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can you smoke bacteria out of meat boiling it?

To avoid wasting meat I’ve been doing this for years. So far it has worked and now I wonder about the science behind it:

If for whatever reason I end up with a piece of raw meat that starts smelling a bit strong I cut the piece into small chunks, press the chunks to remove as much liquid as possible, put the meat in a pan, cover the meat with water, let the pan uncovered, boil it and wait till the water completely evaporates. At this point, meat looks brownish or darker depending on the meat I use and it doesn’t smell as strong. I cook it then as I see fit.

I believe by boiling the meat, convection currents take (at least?) some of the bacteria away and this is a safe way not to waste meat. Is this right? Meat always smells better after ‘washing’ it this way.

Theoriginalthon ,

What you just described is called cooking.

Pencilnoob ,

Thanks for getting me to laugh this early

gigachad ,

Bacteria are living organisms and like humans they (most of them) cannot survive high temperatures, their proteins denaturate and their cell structure disintegrates. On the other hand, often it is not the organism itself that is dangerous but the toxins they excrete, which could be much more stable. Imagine food that is all covered by mold - you can probably cook or “wash” it as long as you want, you will end up with serious food poisoning.

I can only recommend to anybody reading this, do not ingest meat that smells suspicious, you can seriously harm your health. And also maybe you’d like to try out a vegetarian diet, just because you read this until the end?

Rhynoplaz ,

Nah.

erusuoyera ,

It doesn’t matter how you cook it, cooking it thoroughly will kill the bacteria. However, some bacteria leave toxins behind and cooking won’t get rid of those. Basically don’t eat rotten meat, the best way to tell if it’s rotten is looking for discolouration and it smelling really bad, although this can also be a good thing in some aged meats like game or beef. BTW, beef turning brown when the packet is opened is normal. Supermarkets fill the packets with inert gas to artificially keep the meat looking red.

Greg ,
@Greg@lemmy.ca avatar

Bacteria are likely all dead but the toxins that bacteria produce may remain. This is why they can’t treat Botulism with antibiotics as it is caused by a toxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum.

Soulfulginger ,

The water doesn’t make a difference. What’s killing the bacteria is the heat. The water just changes the method of heat transfer. But as others have already said, killing the bacteria may not necessarily make it safe

AmidFuror ,

My wife boils our meat at home. It's healthy and more flavorful.

Rhynoplaz ,

Wait. You fell for that?

deuleb_biezelbob ,
@deuleb_biezelbob@programming.dev avatar

the question here is what you are smoking

BackOnMyBS ,
@BackOnMyBS@lemmy.autism.place avatar

You’re taking some considerable risk with that because sometimes the illness is not caused by colonization of bacteria in the body, but by consuming substances that the bacteria leave behind as part of their metabolism. These toxins can be resistant to the temperatures we achieve when cooking meat, especially since boiling isn’t going to go beyond 100°C. If anything, you might be diluting the toxins a little, but they’re still in the soup. Here’s a thorough article on bacteria and their toxins in meat: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7152306/

I think it would be a good idea to postpone risky meat and preparation until you speak with a legit expert on the matter.

superkret ,

It kills off most of the bacteria.
However, some bacteria produce toxins that make you sick, and those don’t go away no matter how much you boil them.

Bahalex ,

No one is pointing out that these “convection currents” created are not taking any bacteria away.

That is only steam from the water added, or water left in the meat- it doesn’t take anything away with it… otherwise you’d have an empty pan and meat vapor all over your kitchen.

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