Color of fried beef steak: sometimes dark, sometimes light-colored. Why?
I have noticed that sometimes when I am frying beef steak it does not turn dark but it becomes rather light-colored. I have also noticed that those steaks that do turn dark during the frying tend to taste much better (more juicy, more like beef) than the light-colored ones.
Just today I was frying a rump steak which turned out light gray.
What explains those different results? Is it the beef quality, the preparation or something different?
Best Answer
It's quite likely that the steaks that ended up darker were dry when you started cooking them.
If you don't dry off the surface of your steak, the heat is used to evaporate the moisture on the surface, which ends up steaming the steak rather than developing a good char/crust.
The darker colors are the result of a chemical reaction that results in more flavorful compounds being created.
As for the juiciness, the higher heat (as there wasn't evaporative cooling) will brown the outside faster while leaving the inside more rare (and therefore moist/juicy). When it steams, we leave it cooking longer, which can result in the middle overcooking (squeezing out moisture).
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Why is some beef dark and some light?
Myoglobin is a richly pigmented protein. The more myoglobin there is in the cells, the redder, or darker, the meat. When dark meat is cooked, myoglobin's color changes depending on what the meat's interior temperature is.Why did my steak get darker?
This darkening is due to oxidation, the chemical changes in myoglobin due to the oxygen content. This is a normal change during refrigerator storage. Beef that has turned brown during extended storage may be spoiled, have an off-odor, and be tacky to the touch and should not be used.Why is my steak light colored?
On its own, myoglobin has a deep purplish color that is tinged with brown. This is the color of a freshly butchered piece of meat. But when myoglobin gets exposed to oxygen, it turns into a compound called oxymyoglobin. This compound has a lighter, healthier-looking color that is often-described as cherry red.Why does beef lose its color?
The continued exposure of the beef to oxygen and bright light can convert the oxymyoglobin into metmyoglobin, which causes beef to have a brownish-red color. This process can happen within hours or days, depending on how much oxygen and light it is exposed to.Science of Meat Color
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