Grilling – The Finger Test (Check the Doneness of Meat)

There are two basic methods to test for how done your meat is while you are cooking it – use a meat thermometer, or press on the meat with your finger tips.

The problem with the meat thermometer approach is that when you poke a hole into the meat with a thermometer, it can let juices escape, juices that you would rather have stay in the meat. For this reason, most experienced cooks rely on a “finger test” method, especially on steaks (whole roasts are better tested with a thermometer).

During my research about the “Finger  Test” I found several articles about it and I decided to share one that I consider the best one due to its illustrations and because was in English (not my best language). This method has been used for years and when I have lived in Brazil and started to develop my Healthy Grill project, I learned from one of the best Grill master I ever knew. Of course he didn’t grill by the healthier method but even using the traditional methods he already showed some concerns about some issues trying to avoid them the best he could.

This is one of those things that gets easier with practice. The next time you cook a steak, even if you are still planning to rely on a meat thermometer, press on the meat here and there while it cooks, and compare the feeling of the meat with the following finger test. With practice, you will become more confident.

METHOD

Open the palm of your hand. Relax the hand. Take the index finger of your other hand and push on the fleshy area between the thumb and the base of the palm. Make sure your hand is relaxed. This is what raw meat feels like. (Check this out the next time you have a raw steak to cook.)

Now gently press the tip of your pinky and your thumb together. Again feel the fleshy area below the thumb. It should feel quite firm. This is what well done meat feels like when you press on it. (Check this out the next time you overcook a piece of meat.)

Press the tip of your ring finger and your thumb together. The flesh beneath the thumb should give a little more. This is what meat cooked to a medium doneness feels like.

Gently press the tip of your middle finger to the tip of your thumb. This is medium rare.

Press the tip of your index finger to the tip of your thumb. The fleshy area below the thumb should give quite a bit. This is what meat cooked to rare feels like. Open up your palm again and compare raw to rare.

Source:

Simple recipes by Elise

Related articles

• Some tips for a great and healthier “Grill Food” at home – Updated (healthygrillusa.wordpress.com)
• Rosemary helps reduce toxins in grilled meat (healthygrillusa.wordpress.com)

Grilled Meat: Good or Bad?

Summer is all about grilling, but many folks are concerned about firing up red meats such as beef and lamb. Here’s the low-down on grilling meat.

The Good
Grilling is a quick and easy way to whip up a weeknight dinner or entertain friends and family. There are many lean cuts of meat that are easy to grill, including lamb tenderloin, strip steak, flank and rib eye. Nutritionally, red meats like beef and lamb are packed with protein, iron, zinc, and B vitamins such as niacin, vitamin B-6 and vitamin B-12.

Marinating meat before grilling helps tenderize and add flavor. Studies have also shown that marinades with little or no sugar also help protect meat from charring and have been shown to reduce heterocyclic aromatic amine (HAA) formation — compounds that have been linked to cancer.

The Bad
If you love the flavor of charred meat, you may want to reconsider. Charring causes the formation of HAAs, which has been linked to cancer in animal studies. Further, cooking meats over open flames where fat can drip and produce smoke — think grilling — can lead to the formation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). PAHs have also been linked to cancer formation.

Grill to perfection and greatly reduce HAAs and PAHs by monitoring your grill’s heat level and the doneness temperature of meat, poultry and fish when cooking.
Luckily, there are ways to minimize the production of HAAs and PAHs, including:
• Don’t press burgers down onto grill grates, where juices can drip and flare.
• Cooking meat over a medium flame (as opposed to a high flame) will help prevent the formation of HAAs while still allowing the internal cooking temperature to be reached.
• Before cooking, remove meat from the marinade and shake off excess. Use a paper towel to pat dry and help promote even browning.
• Avoid sugary glazes and sauces, which can burn easily. If you want to use them, baste the meat the last few minutes on the grill.

