Searing Meat Locks in Juices
For over 150 years, home cooks have been told that searing meat at high temperatures creates a magical seal that keeps all the juices inside. The myth that searing “seals in the juices” is an antique that just won’t go away, even though it has been debunked many many times. The first to propagate the idea was a leading German chemist named Justus von Liebig, author of the book “Researches on The Chemistry of Food” published in 1847. Heating meat always squeezes out juices and nothing can stop the process. Some juices drip off during cooking and some evaporate. Unfortunately, this is actually not the case. Not only is the theory unfounded, it’s actually been debunked numerous times over.
The truth is that searing does not somehow weld the fibers shut and lock in the juices. In fact, the reason the surface is crusty is mostly because it has dried out a bit due to the high heat. In fact, cooking meat in a pan over high heat before roasting it in the oven actually leads to moisture loss. Alton Brown conducted an experiment to prove it. In a video for Food Network, Brown weighed two steaks, one that was seared before roasting and one that just roasted in the oven. The roasted steak lost 13 percent of its weight while cooking, while the seared and roasted steak lost 19 percent. Juiciness in meat really comes from fat content, cooking the meat to the right internal temperature, and making sure seared meats like steaks rest after cooking.
Marinating Chicken Deeply Penetrates and Tenderizes
The common belief that marinating chicken for hours or overnight allows flavors to penetrate throughout the meat is one of the most persistent kitchen myths. Marinating chicken — it’s a waste of time. It’s the science of chicken muscle. It doesn’t absorb anything. It coats but doesn’t penetrate in any meaningful way. Some ingredients in a marinade do penetrate the meat—but only by a few millimeters (and oil-soluble herbs and spices in the mix merely add flavor to the exterior). To prove the point, we soaked beef short ribs in red wine for intervals from one hour to 18, then measured the band of purple created by the wine. Even after 18 hours of soaking, the wine penetrated less than 1 millimeter.
The thinking behind this long marinade is that with enough time, the liquid will penetrate the entire piece of meat and infuse flavor evenly throughout the meat. This is unfortunately untrue. According to studies performed by food scientists, even after letting meat soak in a marinade for 8 days, the liquid marinade penetrated less than 1 inch. The only way to get flavour penetration into chicken or other poultry is by brining, particularly by injecting a brine. Acid marinades can alter the texture of the surface of a chicken, but again, don’t penetrate. It can make the surface mushy or stringy. But it does not tenderize the meat.
The reality is that the marinade only needs to be on the meat long enough to cover the all the surfaces of the meat. In a few quick seconds, the marinade will coat the outside of the meat, including all the nooks and crannies, and be sucked up through the capillaries in the meat. Because marinades don’t penetrate deeply, a lengthy soak is pointless. Furthermore, too long a soak in an acidic (or enzymatic) marinade can weaken the protein bonds near the surface so that they turn mushy—or worse, can no longer hold moisture and dry out.
Adding Oil to Pasta Water Prevents Sticking
This kitchen habit has been passed down through generations, but it’s fundamentally flawed in its logic. Oil in the pasta water. appears on many lists of cooking myths that need to be dispelled. The science behind why this doesn’t work is actually quite straightforward when you think about it. Oil floats on top of water due to density differences, so when you add oil to boiling pasta water, it simply sits on the surface rather than coating the pasta as it cooks.
The pasta spends its entire cooking time submerged beneath the oil layer, meaning it has no contact with the oil until the very moment it’s lifted out of the water. By then, any oil that briefly coats the pasta will immediately drain off, taking with it any potential sauce-gripping ability your pasta might have had. What you’re left with is pasta that’s actually more likely to repel sauce because of the residual oil film. The real solution to preventing pasta from sticking is using plenty of water, stirring occasionally during the first few minutes of cooking, and ensuring the water maintains a rolling boil.
You Need Extra Protein to Be Healthy
Currently, there’s huge marketing saying that we’re deficient in protein and that we can’t be healthy without extra protein snack bars, protein added to nearly all kinds of ultra-processed foods and that we’re in a protein crisis. Nothing could be further from the truth. The average American is being told they need from all our scientific studies, about 50 grams a day. If they weigh about 130 pounds, it’s about 60 kilos and they’re eating double that. So we’re similar in the U.K. eating about double the recommended levels of protein already. So it’s a complete myth that there’s a massive gap between supply and demand and that we need to change our diets.
The protein obsession has created a market flooded with protein-enhanced everything, from protein water to protein pasta, despite most people already consuming far more protein than their bodies can actually use. Your body can only process so much protein at once, and excess protein doesn’t get stored as muscle—it gets converted to glucose or fat, or simply excreted. Instead of focusing on cramming more protein into every meal, most people would benefit more from eating a varied diet with quality protein sources spread throughout the day.
Healthy Food Has to Taste Bad
Absolutely not true. You can see this full range of foods that you can get that are really appetizing both in taste and on the eye and super healthy as well. So people need to get into it, get a good cookbook. Start thinking about new ideas. This outdated notion has probably done more damage to healthy eating habits than any other cooking myth. It stems from decades of diet culture that equated suffering with virtue, creating the false belief that if food tastes good, it must be bad for you.
The reality is that healthy foods can be incredibly flavorful when prepared with skill and creativity. Fresh herbs, spices, proper cooking techniques, and quality ingredients can transform simple vegetables into dishes that rival any restaurant meal. Based on the latest science that’s come out over the last 365 days, they bust common food myths, highlight the importance of quality over quantity, and show how the joy of eating can go hand in hand with good health. The key is learning proper techniques for bringing out natural flavors rather than relying on processed foods or excessive salt and sugar.
Microwaving Destroys All Nutrients
Microwaving can preserve nutrients better than traditional cooking methods, as it cooks food quickly without adding water. This misconception has led countless people to avoid one of the most nutrient-preserving cooking methods available. The fear around microwaving often stems from a misunderstanding of how the appliance works and confusion about radiation versus radioactivity.
Microwaves use electromagnetic radiation to heat food by causing water molecules to vibrate rapidly, generating heat from within the food itself. This process is actually gentler on nutrients than many traditional cooking methods because it requires shorter cooking times and often no added water, which can leach water-soluble vitamins. Studies have shown that microwaved vegetables often retain more vitamins C and B than those that are boiled or steamed for longer periods. The speed of microwave cooking means less time for heat-sensitive nutrients to break down, making it one of the best methods for preserving the nutritional value of your food.
