The Red Colour of Salted Meat. (One Figure in the Text.)

Abstract

When fresh meat, or blood, is boiled the colour changes from the red of oxyhaemoglobin to a dull, brownish colour. The change of colour is due to splitting up of oxyhaemoglobin into coagulated proteid and haematin, which are precipitated. The dark colour of haematin, mixed with the white of coagulated proteid, gives the dull brown. When, however, meat has been salted, it has a characteristic red colour when cooked. It is evident, therefore, either that ordinary haematin is not split off from the oxyhaemoglobin, or that the colour of the haematin is masked by the presence of another pigment.