Briefly soaking meat in a solution of baking soda and water raises the pH on the meat’s surface, making it more difficult for the proteins to bond excessively, which keeps the meat tender and moist when it’s cooked. Our recipes, such as ourVietnamese-Style Caramel Chicken with Broccoli,typically call for a 15- to 20-minute treatment, but what if your dinner prep is interrupted and that time is doubled or even tripled?
To find out if a soak longer than 15 to 20 minutes would do more harm than good, we treated 12 ounces each of ground beef, sliced chicken breast, and sliced pork with baking soda—¼ teaspoon for the beef and 1 teaspoon for the sliced meats—for different lengths of time before cooking them. We were surprised to find that samples that were treated for 45 minutes were identical to those treated for only 15 minutes.
Here’s why: The acid/base reaction happens very quickly and does not build much over time. In fact, when we weighed the samples of treated ground beef before and after cooking, we found that the sample that had been treated for 45 minutes retained a mere 3 percent more moisture when cooked than meat that was treated for only 15 minutes.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Fifteen minutes is long enough to reap the benefits of a baking soda treatment, but don’t worry if your dinner prep gets interrupted and you have to extend that time a bit.
As a culinary expert with a passion for the science behind cooking techniques, I can confidently attest to the significance of pH in the realm of food preparation, specifically in the context of meat tenderization. My extensive background in culinary arts, combined with a thorough understanding of the chemical reactions involved, allows me to shed light on the principles underlying the practice described in the article.
The method outlined in the article involves soaking meat in a solution of baking soda and water to elevate the pH on the meat's surface. This increase in pH creates an environment where proteins are less prone to excessive bonding during cooking, resulting in meat that is tender and moist. The use of baking soda as a tenderizing agent is a well-known technique in the culinary world, and it operates through a basic acid/base reaction.
The article emphasizes a specific treatment duration of 15 to 20 minutes for optimal results, such as in the case of Vietnamese-Style Caramel Chicken with Broccoli. However, the experimentation carried out by the culinary team involved treating 12 ounces each of ground beef, sliced chicken breast, and sliced pork with varying durations of baking soda exposure before cooking.
Surprisingly, the results indicated that samples treated for 45 minutes exhibited no discernible difference from those treated for only 15 minutes. The article attributes this unexpected outcome to the rapid nature of the acid/base reaction with baking soda, noting that the reaction does not accumulate significantly over time.
To support this finding, the culinary team weighed the treated ground beef samples before and after cooking, discovering that the 45-minute treatment retained only 3 percent more moisture compared to the 15-minute treatment. This evidence underscores the notion that the benefits of the baking soda treatment plateau after approximately 15 minutes, providing culinary enthusiasts with a practical window for effective meat tenderization.
In conclusion, the bottom line of the article is that a 15-minute soaking period is sufficient to achieve the desired effects of a baking soda treatment. Even if unforeseen interruptions in dinner preparation extend the soaking time, the culinary team assures readers that there is no cause for concern, as the benefits do not diminish and the meat remains tender and moist. This insight into the science of culinary techniques exemplifies the intersection of practical experience and scientific understanding in the realm of food preparation.
