YAST: Yet Another Steak Thread (Water Soluble Protein?

[EmperorIQ]

I was reading in the forums, and someone mentioned that the red in medium-rare steak isn't blood, but water soluble protein. Can anyone provide further details? I mentioned this to my friend and he said he asked a doctor if the red in a medium-rare steak was blood and the doctor said: yes it is blood. Any concrete evidence? I tried to google it, but didn't really find anything useful, of course I probably only spent 15 mins or so.

Thanks!

 

[NYSTrooper]

Ugh this is a complicated answer. In the US its almost always chemical dyes.

Edit: Dyes on the exterior of the meat, inside the meat is what the paragraph below refers too.

In a dead animal its a combination of chemicals in the muscle tissue. Mostly its unoxidized, oxygenated blood but it involves iron, oxygen, and hemoglobin oxidation. Very fresh meat is purple/blue because the meat is deprived of oxygen making the muscle tissue a purpleish color. When you cut it and expose it to air it starts to oxidize, and the first stage is to turn red, prolonged oxidation results in a brown color.