How does lemon juice "cook" meat?
Various meats can be "cooked" using lemon juice. But how does lemon juice actually "cook" the meat?
Best Answer
Let's start with a definition of cooking.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines to cook as:
To prepare or make ready (food); to make fit for eating by due application of heat, as by boiling, baking, roasting, broiling, etc.
However, from a chemical point of view, what happens when you are cooking meat is that you are using heat, amongst other things, to denature the proteins of the meat. Denaturation can also be achieved by other means, such as marinating the meat in an acid, such as citric acid (contain in lemon juice) or acetic acid (contained in vinegar).
You can also use other agents to induce denaturation, but they are not always fit for eating.
However, it is important to understand that from a purely cooking perspective the two things are not the same: "cooking" with lemon (I guess it is fine to use the verb to cook as long as you put it in quotes), gives a completely different result than cooking with heat. This is because other chemical reactions happen during application of heat and because, obviously, you do not end up with an hot product!
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What does soaking meat in lemon juice do?
Lemon juice, however, does serve a purpose when it comes to cooking beef. When you soak a piece of meat in an acidic liquid, such as lemon juice, it breaks down the connective tissues in the beef so the finished product is more tender and less tough to chew, according to Jean Pare, author of "Beef Today!"How does lime juice cook meat?
Acids like lemon juice, lime juice and vinegar break down raw meat, allowing the marinade's oil and spices to deeply penetrate and infuse the meat with flavor and moisture. They dig out little pathways in the meat and allow the marinade to seep in.Can you clean beef with lemon juice?
Additional studies show that washing the surface of meat with an acidic solution like vinegar or lemon juice reduces the number of bacteria on raw meat, compared with washing with plain water (7, 8, 9).What does lemon juice do to food?
Besides making your mouth water, acidity cuts greasiness and heaviness and gives food a fresh, clean taste. Lemon juice can also change a food's texture to fit a variety of needs, as when macerating berries, tenderizing meat and \u201ccooking\u201d ceviche.How To Tenderize ANY Meat!
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Answer 2
During cooking, heat, amongst causing other things like the Maillard Reaction, denatures (changes the structure of) proteins in meat. Acid is also a denaturant, and so affects the proteins in the same way.
However, a mild acid like lemon juice isn't strong enough to kill bacteria, and it of course only affects the parts of the meat it can reach: consider something like beef carpaccio - when you slice it, you can see that only the surface layer has been denatured. There is also no Maillard Reaction, which is extremely important for both flavour and colour.
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