Does cooking/draining fat really make meat leaner?

[Ed_Flecko]

I have an exercise physiology book that seems to suggest that any random variety of meat has a certain fat content, and no manner of cooking and then draining of fat is going to change that. You might say "it is what it is". The fat is "built-into" the meat at a molecular level and you're not going to change that lean meat/fat ratio.

My butcher disagrees. He says that by cooking and then draining the fat, you're making any meat leaner. Take pork, for example. He says that while pork is a higher fat content by volume that many other meats, you can make it leaner by cooking and then draining the fat before you eat it.

I tend to believe my physiology book is correct on this topic, but I'm not sure.

Comments?

Thank you!
Ed

 

[kschachn]

Well fat is fat, and if during cooking you let some of it liquefy and drain from the meat then by definition you're making the fat content of the meat less than when raw.

Not all the fat is going to drain away however. And letting it sit in the fat isn't going to make it as lean as letting it drain during cooking as some will be reabsorbed.

 

[bioburner]

Don't think that the grill on fire was from rendering of water out

 

[Rolla07]

I think you do remove fat if draining while cooking. How much less becomes the question..

 

[Johnny2Bad]

Saturated fat is, by definition, solid at room temperature and liquid at higher temperatures. If it's liquid, you can pour it off, plain and simple. It doesn't matter if it's fat you could otherwise cut out or fat marbled into the muscle. It all melts.

Although we eat some high fat content cuts of pork, the majority of pork cuts are quite lean, compared to beef, for example.

I have to wonder, however, why you are trying to reduce fat in primary cuts of meat (beef or pork). In many cases it's a critical component of flavour and defines the enjoyable character of a cut. If you want to reduce your fat intake, I suggest instead that you eat a smaller portion.

Also many vitamins and nutrients are fat-soluble. No fat, no absorption of those beneficial elements of your diet. If it were possible to eat a totally fat free diet, your life expectancy would be measured in months, not years. This aspect of nutrition is also why salads always have a fatty dressing accompanying them. It's so you actually benefit from all that veggie goodness.

If you are really wondering about exactly how much fat you can drain off, you can do the same thing nutritionists do. Weigh the uncooked cut of meat, and weigh the cooked portion of meat. The difference is the liquids you've rendered out of the meat. Some of that is water, some of it is fat, but if you're draining it off, it's right there for you to examine and weigh. Water and Fat don't mix unless you take steps to mix them (add detergent, or make a gravy) so you can always measure the fat alone if you want to.

 

[raytseng]

i think both are right. Cooked meat by total volume is going to have less fat then say eating the meat raw.

But the nutrition book is trying to say that not all the fat is going to come out. And possibly, it is trying to say that the percentage of fat renders out at the same or close enough for the 1st approximation. So the % of fat in the end product as the uncooked.


Example:
Say you had a 1 pound burger that's 50% lean.
It's saying that if you cook it you end up with .75 pounds of end product.
But the % of fat in the end product is still going to be close to the original fat% as in the raw meat.

I think if you get to the 2nd approximation, the butcher is probably right, and the cooked meat will be slightly leaner.
so a 90% lean burger might end up 92% lean cooked
and a 50% lean burger might end up 58% lean.

But from a nutrition standpoint i think the point is a 50% lean burger isn't going to magically turn into a 90% lean by cooking.

 

[Johnny2Bad]

If you have a 50% lean burger, and cook it to 75% of it's uncooked weight, then 25% has rendered out. That 25% has to be either water or fat. So your burger is now 67% lean.

1 pound 50% lean burger = 0.5 pound muscle and 0.5 pound fat, or ½ fat overall.
0.75 pound 50% lean burger, cooked = 0.5 pound muscle and 0.25 pound fat, or ⅓ fat overall.

Like I said, some of that lost weight can be water, but if you weigh the cooked burger and what you pour off, you will know exactly how much of what you drained off was water and how much was fat.

We do have to account for water, because it's added to meats, including whole cuts, in processing and packaging.

 

[BHopkins]

Put a pound of cubed beef or pork in a frying pan, with only enough cooking oil to keep it from sticking to the pan. Cook the meat. Remove the meat from the frying pan. Measure the fat that remains in the pan. That fat which remains is fat that is no longer in the meat.

Simple evidence to the contrary of the book author.

 

[BalticBob]

I always drain my fried bacon, makes it more crispy.
Not one to waste, I keep the drained bacon grease to sauté more bacon.
When I make bacon wrapped bacon, I use the drained bacon grease as a dip for the bacon wrapped bacon.
I also cook my free range chicken eggs in bacon grease, gives them more flavor.
My cardiologist loves me!

 

[Lyman]

I would tend to agree with your Butcher.

 

[NHGUY]

It works....case in point..."George Foreman's Lean Mean Grilling Machine".

