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Maple cured bacon11/30/2023 Did You Brown It Properly?įood browns when its surface gets heated to a temperature of 284☏ (140☌) and above. This leads me to the next, and final, step on our checklist. Unless it has been cooked at a high enough temperature to promote browning on the surface. This is true for pork as much as it is true for beef, lamb, and veal. When it hasn’t been treated with sodium nitrates, red meat, depending on the animal it comes from, tends to turn white or gray when cooked. And yet, they don’t always yield that pink-to-red color that their synthetically-sourced counterparts-sodium nitrates-do. These naturally-occurring nitrates once again add a salty flavor to the meat and make it harder for bacteria responsible for its spoilage to grow on it. However, instead of being cured with synthetically-sourced sodium nitrates, it is cured with salt and naturally-occurring nitrates, such as those found in celery, carrots, cabbage, and/or red beets. In a way, raw bacon is much closer to raw ribs, which also turn somewhat gray when cooked, than it is to processed meat. Raw bacon is unsalted, and it hasn’t been treated with any nitrates. So the meat industry adapted, and quite a few manufacturers started to produce “uncured bacon.” These sodium nitrates are sourced synthetically (meaning that they are made in a lab) and have been a growing cause of concern among health-conscious consumers in recent years. They also give bacon a vibrant, reddish to pinkish color that consumers like you and me have grown to find more and more appealing over decades of supermarket shopping for meat. Nitrates make the bacon tastier and stall the growth of pathogenic bacteria, effectively extending its shelf life. Make note of the sodium nitrates they may be the key to your mystery. The answer lies in the chemicals used for curing and the way that they affect the color of the meat.Ĭured bacon is preserved with the help of salt and sodium nitrates. Was it raw bacon, the thick-cut, pre-packaged kind prevalent in Europe? Or was it good ol’ American bacon, cured or uncured, the kind that’s carried by every supermarket stateside?įor the reasons that I’m about to share with you below, raw bacon and uncured bacon turn gray much more easily when cooked than cured bacon does. Did You Cook Cured, Uncured, or Raw Bacon? In that case, the story, as well as our troubleshooting guide, continues. Suppose the bacon wasn’t spoiled when you cooked it, and you still have no clue as to what’s going on. If it turned out that you did cook spoiled bacon, I’m happy you found out before and not after you ate it. Spoiled bacon tastes sour and weird, in which case you should spit it out immediately. Fresh bacon should smell meaty and taste savory. Smell the cooked bacon and, if you’re still unsure, give it a small taste test.Wash your hands with hot water and soap for 20 seconds immediately after It should be fatty and slippery but not gooey and slimy. Feel the inside of the packaging with a finger or two.It should smell like raw meat, and not come across as foul or rotting in any way Give the inside of the packaging a good whiff.The three-step checklist below will help you do so. To stay as far away from these figures as you can, it’s a good idea to double-check the safety of the cooked bacon on your plate. Roughly 128,000 of them get hospitalized, and an unfortunate 3,000 die. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in five Americans get food poisoning every year. While it kills the bacteria in it, it doesn’t get rid of the toxins that they left behind.įood poisoning is nothing to joke about. Was the Bacon Spoiled?Ībove all, you need to find out if the bacon that you just prepared was spoiled or not.ĭo not skip this step: spoiled meat can give you food poisoning and, contrary to popular belief, cooking spoiled meat won’t make it any more safe to eat. In case you didn’t, consider browning it in a hot skillet to crisp it up and give it a golden-brown crust. In case you did, throw it away and don’t eat it. If your bacon turned gray when cooked, it’s important to check if you didn’t cook spoiled meat in the first place. What happened? Is that plate of gray bacon on your table safe to eat? To your great surprise, instead of turning out irresistibly golden brown on the outside, the bacon turned out a dull gray. So you cooked bacon, whether on the stove, on the grill, or in the oven, exactly as the recipe asked. Here’s what to do when it happens to you. The only thing worse than uncooked bacon is gray bacon.
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