MEAT SLAUGHTER AND STORAGE
Meat flavor comes from a lot of factors, including marbling (fat), feeding, exercise, age of the animal, and the breed of the animal. However, another important factor that not only affects flavor, but also texture, of the meat is slaughter and the consequent treatment of the meat. It might be worth to mention for all our butchers out there that better meat is obtained if the animal is not stressed, either during transport, or from fear or struggle against its will. The best way is to put the animal to "sleep" while it is calm and haven't been stressed for a good while. Why would the meat be better after such a humane treatment? Chemistry, folks! The muscles of the animal contain a certain kind of energy fuel that is consumed fairly quickly in stressful situations (just like us, when we get an adrenaline kick). If this happens, the meat will easily go bad, because it will be more prone for bacterial and yeast spoilage, and for higher digestion of certain enzymes that reside within the meat. This is avoided if the muscles still have their natural fuel within them, as its byproducts will slow down the microbial and enzymatic spoilage. Conclusively, less stress = better meat!
When the animal dies, it takes some hour(s), depending on what animal it is, before an interesting phenomenon sets in. The muscles will become very tightened up. This is called rigor mortis, and is not only seen in dead animals but also in dead humans. What happens is that the muscles run out of their fuel and thus cannot relax. They need their energy fuel to do this. At this point, if we want to eat such meat, it will of course be very tough. Just before the rigor mortis, the meat is tender. Of course, we usually cannot obtain the meat that fresh, so what can we do to get a tender meat? Luckily, the nature has solved the problem for us. We just need to let the meat rest and hang down from a hook, to stretch out the muscles. After some time, rigor mortis will stop due to some special digestive enzymes that start to break down some of the muscle network that keeps them tightened up.
After a longer while, if we let these enzymes continue to do their job, the meat will become more and more tender. Naturally, this process of storing the meat for tenderness has to be controlled, in order to avoid bacterial spoilage and loss of too much moisture. Meat should be stored for several days before it's packaged, if we want best flavor and texture. Unfortunately, this is not a common praxis in today's meat industry. Oftentimes, the meat is cut and packaged shortly after slaughter, and then transported out to the shops. Now, as long as we let this meat rest for a while before we use it, we will get essentially the same effect as if the meat would have been stored in the slaughterhouse after the slaughter.
Storing meat has not only good effect on tenderness, it also adds more flavor. As the digestive enzymes work, many of the big tasteless molecules of life are broken down into smaller, tasty flavors. Furthermore, if these small molecules are heated in certain temperatures (e.g. browning of the meat) then they will react with each other to produce even more complex meat flavor. we should also remember one thing here. These digestive enzymes that contribute to flavor and tenderness are (in general) optimally active at body temperature. Now, if the meat is stored in cold, their activity is low and slow. If we want to boost their activity, we can heat the meat for a while in a higher temperature (around body temperature that is), before we actually cook it. Just don't overdo it or the meat will become "nasty".