TEXTURE (Toughness) OF MEATS. Whether meats are tough or depends upon two things: the character of the walls of the muscle 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 ease of poorly nourished animals) the walls of the muscle tubes and the connective 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, 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 slaugh tered. 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 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 pro duced. though more rapidly, by macerating the meat with weak vinegar. Meat is sometimes made tender by cutting the flesh into thin slices and pounding it across the cut ends until the fibres are broken.
The flavor depends largely upon the kinds and amounts of `nitrogenous extractives' which the muscle fibres or tubes contain. Pork and mutton are deficient in extractives. and what flavor they possess is due largely to the fats contained in them. The flesh of birds and of most game is very rich in which accounts for its high flavor. In general, the flavor of any par ticular meat is largely modified by the condition of the animal when slaughtered. and by its food. age, breed, etc. The flesh of young animals is more tender than but not so highly flavored as that of more mature animals. It is often said that the flesh of males is more highly flavored than that of females. There are at least two excep tions to this rule, since the flesh of the goose is more highly flavored than that of the gander, and in the case of pork there is little difference between the flesh of the male and that of the female. Castration, as illustrated ill the familiar example of the capon. tends to make the flesh more tender, fatter, and hotter flavored. The flesh of the animals which feed exclusively upon fish or flesh has a strong. disagreeable taste, and is eaten only by uncivilized people or in great need. Fish is an exception to the rule, however. Meat which is allowed to hang and ripen develops added flavors. In the first stages of decomposition compounds quite similar to the nitrogenous extractives arc formed, and it is to these that the improved flavors are due.