Technically, meat is cut from the muscles of mammals and birds. For some reason, fish muscle is not considered meat, but it should be. Meat is composed of muscle fibers, fat cells, and connective tissue. Lean muscle tissue typically breaks down like this ("other" is usually minerals and sugars):

Other cuts can vary significantly. Shoulder meat tends to have a lot more fat and connective tissue. Pork rib meat, for example, is more like 65% water, 18% protein, 15% fat, and 2% sugars and minerals.

Muscle cells. Muscle cells are about the thickness of a human hair and are surrounded by a sheath of thin diaphanous connective tissue that attaches the muscle cells to each other to form bundles called muscle fibers and bundles of bundles called myofibrils. Muscle cells are mostly protein and water. The proteins are mostly myosin and actin, which react differently to heat. As the animal ages, grows, and exercises, muscle fibers get thicker and tougher. So do the connective tissues.

Connective tissues. Connective tissue is most obvious in the form of ligaments that connect muscles to bones. It is also visible as the thin shiny sheathing that wraps around muscles called silverskin. These tougher, chewier connective tissues are appropriately named elastin. A softer connective tissue called collagen is invisibly scattered throughout the muscle. When you cook, collagen melts and turns to a rich liquid called gelatin, the same stuff Jell-O is made from. This gives meat a wonderful silky texture and adds moisture. Lean meats like loin, tenderloin, and poultry don't have much collagen. When cooking tough cuts of meat with lots of connective tissue, like ribs and shoulder, it is important to liquefy connective tissue into gelatin. After it melts, as it chills, gelatin can solidify into that jiggly stuff which, with a little processing, can then be served at bridge clubs.

Fat. Fat is the fuel that powers muscles. It is packed with calories. Meat can have large visible hunks of fat, threads of fat, and small bits of fat. Meat with lots of threads of fat woven amongst the muscle fibers is called marbled because it has a striated look similar to marble.

Fat is crucial to meat texture. Waxy when it is cold, at about 130 to 140°F fat starts to melt and lubricate the muscle fibers just as they are getting tougher under the heat. Fat does not evaporate when you are cooking as does water.

Fat is also the source of much of the flavor in meat. It absorbs and stores many of the aromatic compounds in the animal's food. As the animal ages the flavor compounds build up and get stronger. After the animal is slaughtered, the fat can turn rancid if stored too warm or in contact with oxygen. So we have a tradeoff. The muscle fibers and connective tissues get tougher as the animal ages and exercises, while the fat accumulates and builds flavor.

Animal fats are the subject of a great deal of debate among doctors and dieticians. For many years they were thought to be dangerous and to be avoided. It is now known that fats contain many beneficial properties, and some argue that, in moderation, animal fats are essential for health. A great deal of interesting research on the subject is gong on as I type this.

Fluids. Most of the liquid in meat is protein laden water called myoglobin. The reddish color in meat and its juices is not caused by blood. That was pretty much all drained out in the slaughter house. If the stuff on your plate when you slice a steak was blood, it would be much darker, and it would coagulate, like human blood. If the fluids were blood, then pork and chicken would be dark red. It's mostly just water, so let's stop grossing out our kids, and just call it juice. OK?

Slow twitch vs. fast twitch muscles

Muscle fibers need fat and oxygen for fuel. The fat comes from the animal's food that has been converted to fatty acids in blood. The oxygen is carried by the protein hemoglobin in the blood stream. Hemoglobin hands the oxygen to myoglobin, the pink protein liquid that travels through the muscle and passes it to the fibers.

In general, the more exercise a muscle gets, the tougher it is, the more oxygen laden myoglobin it needs, and the myoglobin turns the meat darker and makes it more flavorful. Dark meats, like chicken thighs are made of "slow twitch" muscles designed for slow steady movement and endurance, and are loaded with juicy myoglobin. White meats, like chicken breasts, are mostly "fast twitch" muscles, designed for brief bursts of energy, and have less myoglobin. Dark meats also have more fat for energy.

