On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 266

slaughtering them young to obtain tender, mild, fatty flesh This method also goes back to prehistory, when it was applied to pigs and to the otherwise useless male offspring of hens and dairy animals With the rise of cities, meat animals were confined and fattened exclusively for the urban elite who could afford such a luxury, an art represented in Egyptian murals and described by Roman writers For many centuries, rural and urban meats coexisted, and inspired the development of two distinct styles of meat preparation: roasting for the tender, fattened meats of the wealthy, and stewing for the tough, lean meats of the peasants The Rural Style Disappears With the Industrial Revolution, draft animals were slowly replaced by machines City populations and the middle class grew, and along with them the demand for meat, which encouraged the rise of large-scale specialized meat production In 1927 the U.S Department of Agriculture enshrined the identification of quality with urban-style fattiness when it based its beef grading system on the amount of “marbling” fat deposited within the muscles (see box) Meat from mature animals began to disappear in North America, and ever more efficient industrial production took the urban style to new extremes Mass Production Favors Immaturity Today nearly all meat comes from animals raised exclusively for that purpose Mass production methods are dictated by a simple economic imperative: the meat should be produced at minimum cost, which generally means in the shortest possible time Animals are now confined to minimize the expenditure of feed on unnecessary movement, and they’re slaughtered before they reach adulthood, when the growth of their muscles slows down  ... in the shortest possible time Animals are now confined to minimize the expenditure of feed on unnecessary movement, and they’re slaughtered before they reach adulthood, when the growth of their... system on the amount of “marbling” fat deposited within the muscles (see box) Meat from mature animals began to disappear in North America, and ever more efficient industrial production took the. ..encouraged the rise of large-scale specialized meat production In 1927 the U.S Department of Agriculture enshrined the identification of quality with urban-style fattiness