I put ribeyes in the bath at 137 for about 3 hours. Decided to sear and serve the next day. But when I took them out they have this coppery look in a few spots. Any ideas?
by ActorMonkey
11 Comments
fotank
I always wondered this myself. I assumed it had gone bad at this point. Happy to be educated more about it though!
OozeNAahz
Not sure what it is, but think it is fairly common in beef cooked and then chilled. Used to work at a McDonald’s that was a test market and they were testing a roast beef sandwich. The roast beef was pre roasted and then just reheated in hot au jus. The packaged roast beef all had this sort of metallic look. Was completely normal according to the folks who did the training on it.
m_adamec
This is normal
Mindless-Charity4889
It’s normal. I think it’s just a layer of oil on top of moisture on the surface. It’s a form of thin film interference; light passes through the oil layer and bounce off the oil/water interface. The light mixes with light that bounced off the top of the oil and forms interference patterns that can look like rainbows or just metallic.
Sqwill
*Thin film interference*. It’s because there’s a very thin layer of oil on a flat surface. You see it on deli meat a lot because the slicer does a good job at making a smooth flat cut.
I’ve heard people call it meat iridescence but it’s caused by the end-cut microscopic muscle fibers interacting with light similar to how some butterflies get their blue shimmer 🦋
GenericHuman-9
Meat can appear iridescent or have a rainbow-like sheen due to a physical phenomenon called structural color, which is caused by light diffraction.
Light diffraction: When light hits a slice of meat, it splits into different colors due to the meat’s fibrous structure. The cut ends of the meat’s fibers form grooves that act like a picket fence, causing some light to be absorbed and some to be reflected. Each color wave of reflected light bends at a different angle, creating a kaleidoscope effect.
11 Comments
I always wondered this myself. I assumed it had gone bad at this point. Happy to be educated more about it though!
Not sure what it is, but think it is fairly common in beef cooked and then chilled. Used to work at a McDonald’s that was a test market and they were testing a roast beef sandwich. The roast beef was pre roasted and then just reheated in hot au jus. The packaged roast beef all had this sort of metallic look. Was completely normal according to the folks who did the training on it.
This is normal
It’s normal. I think it’s just a layer of oil on top of moisture on the surface. It’s a form of thin film interference; light passes through the oil layer and bounce off the oil/water interface. The light mixes with light that bounced off the top of the oil and forms interference patterns that can look like rainbows or just metallic.
*Thin film interference*. It’s because there’s a very thin layer of oil on a flat surface. You see it on deli meat a lot because the slicer does a good job at making a smooth flat cut.
Rainbow meat explained: [https://www.americastestkitchen.com/cooksillustrated/articles/7705-what-causes-beef-rainbows](https://www.americastestkitchen.com/cooksillustrated/articles/7705-what-causes-beef-rainbows)
Ea-Nasir taking things too far.
I’ve heard people call it meat iridescence but it’s caused by the end-cut microscopic muscle fibers interacting with light similar to how some butterflies get their blue shimmer 🦋
Meat can appear iridescent or have a rainbow-like sheen due to a physical phenomenon called structural color, which is caused by light diffraction.
Light diffraction:
When light hits a slice of meat, it splits into different colors due to the meat’s fibrous structure. The cut ends of the meat’s fibers form grooves that act like a picket fence, causing some light to be absorbed and some to be reflected. Each color wave of reflected light bends at a different angle, creating a kaleidoscope effect.
It’s not oil or phosphates as others have stated.
https://www.allrecipes.com/is-rainbow-deli-meat-safe-to-eat-7367669
There be gold in those hills.