Meat is cut from the muscles of mammals and birds. For some reason, some people don't think fish muscle is meat, but it should be. It is the muscle tissue of fish.
On average, lean muscle tissue in mammals is typically broken down as follows: water (about 75%), protein (18%), fat (5%), carbohydrates, salts, vitamins, sugars, and minerals (2% ).
Muscle cells
Muscle cells are more commonly called muscle fibers because they are shaped like tubes. Muscle fibers tied together are called sheaths, and sheaths tied together are called muscles or flesh.
These fibers are about the thickness of a human hair and contain several types of proteins, including myosin and actin, which bind water and act like living organisms by contracting and relaxing on command from the nerves. The same engine. As an animal ages, grows, and is exercised, its muscle fibers become thicker and tougher.
Myoglobin is another important protein in muscle fibers. Myoglobin receives oxygen and iron from hemoglobin in the blood, which is the fuel necessary for muscles to function. Myosin and actin are insoluble in water, but myoglobin, the protein in meat that gives it its red color, is water-soluble.
Yes, the red color of meat and its juices is not caused by blood. It is myoglobin dissolved in water, called myohydrin. Myoglobin is found only in muscles, not in the blood. The slaughterhouse was almost drained of blood. If the thing on the plate when you cut your steak was blood, it would be darker, like human blood, and it would clot like human blood. If the liquid is blood, pork and chicken will appear dark red. Mostly just water.
Beef contains an average of 8 milligrams of myoglobin per gram of meat, making it one of the darkest red meats. Mutton contains about 6 mg per gram, pork about 2 mg/gram, and chicken breast about 0.5 mg/gram. If pork is another white meat, then lamb is another red meat. When heated, gravy containing myoglobin loses its red color, turning light pink and eventually tan or gray.
The liquid in meat is mostly water. When the animal is alive, the pH of muscle fibers is approximately 6.8 (level 14). The lower the number, the higher the acidity. The higher the number, the more alkaline and the less acidic. At 6.8, living muscles are almost in a neutral state. When an animal dies, the pH drops to around 5.5, making it acidic. At this pH, the muscle fibers form bundles and squeeze out juices, called purification, and this is the juice seen in the meat buns, which is absorbed by the diaper the butcher places under the meat.
Muscle fibers also contain other proteins, especially enzymes. Enzymes play an important role in the aging process of meat.
Connective tissue
The most obvious forms of connective tissue are tendons, which connect muscles to bones, and ligaments, which connect bones to other bones. It can also be thought of as the thin, shiny sheath surrounding the muscles called silverskin or fascia. These tougher, chewier, rubber-band-like connective tissues are mostly collagen and elastin (as opposed to muscle, which is mostly myosin). We call them cartilage, and when heated they shrink and become difficult to chew. Like muscle fibers, connective tissue thickens and toughens as the animal is exercised and ages.
A softer connective tissue called collagen is spread throughout muscles, often surrounding the fibers and sheaths that hold them together. Yes, it's pretty much the same stuff actors inject into their faces to smooth out wrinkles.
When you cook, the collagen melts and turns into a rich liquid called gelatin, similar to the material jelly is made from. The cooked muscle fibers are no longer held together by collagen and are now evenly coated with a soft, gel-like lubricant. This smooth and sensual substance gives the meat a wonderful silky texture and adds moisture.
Lean cuts of meat like beef or pork tenderloin, as well as most chicken and turkey, don’t have much collagen. When cooking tough cuts of meat with a lot of connective tissue, like ribs, brisket, and shoulders, it's important to liquefy the meat's connective tissue into gelatin: This is what makes these tough meats taste more tender. This takes time. That's why these cuts are usually cooked low and slow.
If heated quickly, muscle fibers will begin to seize around 125°F to 140°F. But when heated slowly, the rubber band-like connective tissue has time to relax and not squeeze tightly. It is generally considered best to cook all meats at around 225°F. Slow roasting does wonders for meat. Think clay glue. Press hard and fast and it will feel like a hard solid. Press slowly and it will flow. When heated slowly, the muscle fibers do not squeeze out the water, but relax, simply allowing the water to remain inside until evaporation removes it.
After the gelatin melts, as it cools it solidifies into that crumbly stuff that, with a little filtering, can be called aspic and served in bridge clubs. It's a simple pot made by boiling a few pieces of chicken carcass in water after eating the meat, discarding the bones, and then cooling the liquid.
Fat
Fat (lipids) and oxygen are the primary fuels that power muscles. Fat is rich in calories, which are potential energy released when chemical bonds are broken. From a culinary perspective, there are three types of fat:
• Subcutaneous fat is the thick, hard layer beneath the skin.
