Experts have lifted the lid on one of the most common food misconceptions you are likely to find in the meat-eating world.
The presence of red liquid in rare steak can be pretty off-putting for most people, but most connoisseurs generally agree that it is the best way to eat it.
Speaking to Business Insider, chef Wade Wiestling of Mastro’s Steakhouse explained that too much cooking will invariably leave you with a “less tasty and dryer steak”, while BLT Steak’s Chef Laurent Tourondel concurred, saying ordering rare steak is the best way to keep all the natural flavour we associate with prime cuts of meat.
Dario Cecchini, who famously appeared on Chef’s Table, also errs on the side of rare to medium rare for all the steak he cooks at his wonderful restaurant in Panzano In Chianti.
And not only does it taste better, but there are also health benefits to eating steak rare too!
Eating rare steak gives your body a direct jolt of iron and phosphorus, which are helpful for preventing fatigue.
If you eat a rare steak in moderation, the iron in the meat increases the oxygen in your blood, and the phosphorus provides strength to your bones.
Eating meat in the medium-well/ well-done range, meanwhile, has been linked to high blood pressure.
But if the ‘bloody’ liquid is putting you off from eating it, fear not, the liquid you see on the plate isn’t blood at all.
Blood is removed during the slaughter process and afterwards, very little blood remains in the muscle tissue.
The red liquid is water mixed with a protein called myoglobin, which can have a pink hue.
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Interestingly, myoglobin is what separates white meat from red meat. The more myoglobin cells, the redder the meat is.
Most mammals have a high amount of myoglobin and are called red meat. Animals with a low level of myoglobin are considered white meat, these are animals like poultry or seafood.