On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 237

filled with many fibrils, which are assemblies of actin and myosin, the proteins of motion When a muscle contracts, the filaments of actin and myosin slide past each other and decrease the overall length of the complex Muscle contraction The view through a light microscope of rabbit muscle fibers, relaxed (above) and contracted (below) Less philosophical questions, but more immediate ones for the cook, have been raised by the changing quality of meat over the last few decades Thanks to the industrial drive toward greater efficiency, and consumer worries about animal fats, meat has been getting younger and leaner, and therefore more prone to end up dry and flavorless Traditional cooking methods don’t always serve modern meat well, and cooks need to know how to adjust them Our species eats just about everything that moves, from insects and snails to horses and whales This chapter gives details for only the more common meats of the developed world, but the general principles apply to the flesh of all animals Though fish and shellfish are as much flesh foods as meat and poultry, their flesh is unusual in several ways They are the subject of chapter 4 Eating Animals By the word meat we mean the body tissues of animals that can be eaten as food, anything from frog legs to calf brains We usually make a distinction between meats proper, muscle tissue whose function is to move some ... moves, from insects and snails to horses and whales This chapter gives details for only the more common meats of the developed world, but the general principles apply to the flesh of all animals Though fish and shellfish are as... much flesh foods as meat and poultry, their flesh is unusual in several ways They are the subject of chapter 4 Eating Animals By the word meat we mean the body tissues of animals that can be eaten as food, anything...getting younger and leaner, and therefore more prone to end up dry and flavorless Traditional cooking methods don’t always serve modern meat well, and cooks need to know how to adjust them Our species eats just about everything that