When cooked, slow twitch muscles have more moisture and fat and are more flavorful than white meat. White meats contains less moisture and fat, and so it dries out more easily when cooking. The legs and thighs of chickens and turkeys get more exercise standing, walking, and running, so they have lots of slow-twitch muscles, more pigment, more juice, more fat, and more flavor. They are also slightly more forgiving when being cooked. Modern chickens and turkeys have been bred for large breasts because white meat is more popular in this country (and I for one, can't understand why).

Ducks and geese are designed for flying and swimming and they get more exercise, so they have more dark meat. Duck breasts are almost the same color as beef.

Small fish swim with quick darting motions have mostly fast-twitch muscles and white meat, but tuna swim long distances with slow steady tail movements are so they are mostly red meat.

Modern domestic pigs have been bred to have less intra-muscular fat for a health conscious society, and they don't get much exercise, so they have become "the other white meat".

Beef is all pretty much the same color, but slow twitch muscles like flank steak have bigger richer flavor.

Lean in and I'll tell you the secret to eating well: Get to know your butcher.

In my book, knowing a good butcher is more important than knowing a good stock broker. That's my favorite butcher at right wearing an AmazingRibs.com cap, Dario Cecchini in his 200-year-old butcher shop in Panzano-in-Chianti in Italy. OK, I don't see him often, but I do know the head butchers at all three groceries near me, and they know me, too.

In my blue-collar neighborhood in a suburb just west of Chicago there used to be many butcher shops. The big grocery stores and the big department stores that carry meat, like Walmart, have put them all out of business. In the past decade I have lost two great butcher/craftsmen to the big box stores, Hermann Zanoni and Dennis Morini.

Many grocery stores get their meat shipped to them pre-cut and packaged from a central warehouse. But many still have butchers on premise. Find them. The head butcher is usually on duty early morning through early afternoon. Stop at the counter and ask for the head butcher and the assistant. Don't be surprised if they are women. Introduce yourself. Chat them up. Swap recipes. Tell them about AmazingRibs.com. Get the phone number of the butcher department. Ask them about their favorite cuts and what they think are some of the best meats they get. Ask if they can special order USDA Prime grade beef or less popular cuts like beef tri-tip or whole packer briskets. Set yourself apart from the crowd.

Many big grocers get fresh meat every day, but some don't. Ask about delivery dates and times. Unless you're on the coast, fish is usually not delivered daily and freshness is more important in fish than any other meat. Then, one day, bring in a slab of ribs you're proud of and leave it for the butcher staff to enjoy with lunch. Show them you've got the goods.

Soon after you meet them, while they can still taste those ribs, call in an order. Normally they don't cut ribeyes 1 1/2" thick, and I think that's the best size, so order some. Don't be in a hurry. My butcher has been known to set aside the pick of the litter for me even when it is on sale, but be willing to pay full price for the best cuts.

Not all meat is the same. Get to know your meat cuts and grades but don't be afraid to ask your butcher for help. Baby backs cost more than spare ribs, but spare ribs are usually richer and juicier because they have more marbling and more connective tissue. But baby backs have better marketing (remember the Chili's jingle?). Filet mignon is the most tender beef cut, but ribeye is the most flavorful. I've written articles on the different cuts of beef and the different cuts of pork. In addition, beef is graded and those grades are important to know. Read my article about beef grades.

Pick meat carefully. Meat needs to be stored cold, just a few degrees above freezing. Open top display cases work fine, but the bottom pieces may be cooler than the top pieces. Compare the different packages.

Look for liquid in the package. This is called purge and is often a sign that the meat has been frozen and thawed. This moisture and flavor cannot be replaced. Avoid meat with a lot of purge.

Pay attention to the dates on packaging. "Sell By" date tells the store when to remove products from the shelf. "Best If Used By" or "Use By" dates tell you when you should eat or freeze the product. These dates are not related to safety, just quality. And you can no longer rely on the color of meat if it is prepackaged because some grocers now sell red meat packed in a carbon monoxide atmosphere to prevent browning. Remember, the dates are meaningless once the package has been opened and exposed to air and bacteria.

