Proteins · Be

Red meat

Medium 57 °C · collagen melts at 68 °C

Per 100 g

250 kcal Energy

26 g Protein

0 g Carbs

15 g Fat

0 g Fibre

Gluten-free

Let’s cook with it → Invent something with it

What it is for

Heat unfolds them and they link to each other: they bind, they firm, they build crust. They are one half of the Maillard reaction; sugar is the other.

Where it catches you out

Every protein has its own threshold and none of them are reversible. Egg turns at 82 °C, meat at 70, fish at 55 — once past, there is no coming back.

The knack

Do not take it straight from the fridge to the pan; twenty minutes out cooks more evenly and does not chill the pan.

Storage and health

How to keep it, and who it suits.

Keeping it

Raw cuts keep 3-5 days at 0-4 °C and mince 1-2 days; frozen at -18 °C, cuts keep 6-12 months and mince 3-4.

Gluten-free

Plain raw meat is naturally gluten-free. Marinated, seasoned and processed meats must be judged separately.

Glycaemic index

This ingredient carries no meaningful carbohydrate, so it has no glycaemic index. On its own it will not move blood sugar; what you eat alongside it decides that.

What it works with

Pairings, and the reason for each

"They go well together" is not an explanation. Every pairing below has a chemical or structural mechanism under it.

Tomato paste →

Beef supplies inosinate and tomato supplies free glutamate; the combination is genuinely synergistic at the umami receptor, with perceived intensity reported up to seven or eight times either alone.

Salt →

Chloride solubilises the myofibrillar proteins and increases repulsion between filaments, raising water-holding capacity. That is why brined meat is juicier, not drier.

Also works with

Black pepper

Cumin

Garlic

Butter

Bay leaf

Yoghurt

What goes on top

Sizzled butter, sumac onions, chilli flakes, garlic yoghurt, pomegranate molasses

Key compounds

Miyoglobin: Gives the red; oxidises to brown metmyoglobin then denatures to grey-brown globin hemichrome. That is doneness colour, not blood.
Kollajen: Converts to gelatine slowly above 60 °C: it needs time, not temperature.

Nutritionally

Heme iron from meat is absorbed at roughly 15–35% against 2–20% for non-heme plant iron, and it is largely unaffected by phytate — a little meat even improves iron uptake from the legumes beside it.

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