CHAPTER 11: More Meat Time

In the research laboratory, chemists try to isolate individual reactions, making the system that they are studying as simple as possible, to better understand how they work. When preparing food, a kitchen chemist balances a wide array of complex reactions in a way that they all finish at the exact same time. Cooking a roast is a perfect example of this. Through this chapter, the science of muscle protein unfolding (with a special emphasis on collagen) is put into the context of making roasts, ribs, and other high-collagen cuts of meat.