Is there a name for the mushy sludge that forms around/beneath meat as it cooks?
I've found the terms "aspic" and of course "drippings" and "gravy", but I don't think any of those quite describe what I'm asking about — for example, we just baked some meatballs and between each one there was a mix of both liquid fat and a grey-ish/pink-ish sludge. With chicken meat it tends to be whiter. It has a texture somewhere between cooked liver and jello.
Is there a proper name for this "sludge"? Are there any particularly traditional uses for it?
UPDATE: another question calls this same thing "scum", and the answers deal with what it is: What's that scum at the sides of my home-made burger when I cook it?
I'm wondering here what it's called, i.e. if there's a more generous term for it than "sludge" or "scum".
Best Answer
The sludge you speak of is actually proteins called myosin (denatures at 120f) and actin (denatures at 150f) going through the stages of denaturing, coagulation and ultimately gelantization. Protein coagulates when it is denatured, that is destroyed. Gelatization is a follow on the process of breakdown in connective tissue.
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Quick Answer about "Is there a name for the mushy sludge that forms around/beneath meat as it cooks?"
Scum is the correct answer here, even though it sounds strange to modern ears. Originally, it is a cooking term, which denotes the stuff which floats on something you cook (protein in stock, the foamy stuff in jam) and can be gathered and removed with a skimming spoon if one wants to.What does it mean when meat is mushy?
Ground beef turns mushy when you use low-quality beef that's been handled too much and/or kept at room temperature. This smears the fat. During cooking, the smeared fat turns to liquid and steams the meat rather than frying it leaving it mushy. That's the short answer.What is the stuff that comes out of ground beef?
Pink slime (also known as lean finely textured beef or LFTB, finely textured beef, or boneless lean beef trimmings or BLBT) is a meat by-product used as a food additive to ground beef and beef-based processed meats, as a filler, or to reduce the overall fat content of ground beef.What is the white stuff that comes out of meat?
The white goo is primarily water and protein. Protein from poultry meat is easily digested, which means it's denatured quickly through the cooking process, so it leaches out water, bringing out soluble protein.What is the liquid that comes out of burgers?
Over time, some water is released and myoglobin flows out with it, giving the liquid a red or pink color. When the water seeps out, the protein that gives meat its color (myoglobin) flows out with the water. That protein gives the purge its color.How To Cook A Cheap Steak Vs. An Expensive Steak
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Answer 2
Scum is the correct answer here, even though it sounds strange to modern ears. Originally, it is a cooking term, which denotes the stuff which floats on something you cook (protein in stock, the foamy stuff in jam) and can be gathered and removed with a skimming spoon if one wants to.
The derogatory use is more common in general conversation, and it is related, it probably arose as a metaphor. But in cooking jargon, it clearly has this meaning. It does have a little bit of a negative association, in the sense that you want to remove that scum, but I think there is no purely neutral word for it, since people who care about this kind of detail usually prefer it gone.
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