Poking the Meat

Knauf

I have alway read and been told to use tongs and spatulas to turn your meat when cooking. Forks and any other poking devices are a no no as the juices would run out and dry the meat. Now I see everyone praising thermapens and instant read themometers. Doesn't that defete the purpose of keeping the juices in the meat?

Unknown

Meat isn't like a balloon. The juices are in the individual cells. You'd have to poke each cell to let all of the juices out.

Buckdodger

Sam has a point...no pun intended. I always use tongs to move meat aroung on my LBGE. If you use tongs especially long ones when doing steaks..no juice is released. Just my H O.
Bob
Alex City, Al

Happy Eggin'

stike

try to poke it as little as possible. still folks jacquard meat all the time (hundreds of needles) and never complain. hamburger is utterly destroyed meat, and certainly retians moisture when cooked properly.

like many things, the idea that poking the meat dries it out is based in truth, but can't be taken to mean it will actually give you dry meat.

one time when it IS bad voodoo is when you poke the skin of a chicken, and lose all that great fat. but you can't dry a piece of meat out even if you (gasp) jabbed it with tongs and tested it's temp every two seconds.