The Verdict
Grilling meat is a quick and delicious way to get a meal on the table, however, certain guidelines should be followed in order to help ensure maximum nutrition and minimum cancer risk.

by Toby Amidor in Food and Nutrition Experts, Food Safety, July 26, 2016

Does burnt food cause cancer?

If you’re offered a plate of blackened barbecue food this summer, you might think twice about eating it. It’s commonly thought that food that has been burnt could cause cancer.

This is in part down to one particular molecule that forms when food is cooked at high temperatures, known as acrylamide. But while the chemical is a known potential toxin and carcinogen in its industrial form, the link between consuming it in food and developing cancer is much less clear.

The reason we even know about acrylamide’s potential dangers are down to a railway tunnel.

Nearly 20 years ago, workers were building a tunnel through the Hallandsås ridge on the Bjäre peninsula in southern Sweden. Cows nearby started to show strange symptoms, staggering around and in some cases collapsing and dying. This prompted an investigation that showed that they had been drinking contaminated stream water and that the contamination was from a toxic molecule, acrylamide.

The construction workers had been using its polymer, polyacrylamide, as a crack sealant. This was, in itself, quite safe. But the polymer-forming reaction was incomplete, so some unreacted acrylamide was still present. The workers were tested to see if they also had unsafe levels of acrylamide in their blood, with a second “control” group of people who had no known exposure to industrial acrylamide used as a benchmark. However, it turned out that the control group also had surprisingly high amounts of acrylamide in their blood.

At first it was thought that burgers might be the source. Then high levels of acrylamide were found in potato products such as fried potatoes, as well as in coffee. It then became clear that acrylamide formation was associated with carbohydrate-rich foods, rather than protein-rich ones, and with foods that had been heated above 120°C (250°F), that is food that has been fried, roasted or baked. This was a new discovery, but acrylamide must always have been formed in this style of cooking,ever since cooking was invented.

Acrylamide is formed in reactions between the natural amino-acid asparagine and some (naturally-occurring) carbohydrates. You don’t find acrylamide in uncooked or boiled food. Dairy, meat or fish products are much less likely to contain acrylamide. It doesn’t matter whether the food is “organic” or not, it’s the type of food that counts. Acrylamide is also formed when smoking tobacco.

The golden rule

A “golden rule” has been suggested: cook food until it goes yellow, not brown or black. This restricts acrylamide formation, though if you cook at too low a temperature you are less likely to kill off bacteria, so there is more risk of food poisoning.

While scientists have identified the source of acrylamide, they haven’t established that it is definitely a carcinogen in humans when consumed at the levels typically found in cooked food.A 2015 review of available data concluded that “dietary acrylamide is not related to the risk of most common cancers”. Although, it added that a modest association for kidney cancer, and for endometrial and ovarian cancers in people who had never smoked, couldn’t be ruled out.

Meaty concerns

Going back to the barbecue, there are other chemicals in meat that could be a concern. These generally fall into two classes: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs – compounds with several hexagonal “benzene rings” fused together) such as naphthalene and benzopyrene; and heterocyclic amines (HCAs). The PAHs are formed from meat fat and juices dripping onto flames in cooking, and HCAs are generated, again in cooking, from reactions between molecules including amino-acids and sugars.

Animal testing has shown exposure to high levels of chemicals such as these is linked with cancer, but these are levels of exposure much higher than humans would get from eating meat.Some studies do appear to have shown that meat that has been burned, fried or barbecued is associated with higher possibilities of certain cancers, but these links are hard to prove for certain.

If you are really concerned, you could reduce exposure risks by cooking in a microwave rather than over naked flames, and turning meat regularly. You could also eat less meat or replace the meat with vegetables when grilling. Of course, your food may not be as tasty, since grilling, baking or toasting produce a lot of molecules that enhance flavour. But if you have a healthy diet with lots of fruit, vegetables and whole grain food, none of which contain acrylamide, things are easier. It is all a question of proportion.

