TEXTURE AND FLAVOR OF MEAT

Although meats vary greatly in the amount of fat which they contain and
to a much less degree in their protein content, the chief difference to
be noted between the cheaper and more expensive cuts is not so much in
their nutritive value as in their texture and flavor. All muscle
consists of tiny fibers which are tender in young animals and in those
parts of older animals in which there has been little muscular strain.
Under the backbone in the hind quarter is the place from which the
tenderest meat comes. This is usually called the tenderloin. Sometimes
in beef and also in pork it is taken out whole and sometimes it is left
to be cut up with the rest of the loin. In old animals, and in those
parts of the body where there has been much muscular action, the neck
and the legs for example, the muscle fibers are tough and hard. But
there is another point which is of even greater importance than this.
The fibers of all muscle are bound together in bundles and in groups
of bundles by a thin membrane which is known as connective tissue. This
membrane, if heated in water or steam, is converted into gelatin. The
process goes quickly if the meat is young and tender; more slowly if it
is tough. Connective tissue is also soluble in acetic acid, that acid to
which the sourness of vinegar is due. For this reason it is possible to
make meat more tender by soaking it in vinegar or in vinegar and water,
the proportions of the two depending on the strength of the vinegar.
Sour beef or "sauer fleisch," as it is known to Germans, is a palatable
dish of this sort. Since vinegar is a preservative this suggests a
method by which a surplus of beef may be kept for several days and then
converted into a palatable dish.

Flavor in meat depends mainly on certain nitrogenous substances which
are called extractives because they can be dissolved out or "extracted"