MEAT

Beef – Veal – Pork – Lamb

Composition:
 Nutrient Profile:
o Heme – iron
Protein g Fat g Calorie g
Very lean 7 0-1 35
Lean 7 2-3 55
Medium fat 7 5 75
High fat 7 8 100

 Water (75%)
 Muscle
o PROTEIN
 Bundle of muscle cells (fibers – fibrils) surrounded by
connective tissue
  Adipose Tissue
 Fat, sat fat, unsat fat, fat soluble vitamins
 Fat adds to flavor, juiciness
o COVER FAT:
 Outside of meat
 Can be separable – often trimmed off

o MARBLING:
 Within meat
 Melts when you cook

 Connective Tissue
 Ligaments and tendons that HOLD MUSCLE CELLS TOGETHER
o Collagen:
 most important
 tough and fibrous
 Neck, shoulders, legs, flank
 Converts to gel with moist heat (braising, stewing)
 Tough => tender

o Elastin: Doesn’t soften

 Bone
Pigments:
- 2 key pigments are responsible for color of meats: HEMOGLOBIN AND
MYOGLOBIN
 Myoglobin:
 Carries 02 and stores it in muscles
 Contributes 3x as much to color – purple red
 Red from myoglobin concentration:
- Exercise
- Age
- Species
  Hemoglobin:
 Carries 02 in blood- small amount in meat
 Larger than myoglobin
 4 Heme linked to Iron (red color comes from iron)


 Iron can interact with other compounds and alter the
color of meat

- Oxymyoglobin:
 In presence of air = MYOGLOBIN AND OXYGEN = bright red
- More appealing to customers
- Packaging – plastic wrap
permeable to 02
- Metmyoglobin:
 Limited oxygen and light exposure – BROWNISH RED / RUSTY
RED
-Curing meat – it turns it pink / bright – nitrates
INFO:
• Color changes (air)
Myoglobin + air oxymyoglobin (intense red)
Myoglobin + limited air, too much light metmyoglobin (reddish-brown)
• Color changes (cooking)
Oxymyoglobindenatured globin hemichrome
Fish: heatingenhanced light color; increased opacity
Poultry: heatingcolorless; increased opacity (cannot see through it)
EXTRACTIVES:
 Compounds that contribute to meat flavor
 Pre: sent in well exercised area
 Ex. Creatine; Creatinine; Urea, Uric acid
PREPARATION:
o DRY HEAT:
 No cooking water
 Used for high fat, tender cuts, some lean tender cuts
Ex.:
- Roasting – Broiling – Grilling – Pan-broiling –
Frying (sautéing, pan frying, deep frying)
o MOIST HEAT:
 Water is a cooking medium
 Cuts less tender – with lots of collagen – tougher cuts
Ex.:
- Braising (browning first)
- Simmering / poaching
- Stewing
- Steaming
- Microwaving
o RESTING:
 Raw meat: water is within the myofibrils (fibers)
 Cooking / just cooked: Water goes in the space between the fibers
- Proteins contract, squeeze water out
 Resting / rested: some proteins relax and water is drawn back in –
forms a gel
 REASON: bigger cuts of meat; hot surface proteins need more time to
cool down
HEATING:
 If you cook for too long:
 Tough, shrunken, hard meat, loss of weight, loss of
flavor
  Collagen denatures!
 HIGH TEMPS: Heterocyclic amines are formed – blackened meat - linked to
cancer in lab animals

BEST WAY: long, slow moist heat

 Searing:
- pan fry at high initial temp; caramelizes outside, enhances flavor
- 2 kinds of nonenzymatic browning:
- Mailllard reaction: amine group + reducing sugar + heat
- Caramelization: only sugar
 Blanching: briefly boil – lose vitamins

EFFECT OF SALT AND ACID

o ACID:
 Acts mostly on surface – about one inch within
 Dissolves some proteins
 Help enhance the flavor, juiciness, tenderness
 Too much can alter aroma and flavor
 Ex.: Vinegar, lime juice, lemon juice
o SALT:
 Dissolves in water and helps restructure protein
 Create gaps that fill with water = juicier product
 Loosens fibers = tender product
o Use:
 Brines: have water
 Dry rubs: less diluted – salt in the tissue
It refers to the direction that the muscle fibers are aligned.
more clearly defined and easier to see in tougher cuts — like flank
Cutting against makes for a bunch of short fibers while cutting with makes for a
relatively smaller number of much longer fibers.

