A Mathematical Model for Meat Cooking

TL;DR

This paper introduces a two-dimensional mathematical model for steak cooking that accurately predicts moisture loss and shrinkage by treating meat as a poroelastic medium, validated against experimental data.

Contribution

It presents a novel, computationally efficient model based on Flory-Rehner theory to simulate meat deformation and moisture loss during cooking.

Findings

Model shows good agreement with experimental data

New method efficiently accounts for shrinkage

Simulations accurately predict moisture loss and deformation

Abstract

We present an accurate two-dimensional mathematical model for steak cooking based on Flory-Rehner theory. The model treats meat as a poroelastic medium saturated with fluid. Heat from cooking induces protein matrix deformation and moisture loss, leading to shrinkage. Numerical simulations indicate good agreement with multiple sources of experimental data. Moreover, this work presents a new and computationally non-expensive method to account for shrinkage.