Mechanisms of Crust Development at the Surface of Beef Meat Subjected to Hot Air: An Experimental Study

Abstract

© 2014, Springer Science+Business Media New York. When cooking meat, the development of a crust is an important element for consumer. It is the place of Maillard reactions and development of flavor. It is also where carcinogenic compounds can be formed. To our knowledge, no study has been devoted to the formation of the crust during cooking pieces of meat, so these mechanisms were studied under laboratory conditions. Temperatures were measured close to the surface using a special isolated device that corrects for movements due to meat thermal shrinkage. These temperature measurements were paired with microscopic measurements of the crust thickness and with the measurement of profiles of water content by magnetic resonance imaging to interpret crust formation and structure. Three areas were characterized in the crust, and the thickness of the colored area was proved to vary linearly with time. Images obtained by X-ray microtomography showed a great heterogeneity of the porosity in the crust of the heated samples.