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Texture, Toughness, and Tenderness of Meats. Information on how to select and make your meats more tender.
Texture Toughness Tenderness of Meats
Whether the meat is tough or tender depends upon two things the character of the walls of the muscle tubes and the character of the connective tissues which bind the tubes and muscles together. In young and well-nourished animals the tube walls are thin and delicate, and the connective tissue is small in amount. As the animals grow older, or are made to work (and this is particularly true in the case of poorly nourished animals), the walls of the muscle tubes and the con- nective tissues become thick and hard. This is the reason why the flesh of young, well-fed animals is tender and easily masticated, while the flesh of old, hard-worked, or poorly fed animals is often so tough that prolonged boiling, or roasting, seems to have but little effect on it.
After slaughtering the animal, meats undergo marked changes in texture. These changes can be grouped under three classes or stages. In the first stage, when the meat is just slaughtered, the flesh is soft, juicy, and quite tender. In the next stage the flesh stiffens and the meat becomes hard and tough. This condition is known as rigor mortis and continues until the third stage, when the first changes of decomposition set in. In hot climates the meat is commonly eaten in either the first or second stage. In cold climates it is seldom eaten before the second stage, and generally, in order to lessen the toughness, it is allowed to enter the third stage, when it becomes soft and tender, and acquires added flavor. The softening is due in part to the formation of lactic acid, which acts upon the connective tissue. The same effect may be produced, though more rapidly, by macerating the meat with weak vinegar. Meat is usually made more tender by cutting the flesh into thin slices and pounding it across the cut ends until the fibers are broken.
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