Why do some meats get tougher with higher temperatures, while others become more tender?
![Why do some meats get tougher with higher temperatures, while others become more tender? - Crop anonymous child getting brown stones from white container at home Why do some meats get tougher with higher temperatures, while others become more tender? - Crop anonymous child getting brown stones from white container at home](/assets/images/why_do_some_meats_get_tougher_with_higher_temperatures_while_others_become_more_tender_0.jpeg)
I am looking for example at a sous vide recipe for goat on the joule app. The tenderness seems to increase with the temperature, while with beef steak it's the other way around. Is that true and why is that? Which meats get more tender with higher temperature, and which get firmer?
Best Answer
This is a product of the cut more than of the animal. You're comparing shank with steak, which are two very different cuts. In general, to get a tender cut with high temperature cooking you want a cut with lots of fat and connective tissue to render. Leaner cuts will become dry and tough.
The shank is a cut you could also get from a cow, so you could just as easily be working with beef (or veal) shank, in which case you would follow the same principle of higher temp = more tender. This is due to the large amount of connective tissue (and fat, to a lesser extent) in the shank, as well as the fact that its a harder working part of the animal. Cooking to a high temperature breaks down the connective tissue in the meat, leading to a moister, more tender finish.
A steak, however, has less connective tissue, so overcooking it just makes it dry and tough. You don't necessarily want it too rare though-- while for leaner steaks many people would say the rarer the better, for very heavily marbled and fatty cuts (like ribeyes) leaving them too rare fails to render the fat, which remains in tough, white streaks and interferes with the texture of the steak. It should be noted that you could theoretically get a goat steak and the same principles that apply to beef would apply to it as well.
Pictures about "Why do some meats get tougher with higher temperatures, while others become more tender?"
![Why do some meats get tougher with higher temperatures, while others become more tender? - Woman Getting Ready and Doing Her Makeup Why do some meats get tougher with higher temperatures, while others become more tender? - Woman Getting Ready and Doing Her Makeup](/assets/images/why_do_some_meats_get_tougher_with_higher_temperatures_while_others_become_more_tender_1.jpeg)
![Why do some meats get tougher with higher temperatures, while others become more tender? - Woman Looking in Mirror in Bathroom Doing Makeup Why do some meats get tougher with higher temperatures, while others become more tender? - Woman Looking in Mirror in Bathroom Doing Makeup](/assets/images/why_do_some_meats_get_tougher_with_higher_temperatures_while_others_become_more_tender_2.jpeg)
![Why do some meats get tougher with higher temperatures, while others become more tender? - Side view of delighted mom and little girl lying on bed in bright bedroom and playing together while relaxing during weekend and looking at each other Why do some meats get tougher with higher temperatures, while others become more tender? - Side view of delighted mom and little girl lying on bed in bright bedroom and playing together while relaxing during weekend and looking at each other](/assets/images/why_do_some_meats_get_tougher_with_higher_temperatures_while_others_become_more_tender_3.jpeg)
Quick Answer about "Why do some meats get tougher with higher temperatures, while others become more tender?"
Cooking to a high temperature breaks down the connective tissue in the meat, leading to a moister, more tender finish. A steak, however, has less connective tissue, so overcooking it just makes it dry and tough.Why are some meats tender and some tough?
The more collagen there is in a piece of meat, the tougher it is to cut and to chew. Skin is mostly collagen, as are the tendons that connect muscles to bones. For cuts that are high in collagen, cooking with methods that use slow, moist heat, such as stewing or braising, are the best.Does higher temperature make meat more tender?
At 120\xb0F (48.9\xb0C) meat slowly begins to tenderize as the protein myosin begins to coagulate and the connective tissue in the meat begins to break down. This also causes the meat to firm up as the protein contracts. As the temperature increases so does the speed of tenderization.Why do some meats become more tender during cooking?
When heat is applied to meat, two general changes occur: muscle fibers become tougher and connective tissue becomes more tender. During cooking, actin, myosin and other muscle fiber proteins undergo changes.What factors make meat either tough or tender?
Meat tenderness depends on three main factors: (1) the degree of contraction of muscle sarcomeres, (2) the integrity/degradation of the myofibrillar structure and (3) the connective tissue content (\u201cbackground toughness\u201d) (Koohmaraie et al., 2002; Sentandreu et al., 2002).How To Tenderize ANY Meat!
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Tatiana Syrikova, Yan Krukov, Yan Krukov, Andrea Piacquadio