 

[javacontour]

Originally Posted By: BalticBob
I always drain my fried bacon, makes it more crispy.
Not one to waste, I keep the drained bacon grease to sauté more bacon.
When I make bacon wrapped bacon, I use the drained bacon grease as a dip for the bacon wrapped bacon.
I also cook my free range chicken eggs in bacon grease, gives them more flavor.
My cardiologist loves me!


I drain my bacon, but leave enough fat/oil in the pan so that my omelet doesn't stick.

Sometimes I'll leave it all in there and do a couple of sunny eggs in all the bacon fat glory.

 

[bigt61]

Eat the fat when you can, it's good for you and will keep you full. Fat doesn't make you fat, carbs/sugar do. Not all calories are created equal. The best chili is from 80/20 ground beef - don't drain the fat - eat it and live longer. My 2 cents.

 

[MRtv]

We are told how evil fat is for us. Not really. We have been propagandized about it to get us to not be so heavy ourselves. Well as the decades of us being told the evils of fat we are still, well fat. Myself included. So what I did was look into it some more. Guess what? Whole milk is better for me than skim milk. Why you ask when it is so fatty? The fat in the whole milk satisfies more and you will drink less. That equals less calories. One glass does you instead of wanting one or two more glasses which puts on the calories. Less calorie intake is the secret, not less fat intake.

Now I do drain the fat off my meat. Mom taught me to do it, so I just do it. Yet if we take the drippings from meat fat add some flour and season it up and make a gravy, it can be pretty tasty. Again we have been propagandized to not do this but for decades fat was used in this way to add to or extend our meals. Question though is did our great grand parents have the obiesity problems we have now? Not so much. So what is really different today? They didn't have artificial zero calorie sweetness and fructose corn syrup in their diets. They didn't drink soda by the bucket full.

Fat is not as evil as the government wanted us to believe so I have decided to not worry about it. Back to the milk. Guess what, I drink less milk now. MODERATION though is the secret. I wouldn't want to eat 1000 calories a day in fat. Heart problems indeed with that. But to use it as a side gravy dish over rice or potato dishes I'm ok with.

 

[SR5]

I think the butcher and the book are using two different definitions of meat.

The book is talking about pure muscle tissue (the red meat proper) with all the fat tissue and connective tissue removed. The sort of pure sample you would analyze in a lab.

The butcher is talking about a cut of meat, which is a mixture of various distinct tissues (muscle, veins, fat, connective, bones, etc). In the cut of meat, most of the fat would be in the fat tissue, not the muscle tissue.

So the book is probably right, in that cooking the muscle doesn't remove much molecular fat, but the butcher is also right in that the cut of meat you eat has less fat after cooking & draining (mostly removed from the associated fat tissue in a cut of meat).

Biochemistry, listen to your text book. Eating, listen to your butcher.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: Johnny2Bad
Saturated fat is, by definition, solid at room temperature and liquid at higher temperatures.


Nope, not close.

Saturated fat, by definition is saturated, has no double or triple bonds in it's molecular structure...the structure is saturated.

Unsaturated fat has at least one or more double bonds in it's structure, meaning that there's more room for a reaction site...i.e. you can hydrogenate them, break the bond and hydrogen, and make them saturated.

That's why butter is better than hydrogenated vegetable oils.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: MRtv
We are told how evil fat is for us. Not really. We have been propagandized about it to get us to not be so heavy ourselves.


Animal fats were demonised by the margarine industry that was looking for a market after WWII (margarine was invented to provide calories at home, while the butter went to the troops).

Fat in general was demonised through "studies" funded by the sugar industry. They knew that sugar was bad for hearts, arteries, and of course weight, and they knew also that people who ate less fat typically ate more sugar.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/well/eat/how-the-sugar-industry-shifted-blame-to-fat.html?_r=0

 

[BearZDefect]

I'm with Shannow here.
Years ago when I believed the disinformation I would trim meat as I cut it up, or drain fatty ground beef. No more. Now I include all the fat and non-muscle parts of a lamb leg (for example) in the pot, and eat it all. The kids don't like the interesting bits, more for me

, they eat the clean flesh pieces.

What I have mostly stopped eating is grains and refined sugar because my body doesn't tolerate the large influx of glucose and fructose.

Here is another page of reading if anyone is interested in the failed hypothesis:
https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2016/12/24/what-causes-heart-disease-part-xxiii/

 

[DriveHard]

Actually you can make 70/30 almost as lean as 90/10 simply by rinsing it. Here is a good paper for those interested (even better it references a study from my alma mater)

Clip



http://foodsafety.wisc.edu/assets/pdf_files/reducing fat in ground beef.pdf

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Shannow
Originally Posted By: Johnny2Bad
Saturated fat is, by definition, solid at room temperature and liquid at higher temperatures.


Nope, not close.

The only definition relating to temperature is how biologists sort fats and oils. If a lipid is solid at room temperature, they call it a fat. If it's a liquid at room temperature, they call it an oil. At least that's what my first year biology professor told us ages ago.