Beer on my Beef Please

By: Kate M. Serrano

Nothing beats a cold bottle and a hot steak on the grill. What’s more cool is pouring the cold one on your meat before grilling also has a positive effect on health.

Using beer as flavor base of marinade dates back to the old Egyptian and Mesopotamian days. Both civilizations are advanced and archaeological evidence suggests their cuisine was rich and flavourful. A tough steak can be extremely difficult to chew. Beer allows you to enjoy the once tough leaner cuts as its alcohol content helps tenderize the meat by breaking down its proteins. The longer the steaks marinate in beer, the more meat proteins dissolve, and the more tender the steaks become.  Plus, the beer combined with citrus juices or vinegar will make the tenderizing process faster than with just the beer alone. Of course beer marinade doesn’t only work on steak and meat. Wheat or white beers can be used to steam hot dogs or to base sauces for steaks. Also, flavoured beers like apricot or lime are good choices when paired with sauces or marinades of the same flavor.

And here is the good part. According to the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, marinating with beer reduces polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). These are the deadly carcinogens that form on meat cooked on a grill or barbeque. Limited exposure to PAHs mean limited exposure to cancer. In an experiment conducted by researchers, they found that dark beers reduced net PAHs by 53 percent. This is twice the effect compared to results from a non-alcoholic pilsner, which reduced only 25 percent.

So next time you plan on a barbeque party, keep in mind that beer-bathed pork and beef may look as healthy as it tastes. Just make sure not to drink the marinade.
                 

One Beautiful, but Unbalancing, Result of Climate Change

By: Jessica Robertson

Climate change is responsible for many environmental shifts that no one appreciates. With climate change still desperately needing addressing, one recently recorded shift is something we can all enjoy visually, but hopefully it skirts any negative effects on the surrounding wildlife.

            Scientists who track flower blooming patterns within the meadows of the Rocky Mountains have noticed a surprising pattern. As the climate changes, the season for blooms has lengthened by more than an entire month. Thirty-nine years ago, when records first began, the beautiful flowers would bloom beginning in late May and flower until early September. The newest studies are showing the first blooms in late April and the last blooms in late September.

            No one wants to complain about the extended presence of flowers, right? If that were the only facet of the story, we could all be happy. However, since climate change affects the millions of Rocky Mountain flowers with more complexity than first understood, some flowers are responding in unexpected ways.

            With the changes, the flower combinations that bloom together are different than they once were. It is expected that these shifts will affect the insects, birds, and animals that rely on the changing plant life. Take, for example, the hummingbird; every year, hummingbirds nest deliberately so that their eggs hatch when the flowers are at their peak bloom, meaning plenty of nourishing nectar for the growing baby birds. Now, with the blooming season spreading over a longer period of time but the same number of total flowers, peak bloom holds fewer flowers for hungry bugs and birds.

            This summer, the study will continue, finding valuable information on how these changes do affect the wildlife. One researcher plans to study the hummingbird population, particularly. Hopefully the findings will show we can appreciate the extended presence of flowers and not need to worry about unbalance in this ecosystem.