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There’s nothing worse than accidentally overcooking your meal. You must be thinking “It’s Overcooked. Now What?” Like the saying, you can’t un-ring a bell, you cannot un-cook food. However, there are a few things that you can do to lessen the disappointment of an overdone meal. Keep reading to learn what you can do to save an overcooked meal.
THE SCIENCE OF OVERCOOKING FOOD
What is overcooked? Overcooked meat is dry and tasteless, even if it’s been well seasoned. Overcooked vegetables are mushy or dry, sometimes both at the same time! What’s happened, is the cell structures of the vegetables have been damaged creating mushiness and the liquid inside may have been released to cause dryness. For meat, all of the fat and liquid have been rendered out of your meal. The muscle fibers – tube-like structures that hold the water inside the meat – have contracted, wringing all of the water out and creating a tough and dry husk of what you were trying to prepare. Fat renders down, melting and dripping away to be consumed by the flames of your barbecue or to sit in the pan. Neither of these things can be put back into the food.
Overcooked food is harder to metabolize and digest than food that has been properly prepared. Nutrients, especially in vegetables, are also lost in the cooking process. The trick is to cook everything in the best possible manner to achieve the right balance between providing optimum nutrients and winding up with a palatable meal.
