Dr. Drew Cassens is a professor at Tarleton University in Animal Science and Veterinary technology and is a meat scientist. He is also Amy’s nephew! He called into The Bobby Bones Show to answer all our meat questions!
First, they asked him if you should microwave a steak before putting it on the grill. He said the idea does make sense to use the microwave to thaw out beef before grilling it, but a negative of doing that is you’re not getting the chemistry part of it where you break down the fats on the meat that truly give it the flavor.
The best way to order a steak for health purposes is medium rare because you’re getting protein broken down. All the bacteria on a steak should be on the surface of it from cooking it on the grill. With steak, as long as it’s cooked, you shouldn’t be concerned about a health hazard if it’s cooked at a lower degree than medium rare. He highly advises against consuming raw meat because you can get sick and become deathly ill. He also recommends having red meat in your diet because it has a ton of benefits and vitamins you need. It’s important to eat meat in a lean meat setting and not eat fatty steaks all the time. He recommends the best and safest way to defrost meat is the microwave, refrigerator or putting it in cold water.
Dr. Cassens coaches two meat judging teams where they travel across the country and compete against other universities. They try to get the students prepared when it comes to beef quality and will go to meat packing plants and get the students familiar with looking at different types of carcasses. They also make sure the students are confident on why they placed certain carcasses cuts in a certain manor. Next time Dr. Cassens is in Nashville, he is going to stop by the studio and cook meat for them.
