Color changes in beef meat during pan cooking: kinetics, modeling and application to predict turn over time

The kinetics of heat-induced color changes in beef meat was determined and implemented in a numerical model for doublesided pan cooking of steak. The CIELab color space was used to obtain the lightness (coordinate L∗ ) and the reddish tone (coordinate a∗ ) of the cooked meat. L∗ was the CIELab coordinate that contributed the most to the change in the absolute color. Two response surfaces were found to describe the evolution with time and temperature of both color coordinates, L∗ and a∗ . The model results were successfully verified with experimental data of the two coordinates along the thickness of the meat for three degrees of cooking. The Root-Mean-Squared Errors (RMSE) for coordinate L∗ were 5.17 (very rare), 2.02 (medium rare) and 3.83 (done), and for coordinate a∗ 1.44 (very rare), 1.26 (medium rare) and 0.89 (done). The applicability of the model for practical cooking purposes was illustrated by determining the optimum turn over time to achieve a similar color profile on both sides of the meat. The turn over time depended on the desired degrees of cooking, and were comprised between one-half and two-thirds of the final cooking time, increasing from very rare cooking degree to done cooking degree

Modeling domestic pancake cooking incorporating the rheological properties of the batter. Application to seven batter recipes

A 2D axisymmetric model for coupled transient heat and mass transfer was developed to simulate pancake cooking on a domestic induction hob. Unlike previous models, the current model considers a variable thermal contact conductance resulting from the crust formation at the bottom of the batter. It aims to take into account the heat transfer phenomena between the pan surface and the batter influenced by the physicochemical changes that the batter undergoes during the cooking process. To quantify the variation of the heat flow that this change in the structure of the batter involves, a normalized relationship between batter viscosity and the temperature was introduced in the model. The performance of seven cereal and legume flour-based batters was evaluated in an experimental setup. The proposed model is capable of adequately predicting the weight loss and the average surface temperature of the batter using parameters related with the rheological properties of the batter and its composition