Cooking is basically just edible chemistry, the precursor science itself, yet there has always been a stark divide between the science of science and the science of food. Somehow, unless it was directly related to nutrition (and thus health) it was seen as shallow to try to bring the modern understanding of science to bear on such an ancient and human issue. Yet, lately, modern insights into the chemistry and even micro-biology of food have led to improvements in cooking.

Bread-making, and baking in general, have progressed enormously in terms of their ability to intentionally get very specific results without years or decades of trial and refinement. Hell, we only recently figured out why kettles scream when they boil. And now, a team of Australian researchers have decided to look very (very) closely at the science of meat.

What they found was that the dogma on just why and how meat shrinks and deforms as it cooks could very well be wrong. Traditionally, the idea was that a steak shrinks as it cooks because connective tissue in the muscle fibers shrinks as it denatures, squeezing water out of the steak and shrinking it. This is part of the reason steaks dry out if you cook them for too long, but the University of Melbourne team discovered that there were other mechanisms at play. The team cooked muscle cells that has been completely separated from all connective tissue, and found that they not only denature as you’d expect regular muscle cells surrounded by collagen, but that they actually break down in a two-step process as cooking heat increases.

That means there are actually two muscle cell proteins responsible — and that opens up the possibility of playing in the space between the two critical temperatures. Could the ultimate steak come from ultra-precise heating with step-wise protein breakdown in mind? Sous-vide cooking is all about getting that kind of precision, and its proponents say (and never stop saying) how great it is. Having a better understanding of just what it is we’re doing to the meat when we heat it will have a lot to do with getting a perfect steak every time, and for the reasons you think you’re getting it. It’s one thing to follow a set of voodoo procedures passed down through the generations, and quite another to grasp the totality of the importance of your own actions.

The chemistry of meat can lead you to some very easy, cheap, and effective cooking tips. There’s a chemical principle called the Maillard reaction, which creates amino acid linkage heated in the presence of sugars. This is why many steak aficionados insist on searing the outside of the steak either on a hot stove or over an intense open flame before moving it aside for a slower cook at lower temperature — by searing the outside and creating a water-resistant seal of charred protein you trap more of the moisture inside the steak. The criss-crossed lines of charred meat show how the reaction gets more intense with more focused heating, as the metal of the grill sears the protein more effectively than the convection of air.

Understanding the Maillard reaction means not only that you can keep a juicier steak, but that you can cook the steak for longer to bring out more flavor without drying it out or losing any of the meaty texture. Likewise, this research should let cooks and hungry scientists start to experiment with getting the perfect texture in a steak — and it could even lend some insight into how to create the perfect, free-range quality beef steak synthetically. Lab-grown meat has thus far been less than impressive in terms of taste and texture, and we won’t be able to fix that without knowing exactly which parts of the cells are most important in the mouth.