why does pan searing meat make it tough after a long time on the pan, but simmering makes meat more tender the longer its done?
In: Chemistry
The difference is water and temperature.
Searing dries the meat, because there’s no liquid, and the high heat make all the water evaporate.
That is good on certain meats for short times, for the gift to humanity that is the maillard reaction, the part that makes your crust golden brown. But if it dries also the inside, you’ll be left with a shoe sole.
Simmering uses liquids, and lower temperatures (below the boiling point of water) to heat (and so cook) the meat without drying it. With enough time and the right temperature, the hard parts of the meat soften (collagen gelatinize, etc etc etc)
Initial application of (high) heat causes proteins to “tighten up”. So this can drive water out of the meat and render it tough and fibrous. So the meat needs to be sliced thin against the fibers to keep it less tough (stir fries etc) or cooked quickly and not be allowed to get too tough to eat (rare to medium rare steaks for example).
Simmering will still cause some of this to occur but slower. However over a longer period (45mins to hours), things like fats and connective tissue in the meat render out and release into the meat causing it to get less tough. And of course simmering means high humidity and liquids which help the meat to not get too dry. Proteins in the meat start to break down as well.
It depends on the meat.
Meat that is mostly muscle fibers doesn’t need a lot of cooking and is traditionally cooked with high heat. You don’t need to cook the center very much but do want a nice crust on the outside, so throwing it in a hot pan for a short time works well. Cooking these cuts for longer, whether in a pan or in water, will make them dry and tough.
Meat with a lot of connective tissue needs a lot of cooking to gelatinize the connective tissue, so it’s traditionally cooked with low heat. This can be in a low oven or a smoker, but it’s often in some kind of wet environment. This is because liquid water can’t get hotter than its boiling point, so the cooking temperature of simmering water is remarkably constant without much need for fiddling (just keep replenishing the liquid before it all boils away).
All of this is to say, if you cut up a ribeye and put it in a stew, it will come out quite tough. If you put a brisket in a hot pan, it will remain quite tough after a normal amount of cooking and burn to ashes before actually tenderizing.
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