Meat pigments Left: The heme group, a carbon-ring structure at the center of both hemoglobin and myoglobin molecules that holds oxygen for use by the animal body’s cells The protein portion of these molecules, the globin, is a long, folded chain of amino acids, and is not shown here Right: Three different states of the heme group in uncooked meat In the absence of oxygen, myoglobin is purple Myoglobin that has bound a molecule of oxygen gas is red When little oxygen is available for some time, the iron atom in the heme group is readily oxidized — robbed of an electron — and the resulting pigment molecule is brownish (right) This connection between exercise and flavor has been known for a very long time Nearly 200 years ago, Brillat-Savarin made fun of “those gastronomes who pretend to have discovered the special flavor of the leg upon which a sleeping pheasant rests his weight.” Fat: The Flavor of the Tribe The machinery of the red or white muscle fiber is much the same no matter what the animal, because it has the specific job of generating movement Fat cells, on the other hand, are essentially storage tissue, and any sort of fat-soluble material can end up in them So the contents of fat tissue vary from species to species, and are also affected by the animal’s diet and resident gastrointestinal microbes It’s largely the contents of the fat tissue that give beef, lamb, pork, and chicken their distinctive flavors, which are composites of many different kinds of aroma molecules The fat molecules themselves can be transformed by heat and oxygen into molecules that smell fruity or floral, nutty or “green,” with the ...fun of “those gastronomes who pretend to have discovered the special flavor of the leg upon which a sleeping pheasant rests his weight.” Fat: The Flavor of the Tribe The machinery of the red... end up in them So the contents of fat tissue vary from species to species, and are also affected by the animal’s diet and resident gastrointestinal microbes It’s largely the contents of the fat... fiber is much the same no matter what the animal, because it has the specific job of generating movement Fat cells, on the other hand, are essentially storage tissue, and any sort of fat-soluble