Dyeing to Get In

Summary

July 2012, expanded March 2014 Meat, at its most basic, is a protein and collagen sponge, storing up to 75% of its weight in water. Some of this water is bound chemically to the meat, while other molecules are "free" and can be squeezed out with a bit of pressure. Thus, when adding meat to a brine or a marinade, it's already fully saturated, and incapable of absorbing more than a few percent of additional liquid. Surprisingly, it sops up even less flavor. Which is curious, because so many recipes call for a long soak in a liquid bath so the meat won't dry out during cooking, but also to add flavor. Indeed, when heating a meat "sponge" on a grill or in the oven, water and other juices (primarily myoglobin and fats) quickly escape. Some of this moisture evaporates, cooling the meat. At higher temperatures, rivulets of liquid ooze out as the meat proteins shrink, wringing the sponge dry. Cook too long, and its like eating shoe leather. Chefs hope by immersing the meat in liquid (braising) or wrapping in foil, some of this moisture will reenter the sponge. We could learn a great deal about the effect of cooking and marinating on meat if there was an easy way to follow the juices in, and out. Unfortunately, these juices are either clear or leave no track behind as they travel through a forest of muscle fibers and capillaries. But, if we can't see the juices directly, perhaps we could visualize the path by adding a dye to the liquid that travels along with the stream. And one accessible to the kitchen scientist. The dye would have to be stable, so the color remains vibrant at cooking temperatures1. That's the easy part. The bigger problem is one of size- most dyes are large and complex molecules that get tangle up in the meat instead of tagging along with the much smaller water as it drains. Immerse a piece of meat in most dyes, and even after a day it has penetrated only a mm or two. When you eat a hunk of marinated meat, your tongue is fooled into thinking the entire bi...