Assoc. Prof. Dr. Murat Doğan's article was published in the Journal of Food Taste. The article was featured in the July issue of the journal with the title "What Should We Pay Attention to in the Kitchen on Eid-al-Adha". The text of the article is shared below.
As you know, we realize the Eid Al-Adha in June. Like Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha has the potential to affect our kitchens, diet and eating habits. In addition, there are important points that we should pay attention to regarding the storage and consumption of sacrificial meat during the Eid al-Adha. For this reason, it is very important that we know what red meat is, how we should store it and how we should cook it.
“Let's start with a short description of red meat, if you like.”
When we see its definition, we will realize much more easily what mistakes we made on Eid al-Adha. Red meat is the carcass obtained as a result of slaughtering healthy butchery animals by resting, removing the skin, head, feet and internal organs in a clean way after the blood is drained very well. Of course, the definition does not end there. Yes, this is a valuable protein source obtained as a result of maturing the meat, that is, resting and breaking it up by separating it from the bones.
"Now if we examine the definition, we realize that several points are very important."
The first of these is to shed the victim's blood very well, so that not many mistakes are made in this process. However, we make too many mistakes in separating the skin and internal organs, which is another important point. Generally, there are hygiene-related problems here. The fact that the environment is not suitable for hygienic cutting can cause many problems. Even when the internal organs are separated, a lot of microbes can be transmitted to the clean meat, and then cooking these meats without cooking them well invites food poisoning. Another important point is resting the meat. We know that if we do not rest the meat and in fact do not rest it properly, we may experience some problems. The most well-known of these is that we experience digestive problems caused by meat that is eaten without resting. Also, by misunderstanding the aging process, we can keep the meat at room temperature for hours. This can come back to us as meat spoilage or food poisoning. In fact, the few hours that pass during the slaughter of the sacrifice allow the meat to begin to soften by bypassing the hardening process. If it is not possible to transport the meat to the houses in a refrigerated car, it should not be kept in sealed bags in the trunks of the cars for hours. What needs to be done is to leave the mouth of the bag open to allow air circulation. Another mistake is related to the storage of meat. After a portion of the meat of the sacrifice is served, the remaining portion should not be stored in the refrigerator at +4°C if it will not be consumed within a few days. It should be stored in deep freezers without waiting. Thus, we increase the shelf life of the meat as desired.
“Let me finish the article by talking about the nutritional benefits of red meat.”
Meat is very important in nutrition because of the high biological value proteins it contains. It has many essential amino acids that cannot be synthesized by our body. Especially in the mental development of growing children, the proteins contained in meat are of great importance. In addition, red meat is the food containing the most iron mineral among animal proteins. However, the liver also contains a lot of iron. An important feature of the iron mineral in red meat and liver is that it is highly absorbed by our intestines. This iron, which can be easily absorbed by the intestines, has an important place in the production of blood in our body.
I sincerely congratulate you on Eid-al-Adha.
Stay well…
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Murat Doğan
