Myth 8: Seal Juices into Meats by Searing
Let's forget floods tonight and talk about cooking. If you are a cook, and cook meat, then you are bound to have heard this, "Seal in the juices by searing meats before you cook." For the non-cook, what does this mean? It means basically to fry or expose the outer layer of meat to high temperatures before baking, or continuing to cook it. My family does it, and so do my aunts. I thought it made sense. You cook the outer layer first, so that the raw juice would not be able to come out. It's like one of those know-hows that gets passed down from generation to generation. Lifehacker says this is not so. Here's why. The article says that this was first proposed in the 19th century by a German chemist called Justus von Liebig who said that applying very high temperatures to meat would create a "sealed" layer of cooked meat through which liquid the inside meat would not be able to escape. (Wow, I didn't realize this would go back so long...