Cooked beef roast covered with red coloring

After cooking a beef bottom round rump roast, a red coloring is covering, and penetrating, the meat.

The roast was purchased at a reputable grocery chain and properly refrigerated for two days before use. The raw meat appeared normal, was placed in a seasoned, 10-year-old, cast-iron pan, and cooked four hours au jus.

When the cooked roast was cut, the inside of the meat was the correct color and smelled appropriately. However, covering the outside was a strange red coloring penetrating 1/2" into the entire roast; top, sides, and bottom. The coloring did not affect the flavor. Could someone please tell me what this coloring is? I have never experienced anything like this in my 50 years in the kitchen.

meat slow-cooking

Best Answer

To quote a comment:

According to Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking", when meat is cooked for an extended time below 120?F or brought up to temperature slowly the myoglobin remains intact and there will be a distinct red color throughout the meat. – Didgeridrew Sep 23 '13 at 16:39

Here is the Science of Cooking article @Digdgeridrew mentioned

To quote from there:

When dark meat is cooked, myoglobin's color changes depending on what the meat's interior temperature is. Rare beef is cooked to 140° F, and myoglobin's red color remains unchanged. Above 140° F, myoglobin loses its ability to bind oxygen, and the iron atom at the center of its molecular structure loses an electron. This process forms a tan-colored compound called hemichrome, which gives medium-done meat its color. When the interior of the meat reaches 170° F, hemichrome levels rise, and the myoglobin becomes metmyoglobin, which gives well-done meat its brown-gray shade.

Now to address why it was on the outside I'm going to make an educated guess. Per Wikipedia:

Myoglobin is an iron- and oxygen-binding protein found in the muscle tissue of vertebrates in general and in almost all mammals. It is related to hemoglobin, which is the iron- and oxygen-binding protein in blood, specifically in the red blood cells.

I have personally experienced this same phenomenon slow-cooking stews, roasts and even chili in the crock pot. All perfectly normal. Have you noticed when you cook red meat over high heat, like grilling a steak for example, the blood remains inside the muscle? I have noticed slow-cooking tends to "release" more of the blood content from inside the meat, likely due to more even cooking. This in my view would explain also why myoglobin would be found on the outside, rather than inside, of the meat.

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Why is my roast beef red?

Meat contains iron, fat, and many other compounds. When light hits a slice of meat, it splits into colors like a rainbow. There are also various pigments in meat compounds which can give it an iridescent or greenish cast when exposed to heat and processing. Iridescent beef isn't spoiled necessarily.

Is meat supposed to be red when cooked?

Myoglobin breaks down during cooking and causes meat to be brownish in color when cooked to well done (170+ F). Meat at lower degrees of doneness such as rare (140 F) and medium rare (145 F) has not fully denatured and still provides some red or pinkish red color to the cooked meat.

Is Discoloured beef safe to eat?

The interior of raw ground meat may be greyish brown due to a lack of exposure to oxygen. This doesn't indicate spoilage. Nevertheless, you should throw away ground beef if it has turned either brown or gray on the outside, as this indicates that it's beginning to rot.

How can you tell if roast beef is bad?

Beef that has gone bad will develop a slimy or sticky texture and smell bad or "off." If beef develops a grayish color, that doesn't necessarily mean it has gone bad. Don't taste meat to determine if it's safe to eat or not. Call the USDA's hotline.

How to Cook Perfect Roast Beef | Jamie Oliver

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