MEAT COLOR AND FLAVOR
You have surely noticed that meat can be either white or red, or something in-between. Why is it so? The answer is myoglobin. This is a molecule that can store oxygen and supply it to the working muscles. Myoglobin with an attached oxygen is red, myoglobin without an oxygen is more purple. If a muscle doesn't have much myoglobin then its color is white. So what are the reasons that some muscles have more myoglobin than others? The type of exercise it gets! If a muscle is working in longer time periods, its action is fueled more by myoglobin oxygen that can be used for burning of energy provided in fat depots. However, if a muscle only works occasionally, in fast sprints or runs, then myoglobin is set aside in favor of glycogen, which is a faster burning fuel. After all, it takes time to transform fat into energy, but it carries much more energy than glycogen, which is why it is used in the long-lasting less intensive muscle work. Now, most muscles are used in both long-lasting and fast&intensive muscle work, so a lot of muscles contain both colors of muscle fibers, although the proportions vary depending on how each particular muscle is used.
Not only exercise, but also the age of the animal determines the amount of myoglobin in the muscles. Young animals have less myoglobin than the adults, even in the red muscle fibers. Their meat is therefore more pale. Some muscles, like chicken breast, are mainly used in short intensive runs so the meat is fairly white. On the other hand, chicken legs, used continuously for standing up and walking, are colored red with myoglobin.
How does the meat gets its flavor? Surely from the molecules it contains! However, it's not that simple. Meat contains not only muscle proteins, but also fat, sugars, salts - all in various amounts. As a general rule, the more of these different ingredients there is in meat, the richer the flavor will be. Meat richest in its flavor molecules is the meat that has been well exercised, that is, with more of the red myoglobin-containing muscle fibers. Now, some cuts of red meat are tough (due to all this exercise) although you can find some tender cuts as well (e.g. tenderloin), and you can learn how to prepare tougher meat properly so it becomes more tender (more on that on our other pages). In addition to that, we need to remember that meat flavor is also changed by heating. The heat energy makes the different proteins, amino acids, and sugars react with one another. More flavorful molecules are created in such way. This is why chefs are browning the meat all the time - it's not only for the sake of a crispy surface, browning also adds flavor.
We also need to add a special note about fat. Since many flavor molecules are only soluble in fat, they can only be stored in fat. That's why marbling (fat strokes within the meat itself) is a sign of more flavor. Now, the flavor of fat largely depends on what the animal eats. You are probably familiar with the special taste of beef or lamb? That's because of the food they eat and the flavor molecules that are soluble in fat and stored there. As a rule, the more wild food the animal gets, the more flavor there will be in their meat. Grass and other plants contain more flavor than grains and other crap that some breeders feed their animals with.
Another point to bear in mind is that some flavor molecules are not that pleasant. Since we know that they are accumulated in the fat tissue of the animal as it gets older, we can choose to only eat the animals that are of certain age. Lamb for example tastes more pleasant than an old sheep, because the strong characteristic aroma of sheep has been slowly but surely packed into its fat tissue. The same goes for old beef. In other words, choose your meat wisely!