There are a few days right after slaughter when rigor mortis makes the meat tough, but that is gone by the time the meat arrives in your store. As meat ages, enzymes and oxidation changes the flavor. Pick the most recently cut meats. Read the dates on the labels (if there are any). Yes, beef can improve with aging, but it has to be aged properly. Beef seems to be best after about 30 days if it is packed in Cryovac, that thick vacuum sealed plastic. It will not keep that long if it is just shrink wrapped onto a styrofoam tray with air inside. Here's an article with more on aging beef. For pork, poultry, and most other meats, the fresher the better.

Freezing meat

Use or freeze meat soon after you get it home. Have you noticed what happens when you thaw frozen meat? It can purge a lot of juice. That's because freezing forms sharp ice crystals that break open meat fibers. When those juices escape and there's no way to get them back in. You end up with dry meat. That's why fresh meat is usually juicier than frozen meat. Frozen meat can be fine, especially if it is flash frozen, a process that freezes it so quickly that the crystals remain small, do less damage, and create less purge.

If you must freeze meat, keep in mind that air is the enemy. Oxygen can speed degradation of fats, introduce odors, and it can promote discoloring and chemical change from freezer burn. I highly recommend vacuum devices like the FoodSaver products. You place food in a plastic bag, insert the open edge into the machine, and it sucks out the air and seals the bag. It can double or triple the time food stays fresh tasting in the freezer. If you don't have one of these nifty gadgets, put in a zipper bag and squeeze out the air by slipping it into a pot of cold water and let the water pressure push out the air. Then zip the bag. This method takes a little practice, but it works great. If you don't have zipper bags, take the meat out of those plastic trays and rewrap it tightly with plastic wrap and then with foil. Plastic wrap alone is permeable and will allow moisture to escape and air in.

Another important step is to freeze the meat rapidly so there are smaller ice crystals than if you freeze it slowly. To freeze meat most rapidly, bag it and remove the air and submerge it in icewater for a few hours. Water is a great conductor of heat and it will chill the meat quickly to just above freezing. Then place it on a rack in your freezer so there can be airflow all around. Then wrap it tightly in foil. Frozen beef will stay pretty fresh tasting for six months or so, while pork, lamb, fish, and poultry can start tasting funky after 3 months or so.

To defrost it rapidly, put it in a sink or bucket or beer cooler with cold water and change the water every 30 minutes or so. Click here to read my article about thawing foods.

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is among the compounds formed in the high heat combustion of wood, charcoal, and even propane. As these compounds land on the surface of meat, especially cool moist meat from the fridge, some, including nitrogen dioxide, are moved deeper into the meat as cells lower in the smoke compounds pull them in with a diffusion and absorption process. The cells are simply seeking equilibrium. The process is the same as when someone lights a cigar in a room. All the smoke starts out near the cigar, but eventually it spreads throughout the room as it achieves equilibrium. After a while it penetrates clothes, furniture, and even food. Because it is water soluble, cigar smoke will get into wet things first, like your wife's eyes. Before long you and your cigar will be seeking equilibrium in the garage.

The smoke ring in meat is caused by four things:

1) Low temperature cooking,
2) combustion of the wood at high temperatures to form nitrogen dioxide,
3) nitrogen dioxide, and
4) moisture on the surface of the meat to help move the water soluble nitrogen dioxide into the meat.

When these conditions are met, nitrogen dioxide in wood smoke reacts with the myoglobin in meat to form nitrites and nitrates. These are the same compounds added to hot dogs and other cured meats to preserve them and they also give them their pink color.

When smoke roasting, the moist meat absorbs smoke. Less smoke is absorbed as the cooking continues because the surface of the meat begins to seal and becomes saturated with smoke. For this reason putting a pan of water in a smoker helps create a smoke ring. In fact some smokers, called water smokers, have water pans built in.

Most of the smoke flavoring occurs in the first hour or two of cooking so adding wood to the fire late in the cook doesn't create as much flavor. It also allows moisture to escape. It's better to just leave the door closed.

Sauce late

Sweet sauces can burn if you add them too early in the process and they can prevent the smoke from penetrating the meat. For the best saucing strategies, click here.

Bottom line

Take your time, dial down the heat, and have the following on hand: a cooker with good heat control, a good thermometer, a comfy chair, a good book, and a great beer.

Here's a good video explaining the Maillard effect and caramelization

This page was revised 9/19/2011