

Preventing Moisture Loss: Well-nigh tender cuts of red meat are all-time cooked to medium-rare—or around 130°F/54°C—so that cooking is finished earlier the musculus fibers actually brainstorm to squeeze out all of the wet within. But when cooked to medium-rare in a skillet, the outer layers of a piece of meat soar well above 140°F/60°C—the temperature at which the moisture loss really picks upward. Sous vide gives us the ability to cook these cuts to a precise medium-rare from end to stop, and with no hot spots. This is why we don't demand to rest meat cooked sous vide in order to retain moisture: Nosotros are cooking near meat below 140°F/sixty°C. That said, we do rest meat earlier searing in society to permit the temperature fall a bit and reduce risk of overcooking when the meat is in the hot skillet.

Turning Tough Cuts Tender: Collagen proteins unwind into wet-holding gelatin at temperatures every bit low as 122°F/50°C. Sous vide cooking allows us to hold tough, collagen-heavy cuts of meat at lower temperatures for longer periods of time and get the same tenderizing effect as braising.

The Role and Activity of Enzymes

Enzymes are besides at work during low-temperature sous vide cooking. In living animals, 1 of the functions of these proteins is the turnover and reprocessing of other proteins around them. In meat, many of the enzymes are notwithstanding active, and if handled correctly, they tin work wonders on the cook'due south behalf. Dry-aging beefiness is a archetype example: Beefiness is held at a steady temperature betwixt 33°F/0.five°C and 40°F/4°C for thirty days or more. In this temperature range, enzymes in the meat work slowly to break downwardly protein, resulting in much more tender steaks.

In meat, in that location are ii important enzymes that work to suspension downward protein: calpain and cathepsin. Calpains suspension down the proteins that hold the musculus fibers in place. Cathepsins break apart a range of meat proteins, and tin even weaken the collagen in the muscles' connective tissue. Breaking down protein imparts a meatier umami taste (due to the formation of amino acids) and, given enough time, tenderizes the meat—that is, if the surround is correct.

The activity of these enzymes is largely based on temperature—and the amount of time held there. The rate at which they break downwardly the protein in a cut of meat increases as the temperature of the meat rises. This is why sous vide cooking allows us to brand enzyme-tenderized meat in hours, not days. Calpains crusade proteins to fall autonomously around 105°F/forty°C, so they're not very helpful in sous vide, but cathepsins are. Although they begin to interruption down proteins around 122°F/fifty°C degrees, the breakdown is a long process, and cathepsin activeness is still going on during a lengthy cook at 130°F/54°C. (This is also why you would not desire to melt fish for a long period of time sous vide. These enzymes are also active in fish, and besides much time in the presence of tenderizing enzymes can brand fish protein—which is quite tender to commencement with—mushy.)

So, as you melt your perfect seared steaks, skinless boneless chicken breasts, or prime rib, think about what's going on under the surface: the deliberate movement of proteins, enzymes, and h2o, working together to create the ultimate finished dish.

sheltonallic1975.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.cooksillustrated.com/articles/1140-science-why-sous-vide-is-perfect-for-cooking-meat

Share this post