Mythbusters S6.E10 Exploding Steak (August 6th, 2008)

Exploding Steak

In this myth you can supposedly tenderize steak by blowing it up with explosives (who in the world came up with this myth I would like to know). Since they (Adam and Jaime) obviously can’t blow up the steak (no steak would survive the explosion) they have decided to put the steak in a vacuum sealed bag and float it in a barrell of water with some explosive so the meat is only affected by the shockwaves of the blast and isn’t burned by the explosive. They test several strengths of explosives (one blows everything to smitherenes) until they get a meat tenderized by a small explosion and a large explosion. They decide to cook these steaks along with a non tenderized steak, a tenderized steak done by hand, and a premium steak they bought from the store. They then have a taste test along with an Iron Chef champion and all write down which steaks they feel are the most tender. None of them agree so the test is inconclusive. They end up doing the test again and this time they use the same techniques that the government uses to test meat. It is determined that explosive truly do tenderize meat.

While they are on the subject Adam and Jaime also try to other ways to tenderize meat. They shoot it out of an air powered cannon and even put it in a dryer with a bunch of metal balls and let the dryer run the whole night. both encounter some problems. The air cannon has to be readjusted several times before it doesn’t obliterate the steak. The dryer’s motor dies out sometime during the night. The tests come back though and both do actually tenderize the meat. Surprisingly all three myths are confirmed but who would want to go through all that work (and have to buy a new dryer) just to tenderize a steak.

Don’t Drive Angry

In this myth it is believed that you use more gas when you are angry so it is more fuel efficient to drive calm. This myth comes from the fact that if you are stressed out you are more likely to drive faster, more erratically, and stop quicker which are all bad for gas mileage. Kari decides to oversee the experiment while Tory and Grant become the test subjects. They are first given a chance to drive a course (which is set up in a deserted neighborhood). They will then drive the course while stressed and calm. After each run they will weigh how much gas was used. First Tory and Grant are calmed down with things such as puppies, movies, sweets, and massages. They both run the course and are both pretty calm driving (despite Grant not really knowing how to parallel park). They are then stressed out with such things as having to go to the bathroom, beaing stuck in a little circle and not being able to move, getting their feet put in a bucket of fish (Grant is kind of afraid of fish) and getting a man massage (which looks quite painful). While they are getting stressed out Kari changes the car by adding some bad smells, slime on the driving wheel, really loud noices, and a hard uncomfortable seat. You can immediately tell that both Tory and Grant drive much more irratically when they are stressed out. This leads them to actually use over a third more gas (Tory actually used a third more gas and even skipped a third of the course). This myth is confirmed so if you want better gas mileage you should drive calm instead of angry.