WHY IS IT NECESSARY TO BOIL MEAT BEFORE STEWING? : YUCKS! SCUM!

A while back, we received a family recipe for peteh beef and that required the beef to be boiled a little before stewing it. We were really curious and started researching into it. Here are a few reasons.

It really depends on your source of fresh meat. But we cannot be so sure these days, where has it been? What sat on it? Who handled it? The older generation would suggest you boil your chop for a while before actually cooking it to rid the bacteria and dirt that may be on the surface.

FF's good friend, Janice, claims that she is an expert in making tonic soup and that one of the steps to making a good broth is to boil the meat first to remove the scum that will be incorporated into the final product of the soup. Scum is defined as a layer of impurities that accumulates at the surface of a liquid. So, that basically answers our question to boiling meat before cooking. Since scum comes off the surface of most meat, we really don't want to put that in our bodies do we?