Why YSK: When you cook meat, any water on the surface must first evaporate before much browning can occur. You want to get as much of a Maillard reaction as possible in the limited cooking time you have before the meat reaches the correct internal temperature. Removing the moisture first means that the heat of the cooking surface isn’t wasted on evaporation and can instead interact with the meat to form the complex sugars and proteins of the Maillard reaction.

  • Hillock
    link
    fedilink
    11 year ago

    Sometimes people don’t dry meat after washing it. Which is fine for some dishes. Or if they dry it they don’t do it well enough. But ye, the title isn’t that well chosen.

    The article talks about letting meat air dry for several hours in your fridge. And goes further into the Maillard Reaction.