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by - retroglide - on November 4th, 2008
This article was published by NewScientist.com:
Green ham common?
Question:
What causes the greenish iridescent sheen that I often notice on bacon and ham? Is it harmful, and why does it vanish when the product is heated? Does this occur on any other foodstuffs?
Answer:
You are likely to find such a sheen on foods containing traces of fat in water. When it is cool this mix separates out microscopically into a film, like oil on a wet road.
In some types of cold meats, such as sliced silverside of beef or some hams, you may see a handsome opalescence. The beauty of an opal results from light being refracted and diffracted by arrays of microscopic beads of glassy material in a matrix of a different refractive index. In the meat, the effect is caused by microscopic spheres of fat dispersed in watery muscle tissue. Heat up the meat and you destroy the droplets and change the optical character of the matrix so that the effect is spoilt.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg15921527.700.html
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Comments
very comprehensive ..ta.
by Tel UK- Licensed to fish! on November 4th, 2008