Simon Cotton, Senior Lecturer in Chemistry, University of Birmingham

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

 

Does burnt food give you Cancer? Chemistry professor gives a worrying answer

Fonte: Does burnt food give you Cancer? Chemistry professor gives a worrying answer

GRILLED FOOD and CANCER PROBLEMS

Besides the fact there’s more available information many Americans still do not know that grilling can be unhealthy. The cancer risk from grilling, however, is real, but it changes dramatically with what you grill and how you do it.

The problem with traditional grilling comes from the combination of meat with intense heat. Whether you are using red meat, poultry or seafood, substances in the muscle proteins of these foods react under high heat to form carcinogenic compounds called heterocyclic amines (HCAs). HCAs can damage the DNA of our genes, beginning the process of cancer development.

Consumption of HCAs is mostly clearly linked to cancers of the colon and stomach. One study found that people who eat the most barbecued red meat (beef, pork and lamb) almost doubled their risk of colon polyps, compared to those who did not eat these foods. Colon polyps can develop into colon cancer. Some evidence also suggests that these carcinogenic compounds can travel through the bloodstream to other tissues. This would explain why HCAs could be a factor in breast cancer and other cancers.

So, does Grilling Pose A Cancer Risk?

Grilling is not bad for your health. But it appears that bad grilling may be bad for your health. Bad grilling is the way people grill food including all restaurants.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA): “Some studies suggest there may be a cancer risk related to eating food cooked by high-heat cooking techniques as grilling, frying, and broiling. Based on present research findings, eating moderate amounts of grilled meats like fish, meat, and poultry cooked — without charring — to a safe temperature does not pose a problem.”

The keywords are “some studies suggest” and “without charring”. It appears that charring the meat can create compounds called Heterocyclic Amines (HCAs) that probably are capable of causing colon cancer, lung cancer, or breast cancer if consumed in excess. But, like so many areas of preliminary research, there is conflicting and contrary information. For example, it is not known how many HCAs are problematic.

According to one of the country’s primary researchers in the field, Dr. Rashmi Sinha of the National Cancer Institute “There’s a clear relationship between very high temperatures and the risk of cancer-causing agents.”

Dr. Sinha has some healthy cooking advice that all good chefs can agree with from a tasty cooking standpoint. She says we need to avoid blackening meat on the outside. This charring creates potentially hazardous compounds. And, I might add, it just plain tastes bad.

She says we should avoid flare-ups caused when fat hits the flame. Flare-ups just burn the food and deposit soot on the surface. You can avoid flare-ups by using a gas grill with metal flavor bars between the food and the flame, of by using a 2-zone cooking system on a charcoal grill and by having a squirt gun handy.

Dr. Sinha adds that if there are burned parts of the meat, especially burned fat, just cut them off. “It’s important to help consumers understand how to cook without undercooking or overcooking,” to which the National Cancer Institute (NCI) ads “That’s one more reason to use a food thermometer.” Amen.

In their report on Heterocyclic Amines in Cooked Meats, NCI says “Four factors influence HCA formation: Type of food, cooking method, temperature, and time. HCAs are found in cooked muscle meats; other sources of protein (milk, eggs, tofu, and organ meats such as liver) have very little or no HCA content naturally or when cooked. Temperature is the most important factor in the formation of HCAs. Frying, broiling, and barbecuing produce the largest amounts of HCAs because the meats are cooked at very high temperatures.”

They also added “Researchers found that those who ate their beef medium-well or well-done had more than three times the risk of stomach cancer than those who ate their beef rare or medium-rare.” I might add that well done meat is tougher and drier.

It is important that consumers understand that much of the relationship between HCA and cancer is still not thoroughly understood, that there is a lot of research yet to be done, and that eating burned steak once or twice a year probably isn’t going to make you sick. Nor is eating well done steak. The real message here is that good food is also good for you and that if you’re going to grill, do it right.

AFTER READ THIS YOU CAN CONCLUDE:

GRILLED FOOD IS NOT BAD! BAD IS THE WAY IT IS COOKED!