Cutting against grain causes muscle and tissue fibers to be shortened

This makes the steak tender and easier to chew, the video explains
Flank steak cut against the grain took 383 grams of force to bite 5mm
Flank carved with the grain required 1,729 grams to cut the same amount
we want to cut through the fibers and shorten them, rather than cut in the same
direction that they run. This makes it easier to chew through, since a lot of the
hard work of breaking up the muscle fibers has already been done for you.

Cutting against makes for a bunch of short fibers while cutting with makes for a
relatively smaller number of much longer fibers.

Cutting against grain causes muscle and tissue fibers to be shortened

This makes the steak tender and easier to chew, the video explains
Flank steak cut against the grain took 383 grams of force to bite 5mm
Flank carved with the grain required 1,729 grams to cut the same amount
we want to cut through the fibers and shorten them, rather than cut in the same
direction that they run. This makes it easier to chew through, since a lot of the
hard work of breaking up the muscle fibers has already been done for you.
PERCENT SHRINKAGE:
 When you cook meat, you lose moisture and fat = RESULT: smaller final
product
 AFFECTED BY:
 Higher final temp = more shrinkage
 Longer cooking time = more shrinkage
𝑤𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑐𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔
 % 𝑠ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑘𝑎𝑔𝑒 = 100 − (( ) ∗ 100)
𝑤𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔

MARKETING TERMS: terms that are regulates USDA

o FRESH: temp never reached below 26 F
o PREVIOUSLY FROZEN: frozen at 0 F
PACKAGING: Label MUST have 3 info:
o Kind of meat: pork, beef, veal
o The primal cut: chuck, rib, loin, round – where in the animal
o Retail cut: blade roast, loin chops, steak – what part of the primal cut
BEEF – TOP ROUND – STEAK
GRADING: it’s about the quality of meat – VOLUNTARY
o Prime: highest quality; most marbling; melts in mouth, rich, costs more,
most sat. fat content
o Choice: less marbling – ADVICE: move to a select choice so you can have
less sat fat
o Select: more red – cheaper – least sat fat content
 INSPECTION: mandatory

Pink Slime:
 Lean, finely texture meat
 Pieces of meat that wouldn’t be used (near skin, extra gristle/fat) – USE
MORE PARTS OF ANIMAL
 Centrifuge heat – lean part if left
 Treated with ammonic acid – kills E coli
 Meat near skin – more contamination

ORGANIC Meats (includes poultry)

 Biggest point – how their “life” is managed
 All organic feed – no synthetic pesticides
 No added antibiotics
 No growth hormones SGH
 Environment:
- Grazed 1/3 of the year
- Pasture for their nutrients
- Access to shade, shelter, exercise, air, sunlight
- Dry and clean bedding

GRASS FED:
 Grass and forage for their lifetime
- Grass, forbs, vegetative state
 No grain, no grain by-product
Grass Fed vs Whole Life
Grass fed: whole life
Grain finished: 1st part of life they are ranging around; Shipped to CAFOs; fed
corn; hormones getting muscles
ANTIBIOTICS:
- Carcasses are tested randomly
HORMONES:
- Allowed in cattle and sheep – not in the EU
- Used to promote weight gain
TENDERNESS:
- What affects?
 Cut – loin is more tender
 Age (the older the less tender0
 Genetics / heredity (Angus are genetically more tender)
 Diet: grain finished vs grass fed
 Marbling = more fat = more tender
 Slaughtering conditions: if animal is stressed and scared, meat
will taste different
 Aging – special conditions after slaughter -= more tender
 Tenderizers: papain
JUICINESS:
- What affects?
- Aging = increases water holding capacity = JUCIER
- Age of animal – young animals less water than older animals
- More marbling = more juiciness
- Rarer = juicier
- Moist methods of cooking = increases loss of water – less juicy
- Serve with juices or gravy
PROCESSED MEATS:
- SOMKED AND CURED: Ham, hot dogs, bacon, sausage, bologna
- Addition of nitrates to keep meats from turning brown and botulism
 Associated with gastric cancer
NUTRITION APPLICATIONS MEATS:
• Meat is high in protein
• More myoglobin = more iron (redder meats have more iron)
• Higher grades have more saturated fat (Prime > Choice > Select)
• Less tender cuts can be cooked with moist heat methods
• % fat in ground beef is not % of kcal from fat
Cooked takes off a fair amount of fat
• Loin cuts are usually leaner
• Cured meats are high in sodium
• Foods made with nitrites are potentially carcinogenic

