To avoid wasting meat I’ve been doing this for years. So far it has worked and now I wonder about the science behind it:
If for whatever reason I end up with a piece of raw meat that starts smelling a bit strong I cut the piece into small chunks, press the chunks to remove as much liquid as possible, put the meat in a pan, cover the meat with water, let the pan uncovered, boil it and wait till the water completely evaporates. At this point, meat looks brownish or darker depending on the meat I use and it doesn’t smell as strong. I cook it then as I see fit.
I believe by boiling the meat, convection currents take (at least?) some of the bacteria away and this is a safe way not to waste meat. Is this right? Meat always smells better after ‘washing’ it this way.
What you just described is called cooking.
It doesn’t matter how you cook it, cooking it thoroughly will kill the bacteria. However, some bacteria leave toxins behind and cooking won’t get rid of those. Basically don’t eat rotten meat, the best way to tell if it’s rotten is looking for discolouration and it smelling really bad, although this can also be a good thing in some aged meats like game or beef. BTW, beef turning brown when the packet is opened is normal. Supermarkets fill the packets with inert gas to artificially keep the meat looking red.
You’re taking some considerable risk with that because sometimes the illness is not caused by colonization of bacteria in the body, but by consuming substances that the bacteria leave behind as part of their metabolism. These toxins can be resistant to the temperatures we achieve when cooking meat, especially since boiling isn’t going to go beyond 100°C. If anything, you might be diluting the toxins a little, but they’re still in the soup. Here’s a thorough article on bacteria and their toxins in meat: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7152306/
I think it would be a good idea to postpone risky meat and preparation until you speak with a legit expert on the matter.
It kills off most of the bacteria.
However, some bacteria produce toxins that make you sick, and those don’t go away no matter how much you boil them.
Bacteria poop is your enemy, not the bacteria itself.
