How To Cook Meat Without Losing Its Juiciness

Have you ever had problems maintaining juiciness when cooking meat? When you cook a piece of meat, it loses moisture and shrinks to half its original size! Once it looks baked or toasted, it will begin to expel the juices that give it a pleasant texture and intense flavor.

Why does meat lose moisture when you cook it?

You’ve probably heard enough times that the human body is made up of about 70% water. The meat you use for cooking, like the meat of any mammal, has a similar water content.

Of course, not all meats retain the same amount of water and it is also true that meat from younger animals has more moisture. Therefore, younger meat is typically juicier and more highly valued in the kitchen.

When it comes to cooking meat, you need to take a few precautions to avoid losing the water content of muscle and protein fibers, that gray-brown liquid you see on cooked meats.

Prevent moisture from accumulating in the pan

When you put meat in a heated pan, the pan will drop in temperature to get a thermal equilibrium with the meat. As the meat heats up, the muscle fibers begin to contract as if you were squeezing a wet sponge and the water begins to come out.

If your pan is unable to maintain the temperature high enough for this liquid to evaporate immediately, it will build up in the pan. The temperature of that liquid will remain high, near the boiling point of the water, and it will not increase until all the water has evaporated.

While this is happening, the meat continues to lose moisture during cooking and eventually becomes completely dry. However, if you wait until all the water has evaporated, the temperature will rise again, and the result will be tender meat with a nice appearance.

How can you cook meat without losing its juiciness?

Fortunately, now that you know what’s really happening, it’s easy to take certain precautions to avoid losing moisture while cooking meat.

Here’s what you can do to cook meat without losing juiciness:

• If possible, try to get the meat out of the fridge a little earlier. A few minutes is enough in the summer, while it can take up to an hour in the winter. When you put the meat in a hot pan, the temperature difference will be as low as possible.
• Before baking, pat the meat well with some kitchen paper and never rinse it under cold tap water.
• When frying fillets or small pieces of meat, never salt them before frying. This allows the meat to release the juices beforehand, because the salt extracts the moisture. That is exactly why salt has traditionally been used to preserve food.

Use the right tools to prepare meat

Have a large pan and plenty of heat while you bake, this will help you keep the temperature high enough. Of course, this advice can be counterproductive if you use a large skillet and fill it with multiple cuts of meat!

The thicker the pan is, the better the heat is retained. This means that it is more effective to allow the gray liquid to evaporate. The meat will brown on the outside and all that water won’t be released once the surface is seared.

These simple tips will help you cook meat more efficiently without losing the juiciness or ruining your dinner. Your recipes will have the perfect texture and taste. The meat is cooked just right and everyone at the table will love it.