• Intermuscular fat is the layer between muscle groups.
• Intramuscular fat, woven between muscle fibers and muscle sheaths, improves the moisture, texture and flavor of meat when cooked. These lines of intramuscular fat are called marbling because they have a striated appearance similar to marble.
There are also large amounts of fat deposits around organs, especially the kidneys. The best type of fat for pigs, at least from a cooking standpoint, especially when you're making pie crust, is called lard, and it comes from around the kidneys. Fat is vital to meat quality. Waxy when cold, fat begins to melt around 130°F to 140°F, lubricating muscle fibers while the muscle fibers become tougher and drier in the heat. Fat does not evaporate like water when cooking.
Fat also provides much of the meat's flavor. It absorbs and stores many aromatic compounds found in animal foods. As the animal ages, these flavor compounds accumulate and become more pronounced. After an animal is slaughtered, fat can become sour if it is stored at too high a temperature, for too long, or in contact with oxygen. So we need to weigh that. As an animal ages and is exercised, muscle fibers and connective tissue become tougher, and fat accumulates and develops flavor.
Fat, especially animal fat, is a hotly debated topic among scientists, doctors, nutritionists and health fanatics. For many years, animal fats were considered dangerous and avoided. Fats, even animal fats, are now thought to contain many beneficial properties, and current science agrees that moderate amounts of fat are essential for health.
Slow twitch fibers and fast twitch fibers
Muscle fibers require fat and oxygen for fuel. Fat comes from fatty acids in the animal's blood that are produced by digesting food. Oxygen is carried by heme in the blood and delivered to myoglobin in the muscles.
Generally speaking, the more exercise a muscle gets, the tougher it becomes and the more oxygenated myoglobin it requires. Myoglobin makes meat darker and more flavorful. Dark meats such as beef, lamb, duck and goose are made up of "slow-twitch" muscles that have evolved to withstand slow, steady movement and are rich in juicy myoglobin. Dark meat also contains more fat to provide energy.
White meat, such as chicken breast, is mostly "fast-twitch" muscle, which is more suitable for short bursts of energy and contains less myoglobin. The chicken legs are slow-smoked, and although they are not red, they are darker than the chicken breasts. When cooked, the slow-twitch muscle in dark meat has more water and fat, making it tastier than white meat. White meat contains less water and fat and is more likely to dry out when cooked. Poultry get more exercise when standing and walking than when flying, so the legs and thighs have lots of slow-twitch muscles, more pigment, more juice, more fat, and better flavor. They are also slightly more forgiving when cooked. Modern chickens and turkeys are raised for large breast meat because white meat is more popular in this country. We would choose tough and tasty food over tender and bland food any day.
Ducks and geese are good at flying and swimming, and they get more exercise than chickens and turkeys, so these birds have more dark meat. Duck and goose breasts are dark purple, almost the same color as lamb or beef.
Domestic pigs were bred to contain less muscle fat when conventional wisdom held that dietary fat could cause heart and artery problems. Modern pigs don’t get much exercise due to their transformation into “another white meat”. In recent years, research has raised questions about the relationship between dietary fat and health, and many experts now extol the benefits of fat.
Beef is nearly identical in color, but slow-twitch cuts (like flank steak) have a larger, richer flavor than some of the less used muscles (like tenderloin).
Fish live in an almost weightless environment, so their muscles are very different. Fish muscles have almost no connective tissue, which is one reason why fish will never be as tough as pork when cooked. But the fish may dry out because there isn't much collagen to moisten the muscle fibers. The color and texture of fish vary depending on the environment in which they live. Small, fast-swimming fish mostly have fast-twitching muscles and white flesh, while flounder, which live on the seafloor, have delicate, flaky flesh. Torpedoes like tuna and swordfish can swim long distances with slow, steady movements of their tails, so their flesh is firmer and darker, sometimes even red. For these and other reasons, fish spoils within a few days of being caught, whereas red meat can be kept longer.
Brown is beautiful, black is terrible
The most amazing transformation that occurs during meat cooking is the Maillard reaction. It is named after the French scientist who discovered the phenomenon in the early 1900s. The surface turns brown, crispy and fragrant. Who doesn’t love the crispy crust of roast beef slices and the brown crust on freshly baked bread? We don’t think much of it, but the brown color on the surface is a sign of the hundreds of compounds produced when heat begins to change the shape and chemical structure of the amino acids, carbohydrates, and sugars on the surface of the meat. What you don’t want is dark meat. Let it go too far and it turns to carbon. Carbonized meat can be unhealthy.