FISH:
- 7g /oz
- Essential amino acids, complete protein

o COMPOSITION: the composition contributes to the tenderness

 Structure of their muscle:
 Less collagen than meat and chicken
 Different amino acid composition
 Short muscle fibers/segments (arranged in myotomes)
o FARMED FISH:
 AQUACULTURE- netpens and cages anchored to ocean bottom in
coastal waters
 Supplementing, not substituting fishing
 EX.: salmon, cod, bluefin tuna
 Hugely increase in farmed fish

o PIGMENT:
 Pigment of fish comes from 2 things:
 Myoglobin: type of movement – if they swim long distances =
higher myoglobin = darker
  Ex.: Salmon – long distance ; tuna is
darker than tilapia.
 Feed: type of foods
 Ex.: Salmon / steelhead trout
 If they are wild they eat krills – has carotenoids
 Farmed fish eat pellets- corn + other fish stuff +
synthetic pigments (carotenoids)
Observations: farmed salmon don’t swim that much, either farmed and wild get
color from carotenoid in diet. But, if they are wild they also get their color from
myoglobin
o Fatty acids in fish:
 Essential fatty acids: omega 3 and omega 6
 Omega 3 is linked to decreased inflammation and decreased risk of
CVD
 We eat too much omega 6 and not enough omega 3
 THEREFORE THE recom.: eat 4 ounces of fish 2 times a week
- Ex.: fish high in n-3: Salmon,
steelhead trout, mackerel,
herring

Inspection/Grading:
 Both voluntary / not required
 Only inspected fish can be graded
MERCURY
o Fish low in mercury: shrimp, light tuna, salmon, catfish, pollock
o At risk population: pregnant, young, old, immune difficent
o Fish to avoid: Swordfish, king mackerel, shark, tilefish
Red tides:
- Growth of reddish marine algae
- Warm suface temp, high nutrient content, low salinity, calm seas
 - Issue in MA and NE warm waters
- Histamine food poisoning as the fish have increased amts of histamine
- Can’t eat anything from a place that has it
Other contaminants: industrial pollution, organic contaminants, sea lice
STORAGE:
- Fish must be chilled right after catch – histamine poisoning
- Shellfish:
- Eat day of catch
- Lobsters are cooked alive b/c as soon as they die enzymes start
breaking down tissue
SHRIMP:
o Wild caught: eco best, more expensive, domestic
o Maine shrimp: don’t eat, fishery collapsed, over fished
o Imported are farmed: huge amts of antibiotics and slavery working
conditions
PREPARATION:
o Raw fish: potential hazards (esp mollusks, sashimi, ceviche):
- Bacteria, viruses, parasites
Observations: hugely increase in farm fish

POULTRY:
- Chicken, turkey, ducks, geese…

Piece (3 oz.) Calories Protein g fat g sat fat mg Iron

Chicken 103 17 3.5 0.9 0.69
thigh, raw

Chicken 102 19 2.2 0.5 0.31

breast, raw

- Pigment: depends on amount of myoglobin

Important observations:
- Chicken thighs - no skin - have about the same number of calories than
breast; a little more fat (absorbed from skin) and TWICE as much iron
(myoglobin)
- Preparation: thigh stays juicier and more moist – less protein shrinkage
and loss of moisture (due to fat as well)
- Less expensive: using more of the chicken
- Some people think it tastes better
- CONCLUSION: a skinless chicken thigh only has 5 more calories than a
boneless skinless chicken breast, and has 3x the iron. Even when cooked
with skin on and then removed – a little more sat fat but low compared
to DV
NUTRITION APPLICATIONS:
• Dark meat has some more iron than white meat.

• Skinless dark meat does have more fat and sat fat than white meat, but far less than even 95%
lean ground beef, and not much sat fat.

• Cooking with skin adds calories and saturated fat.

• Because chicken nuggets are made with skin, they are high calorie, higher saturated fat, also
very high sodium.

• For all meats, including poultry, 1 ounce=7g protein

TYPE AND STYLE:

• Ground chicken and turkey
Fat and sat fat: chicken 85% lean, turkey 85%, 93%, 99%
Quality: 99% lean dry and hard to work with
Check label for injected sodium solution which may have gluten
Observations: MAP – modified atmosphere packaging – uses 02 and nitrogen to
help maintain the freshness of product
- TYPE OF STORAGE AFFECTS FREEZING TIME