How many people do it right? None! Some can try to avoid it but, to do it properly some methods need to be used that are not available in the market. However there are some tricks you can use in order to make an Healthy Grilled meal. (Click HERE and your will learn how to make it happen).

HEALTHY GRILL USA IS THE FIRST FOOD PROJECT ABLE TO PROVIDE GRILLED FOOD FREE OF THOSE CARCINOGENS!

WHAT ABOUT THE RED MEAT CONSUMMATION QUESTION!

WHAT ABOUT THE RED MEAT?

How you cook red meat matters, prostate cancer study finds!

As red meat is cooked, be it fried or grilled, compounds shown to cause cancer take root in the meat.

WELL! It is not exactly like that! Why they say red meat causes cancer?

“When it comes to eating meat, a guy’s choice of what he eats and how it is cooked may affect his risk of having advanced prostate cancer, a new study says.

Men in the study who ate more than 1.5 servings of pan-fried red meat per week were 30 percent more likely to have advanced prostate cancer than were men who rarely ate pan-fried red meat. And men who every week ate more than 2.5 servings of red meat cooked by any high-temperature method — including broiling and grilling — were 40 percent more likely to have advanced prostate cancer than were men who rarely did so.”

Raw fresh marbled meat Steak and seasonings on dark marble background

Did you understand?

It is not the red meat it self but the way you cook that red meat. Did you understand?

RED MEAT AND CANCER…

The National Cancer Institute estimates 242,000 U.S. men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year, while 28,000 prostate cancer patients will die.

Advanced prostate cancer, in which the disease has spread to distant sites in the body, accounts for just 4 percent of all cases. However, that disease is particularly deadly. While nearly everyone with cancer that is confined to the prostate can expect to live at least five years, only 28 percent of those with advanced disease live that long, according to NCI statistics.

Surveying men in Los Angeles and San Francisco, Stern and her colleagues examined the red-meat eating habits of nearly 1,900 prostate cancer patients — including 1,100 whose disease had advanced beyond the prostate gland — and 1,096 men without prostate cancer.

The reason why red meat cooked at high temperatures may increase the risk of advanced prostate cancer is that such meat contains compounds called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs) and heterocyclic amines (HCAs). Both have been shown to cause cancer in animals, Stern said, noting that both are also found in cigarette smoke.

PAHs form when fat is cooked at high temperatures. For example, when meats are grilled, fat drips in the flames, and the rising smoke deposits PAHs on the meat. HCAs form when sugars and other molecules in the meat are heated. With higher temperatures and longer cooking times, more HCAs form.

“There is strong evidence that PAHs and HCAs cause cancer,” Stern said. “There is increasingly suggestive evidence that PAHs and HCAs that accumulate in meats may contribute to certain cancers; prostate is one of them.”

CONCLUSIONS?

Still, did you read everything? The real problem is not the meat it self but the way people cook it!

Every time you eat grilled meat, fish, etc… (animal protein) in a restaurant you are ingesting carcinogens!

Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think

Something we always should pay attention.

Healthy Grill USA

“In Britain the sales of foods marketed as healthier are rocketing. But what if the very food sold to us as healthier is making us fat? Pierre Chandon, a  Professor at Harvard Business School, has done ground breaking research into how fattening foods are marketed as healthy.”

View original post

Smoked food and Cancer

Healthy Grill USA

Smoked food have a wonderful flavor, as long as there have been cured meats, there have been health problems caused by this preservation process.

A lot of people think that any smoked food has been actually exposed to smoke! But this is not true! Rather, a chemical called liquid smoke is used to flavor the meat for example. This liquid smoke contains dangerous carcinogens chemicals.

Besides smoking, the process of curing meat (bacon, ham, sausages) also involves treating it with a variety of additives and preservatives, which are a reason for cancer development.

As well as nitrites and nitrates, smoked foods are often incredibly high in ordinary salt. They can sometimes contain up to 50 times more salt than a unsmoked version.

The 2007 report, issued by the World Cancer Research Fund, has involved hundreds of experts who have reviewed all the evidence we have to date about the…

View original post 434 more words