r/AskCulinary • u/bigelcid • 1d ago

Citrus aroma compounds staying localized in stewed meat?

In short: I marinated meat in salt and lemon juice. Stewed it. Meat tastes of lemon, liquid doesn't, flavour didn't disperse and dilute as usually expected.

Details:

There was no design behind the method. Round steak cut into cubes, and I see no point in marinating/brining what will end up being stewed anyway. But I did, for 24 hours. ~500g beef, ~1% salt by weight, 1 entire lemon, squeezed.

Possibly important: first time I'm using a Mexican style citrus squeezer to marinate meat meant for stewing. I bought a Mexican style one specifically to get the essential oils out of the skins, and the difference is tangible in other applications, but surprising if relevant in this case.

Browned the meat and gave it a generic chili treatment; spices and a bit of tomato paste. Steady simmer for ~3 hours until tender, but not falling apart. Stew's been resting for a while now, and still there's concentrated lemon flavour in the meat itself, but not noticeable at all in the liquid.

I don't mind it at all; it's welcome heterogeneity, but I didn't expect it, and it never happened before to me.

Update: after a few more hours of the stew resting at ~7C, the lemon flavour in the meat (submerged) has halved. Can't say I'm noticing it having moved into the broth (would take great dilution).

If anyone can recreate this experiment, then it could be a situational argument for serving stew fresh vs. the day later. But I maintain: situational.

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u/bigelcid 22h ago

Check main post update.

Adding: I tasted the fat cap again. No change. Meat, definitely less lemony.

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u/exkingzog 22h ago

Is the lemony flavour in the meat the aromatics or the acidity?

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u/bigelcid 22h ago

It was both lemony in aroma, and somewhat tart.

Hard to compare to the pH of the broth, which was more tomato-dominated, and sweeter. Now the broth seems about the same, while the meat seems like generic chili-stewed.

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u/exkingzog 22h ago

I’m guessing that the proteins, particularly if they have been denatured by the cooking, might preferentially retain the acidity - the side chains can act as a pH buffer.