So when I stir fry I tenderize my beef with baking soda before throwing it in the wok. How come baking soda has that effect?
In: 5
Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. It is a base (opposite of an acid). Bases interfere with the proteins ability to get tangled together. Think of proteins like a bunch of charging cables and headphones cables thrown together. The more their are the bigger the tangle is going to be and the more effort you need to pull it apart. Bases make those cables slide past each other more easily so you need less effort to untangle them. That’s what the base of baking sodas is doing to your meat.
When you cook meat the proteins curl up and tangle. The longer you cook meat the more you’ll actually break down the protein, but you can get around this by chemically changing how the protein physical reacts with the other proteins around it using baking soda.
Latest Answers