Cooking in this case means denaturing protein chains in the shrimps, denaturing happens when you apply heat to protein chains but also when you add acids and makes the meat firmer.
You can see the same thing when adding acids to milk and letting it sit for a bit. The milk will start curdling.
Most organisms, but in this case microorganisms, have a PH range that they can survive in.
Because lime juice is so acidic, it drives down (corrected) the PH level outside the survivable range most microorganisms can survive in. The effect is basically the same as cooking as it basically dissolves them in acid (as long as the acid can make contact with them). That is why they use the term “cooking”, because it has the same effect without the need to use heat.
The first is physical changes that happen to food with heat – onions get sweeter and darker, vegetables get softer, meat gets firmer and easier to chew.
Turns out lime juice does the same thing as heat when it comes to fish and shrimp – they turn white, the texture gets firm, etc.
The second part of “cooking” is REALLY IMPORTANT for meat – killing bacteria and parasites that can make you sick. It turns out that for seafood, most of the “germs” (being real loose with that term) are parasites that also die when you freeze it first. This is why raw fish in sushi is generally considered safe – it’s either been raised in a way that’s clean, or (in the USA at least) frozen first for food safety.
LIME JUICE IN CEVICHE DOES NOT KILL BACTERIA OR PARASITES. Again, this is fine if all other safe food handling processes for seafood and shellfish have can followed, but if the fish/shrimp has been sitting out long enough to spoil first, or the shrimp sourced wasn’t clean and wasn’t frozen first, you may still be in for a bad time even though the lime “cooks” the fish.
Heat breaks things, such as paper gets burned into tiny flakes, meat also gets broken down a bit (compare to when it’s raw) when heated making it easier to chew and digest, hence cooking.
Certain meats when exposed to acid break down the same way they do when exposed to heat, hence lime juice “cooking” the shrimps.
In the context of working in a restaurant, I had to explain it to customers whose eyes would probably glaze over if I started talking about denaturing proteins.
Instead, I simplified it to “the acid in the juice does a lot of the same things to the food that cooking does, but without heat”
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Chemical decomposition of the proteins in the food caused by the acid in the lime.
Cooking in this case means denaturing protein chains in the shrimps, denaturing happens when you apply heat to protein chains but also when you add acids and makes the meat firmer.
You can see the same thing when adding acids to milk and letting it sit for a bit. The milk will start curdling.
Most organisms, but in this case microorganisms, have a PH range that they can survive in.
Because lime juice is so acidic, it drives down (corrected) the PH level outside the survivable range most microorganisms can survive in. The effect is basically the same as cooking as it basically dissolves them in acid (as long as the acid can make contact with them). That is why they use the term “cooking”, because it has the same effect without the need to use heat.
You’re telling me a Lime cooked these Shrimps?
When you touch something really hot, you burn you. When you spill acid on yourself, it burns you.
Shrimp are weaker than your hand, and lime juice is a weaker acid than what would burn you. The lime juice “burns” the shrimp, and cooks it.
Cooking makes proteins to go from relaxed and chill to clumpy and wound up tight. Heat has that effect, and so does acid.
Cooking is just chemistry: Using heat to change the molecules that make up your ingredients.
Acids such as lime juice can do the same thing.
“Cooking” means two things.
The first is physical changes that happen to food with heat – onions get sweeter and darker, vegetables get softer, meat gets firmer and easier to chew.
Turns out lime juice does the same thing as heat when it comes to fish and shrimp – they turn white, the texture gets firm, etc.
The second part of “cooking” is REALLY IMPORTANT for meat – killing bacteria and parasites that can make you sick. It turns out that for seafood, most of the “germs” (being real loose with that term) are parasites that also die when you freeze it first. This is why raw fish in sushi is generally considered safe – it’s either been raised in a way that’s clean, or (in the USA at least) frozen first for food safety.
LIME JUICE IN CEVICHE DOES NOT KILL BACTERIA OR PARASITES. Again, this is fine if all other safe food handling processes for seafood and shellfish have can followed, but if the fish/shrimp has been sitting out long enough to spoil first, or the shrimp sourced wasn’t clean and wasn’t frozen first, you may still be in for a bad time even though the lime “cooks” the fish.
Lime juice works on the proteins present in shrimp, but it doesn’t kill microorganisms. This type of “cooking” does nothing for food safety FYI
In the spirit of ELI5 spirit:
Heat breaks things, such as paper gets burned into tiny flakes, meat also gets broken down a bit (compare to when it’s raw) when heated making it easier to chew and digest, hence cooking.
Certain meats when exposed to acid break down the same way they do when exposed to heat, hence lime juice “cooking” the shrimps.
You know how in movies when they throw acid in peoples faces it sizzles? well lime juice is acid.
In the context of working in a restaurant, I had to explain it to customers whose eyes would probably glaze over if I started talking about denaturing proteins.
Instead, I simplified it to “the acid in the juice does a lot of the same things to the food that cooking does, but without heat”