Okay Pete Evans, so you’re frying up a piece of salmon on a Friday night and then something disturbing happens.
Don’t worry. Your kitchen isn’t on fire but something is looking all kinds of wrong with your healthy dinner.
It’s oozing. White stuff. A lot of white stuff.
Now, ordinarily, a teensie bit of fat materialising on your meat, though seemingly from nowhere, would be no big deal (we’ve all cooked bacon, we know what’s up) BUT THERE’S JUST SO MUCH OF IT WHERE IS IT COMING FROM?
Ugh, exactly.
Okay, but wait for it. That’s not fat. It’s not your salmon supplying its own tartare sauce either.
It’s not cum (heh) and no, it’s not the milky tears of a fish weeping about winding up a meal for someone who clearly knows next to nothing about cooking.
That, my friends, is protein.
LISTEN: We bet Poh Ling Yeownever worries about stuff like this (post continues)…
It’s called albumin. It’s not particularly appetising but is entirely edible.
According to American Test Kitchen, when you heat fish its muscles contract pushing the albumin to the surface where, at a certain heat, it congeals and turns white.
No big deal. In theory.
If it’s still grossing you out you can reduce the amount produced by soaking your little fishy in brine (that’s a fancy way of saying salt water solution) before cooking it.
So there you go. Another day, another niggling unpleasantness swept away by science.
Thanks, Science.
