Description of the Database
The Charred database contains each type of meat by method and doneness.
The method definitions are:
| Method Name | Definition |
|---|---|
| Baked | Cooked in an oven with very little or no added liquid. |
| Boiled | Cooked in large amount of boiling liquid. |
| Deep-fat fried | Cooked by immersing completely in hot fat. |
| Grilled/Barbecued | Cooked over a charcoal or gas grill. |
| Microwaved | Cooked completely in a microwave oven. |
| Oven-broiled | Cooked by direct exposure to the heat source in the oven. |
| Pan-fried | Cooked in a small amount of hot fat in an open shallow pan. |
| Stewed | Cooked by simmering in liquid in the oven, on the stovetop, or in a slow cooker. |
Chicken is also broken down into chicken with skin and chicken without skin as well as lines for 'both'. Questionnaires may ask whether the person ate skin on chicken. The answers are usually:
- all the time
- some of the time
- never
If they responded never, then the skinless type is used.
If they responded all the time, then the skin type is used.
If they responded some of the time, or if the question was not asked on the questionnaire, then 'both' is used. Both is an average of skin and skinless.
For the gravy items, there are several different types. 'Gravy average of all doneness' (link 140) is the average of all doneness methods. This is appropriate to use when the doneness levels of gravy are not asked on the questionnaire. These values should be used only for gravy made with meat drippings. Questionnaires may ask how the subject prepared their gravy. If the subject ate gravy made from meat drippings and also from packages or jars, then the 'Gravy 1/2 values of average' should be used. These values represents values that are 1/2 that of the gravy line (140). If the subject did not eat gravy made from meat drippings, then their gravy data should not be used in the Charred analysis. If doneness levels are asked, then the gravy doneness levels are appropriate to use.
Fish values were measured for HCA compounds. However, the results were incomplete due to the fish sticking to the grill when cooked at higher doneness levels. Therefore, the values are not included in Charred.