What is the healthier way to cook meat?
Nowadays, eating healthily has become a very important issue. Meat has taken a very important part in our diet, but as well as being a great source of proteins and minerals it is also, rich in saturated fat.A common idea is that boiled meat contains less fat than grilled or roasted ones. But is it true?
In fact, it is a wrong idea. This is why.
While cooking, a cut of meat is exposed to different heat intensity depending on the way it is cooked: roasted, boiled, grilled, steamed, etc.
Kitchen scientists have measured the minimum heat level needed to melt the fat away from the meat. It takes a temperature of 150 degrees Centigrade to melt fat in red meats and 240 degrees Centigrade for white meats.
The maximum temperature reached while boiling meat is 100 degrees Centigrade, the boiling point of the liquid the meat is plunged into.
Now you can see where the problem is. The temperature of boiling water is not high enough to melt the fat hidden in meat. You could argue with me that in a stew for example, the meat is cooked for a longer period of time than a pan fried one, thus the fat will have more time to leave the cut. Unfortunately, this is not a matter of time but a matter of temperature.
Another bad point for the boiling method is that through osmosis, the meat looses some of its proteins, and most of its aromatic compounds and minerals to the liquid surrounding it. This will not happen with the other cooking methods which are classified by chefs as a way of cooking by concentration.
In conclusion, it is healthier to roast, grill or pan fry a cut of meat, as soon as the fat that as melted away from it, is kept aside or if you take the excess fat surrounding the meat away with a bit of kitchen paper at the end of the cooking process. And it will be tastier too!
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