How to Distinguish Between Authentic and Fake Beef Steak Practical Methods
More and more families prefer to buy Steak and there are also many fake steaks on the market. To help everyone buy genuine steaks, today we will introduce several practical methods for identifying genuine and fake steaks, so you can easily distinguish between real and fake steaks.
Before introducing the methods for identifying genuine and fake steaks, let's first some common knowledge about genuine steaks:
Genuine steaks are steaks made by dividing the different parts of the beef into fine pieces, using the original meat and cutting. For example,ribeye can be made into fillet steaks, and the outer part of the beef can be made into sirloin steaks, and the spine can be made into T-bone steaks, etc.
Fake steaks can be divided into two categories: fake steaks made from reassembled original meat and other mixed meats, according to the different raw materials and processing methods.Beef and flavorings. Obviously, fake steaks are steaks that have been processed and reshaped, regardless of whether they are made of beef or not, they can be considered fake steaks.
Therefore, we can completely distinguish between genuine and fake steaks from three aspects: price, appearance, and taste.
One, look at the price
The first way to distinguish between genuine and fake steaks is to look at the price. A genuine steak of 100 grams costs around 50 yuan. If it is less than 50 yuan, it is definitely not a genuine good steak, and it must be fake.
Two, look at the ingredient list
Some finished steak packages have ingredient lists. If the ingredient list contains ingredients such as glutamic acid enzyme, soybean protein, edible glue or carageenan, it is obviously made from reassembled meat.However, not all counterfeiters will display ingredient lists on the packaging. For steaks without ingredient lists, we must also master the following identification techniques. Three, look at the appearanceThe most obvious feature of fake steaks is that they are very uniform, because most fake steaks are made by machines.
Pressing
the meat, the appearance is neat and round, relatively uniform and even.However, fake steaks do not have the natural muscle texture of genuine steaks. Some steaks even have no fat at all. Such steaks are undoubtedly fake. The most common fake steaks on the market are usually pressed into round shapes, which are uniform and even. Because this steak is made by splicing other minced meat with edible glue, then pressed into shape by machine. To make it as round as possible, it must be round.
This is the picture of a fake steak. Some fake steaks also have texture, but the texture is very irregular, and may have honeycomb.
If you cut open such a fake steak with a knife, you will find that the texture inside the steak is also unnatural, and some places are already scattered.
Fake bone steakboneThe meat around the head is easy to separate from the bone.The color of fake steaks is usually very bright, which is due to the addition of artificial pigments during processing. However, after thawing, this steak has no blood
or water leakage, which is also a characteristic of fake steaks.This is the real steak made from original meat and cut Genuine steaks have an irregular, strip-like or block-like appearance, with a bright red color and good elasticity, and have obvious natural muscle textures. The meat quality and color are also relatively uniform when cut.
Why do genuine steaks have an irregular appearance? This is because the distribution of beef on the cow is very uneven and irregular.
Therefore, the shape of genuine steaks cannot be uniform and regular. It may also contain some fat. This irregular steak is genuine. Four, tasteOnce the steak is made, it is difficult to distinguish between genuine and fake just by looking at it, especially when the steak is half-cooked and then poured with sauce, it is almost impossible to distinguish between genuine and fake by texture. At this time, we can only distinguish between genuine and fake steaks by taste.
Genuine steaks have the unique chewing feeling and flavor of beef, with tender, juicy, and natural meat aroma. Fake steaks cannot have such a feeling. The meat is loose and lacks chewing, and it is often broken when cut.
Some fake steaks also contain beef paste or beef flavoring. The beef flavor of these fake steaks is very obvious, and the smell is also very strong.
Why are fake steaks basically made into fillet steaks?
About 95% of fake steaks are processed into fillet steaks. This is because fillet steaks are made from
ribeye
steaks. Since ribeye only has two and they are quite thin, it is difficult to cut them into large slices directly, and there will be a lot of minced meat when cutting.Therefore, original fillet steaks are very expensive. Therefore, genuine fillet steaks are sometimes made by reassembling (and this reassembled fillet steak is also a fake steak). This provides an excellent opportunity for counterfeiters. Genuine original fillet steaks are mostly triangular in shape. If you buy one, it is round and regular, which is 99% reassembled. You need to confirm whether it is made of beef or not.
What are the health hazards of fake steaks?
The raw materials of fake steaks are first crushed into minced meat, mixed with minced meat adhesives, beef paste or sodium nitrite, and then pressed into strips by high-pressure machine.
In order to make the meat more tender, it is also soaked in sodium nitrite water for a period of time.
The minced meat adhesive contains lead, arsenic and other heavy metals. Long-term consumption will cause the body's biochemical and physiological functions to be disrupted, which is very harmful to health. To make the meat more tender, it is also soaked in a solution containing sodium nitrite. The binding agent for ground meat contains heavy metals such as lead and arsenic. Long-term consumption can disrupt the biochemical and physiological functions of the human body, causing serious health damage.
