That Red Juice On Your Steak Plate Isn’t Blood

Calling your Steak bloody because there's red juice coming out needs to stop. It's not what you think it is,

Nobody can blame you for this mistake. Of course, the pinkish-red Liquid can be very off-putting to some, but if the sight of blood makes you squeamish, then you don't have to worry. The truth is the blood is already taken out of the beef before processing. It's already gone before it reaches your plate.

What is the Liquid coming out of the Steak?

In reality, even the reddest and rarest of steaks are bloodless. Instead, what you're seeing is a mixture of myoglobin, a protein found in muscle tissue, and water, which makes up around 75% of meat. If myoglobin sounds familiar to you, it might be because you heard about hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is the protein that transfers oxygen in the blood, while myoglobin carries oxygen in the muscle.

Myoglobin's iron turns red when it's exposed to oxygen, like hemoglobin. It will look like blood on your plate, making the muscle tissue red. Meat from mammals, such as beef, lamb, and pork, is referred to as "red meat," while animals with low levels of myoglobin are referred to as "white meat."

Typically, younger animals that are harvested have less muscle mass, and as a result, there's less myoglobin. The Liquid that escapes from the Steak is dark crimson, and it resembles blood more than pork since cows are often harvested earlier than pigs.

Meat that has been resting in your refrigerator or at the grocery store for a few days will start to turn brown because myoglobin can lose its red color owing to chemical changes over time. However, this does not necessarily imply that the meat is rotten; that's why in certain circumstances, the sniff test is preferable to the visual test.

Preservative meats like hot dogs can be misleading because preservatives are often given nitric oxide treatment that keeps their pinkish-red color locked no matter what happens.

The myoglobin may darken the more it's exposed to heat. The more the meat loses moisture, the darker it gets. This is why rare steaks look bloody, and well-done steaks get a greyer color. 

How to keep your Steak Juicy?

After cooking, letting your Steak stand for around five minutes will allow the liquids to be redistributed and reabsorbed throughout the flesh. Juices are pushed towards the center of the cut under heat. This is also the reason why resting your Steak is important. By resting your Steak, the meat will lose less juice when you cut it, and this will leave you with less blood on your plate. This is also applicable when you roast, but if you decide to roast your Steak, we suggest waiting 10 to 20 minutes before you carve the Steak.

There are many factors that make Steak Juicy and tender. The prevalent protein in mammals is collagen. Collagen is what makes the beef fibers twisted like a rope. The more the Steak's internal temperature increases, the more the meat fibers relax and reabsorb the lost Liquid, providing you with a mouth-watering juicy steak.