CIRCUMSTANCES IMPACTING THE QUALITY OF MEAT.
CIRCUMSTANCES IMPACTING THE QUALITY OF MEAT.
During the period between the birth
and maturity of animals, their flesh undergoes very considerable changes. For
instance, when the animal is young, the fluids which the tissues of the muscles
contain, possess a large proportion of what is called albumen. This albumen, which is also the
chief component of the white of eggs, possesses the peculiarity of coagulating
or hardening at a certain temperature, like the white of a boiled egg, into a
soft, white fluid, no longer soluble, or capable of being dissolved in water.
As animals grow older, this peculiar animal matter gradually decreases, in
proportion to the other constituents of the juice of the flesh. Thus, the
reason why veal, lamb are white, and
without gravy when cooked, is, that the large quantity of albumen they contain hardens, or becomes coagulated. On another hand, the reason why beef and mutton are brown and have gravy, is, that the proportion of albumen they contain,
is small, in comparison with their greater quantity of fluid which is soluble,
and not coagulable.
The quality of the flesh of an animal
is considerably influenced by the nature of the
food on which it has been fed; for the food supplies the material which
produces the flesh. If the food be not suitable and good, the meat cannot be
good either. To the experienced in this matter, it is well known that the flesh
of animals fed on farinaceous produce, such as corn, pulse, &c., is firm,
well-flavored, and also economical in the cooking; that the flesh of those fed
on succulent and pulpy substances, such as roots, possesses these qualities in
a somewhat less degree; whilst the flesh of those whose food contains fixed
oil, as linseed, is greasy, high colored, and gross in the fat, and if the
food has been used in large quantities, possessed of a rank flavor.
It is indispensable to the good
quality of meat, that the animal should be perfectly healthy at the time of
its slaughter. However slight the disease in an animal may be, inferiority in
the quality of its flesh, like food, is certain to be produced. In most cases,
indeed, as the flesh of diseased animals has a tendency to very rapid
putrefaction, it becomes not only unwholesome but absolutely poisonous, on an account of the absorption of the virus of the unsound meat into
the systems of those who partake of it. The external indications of good and
bad meat will be described under its own particular head, but we may hear the premise that the layer of all wholesome meat, when freshly killed, adheres
firmly to the bone.
Another circumstance greatly
affecting the quality of meat, is the animal's treatment before it is slaughtered. This influences
its value and wholesomeness in no inconsiderable degree. It will be easy to
understand this when we reflect on those leading principles by which the life
of an animal is supported and maintained. These are the digestion of its food,
and the assimilation of that food into its substance. Nature, in effecting this
process, first reduces the food in the stomach to a state of pulp, under the
name of chyme, which passes into the intestines, and is there divided into two
principles, each distinct from the other. One, a milk-white fluid, the
nutritive portion, is absorbed by innumerable vessels which open upon the
mucous membrane, or inner coat of the intestines.
These vessels, or absorbents,
discharge the fluid into a common duct, or road, along which it is conveyed to
the large veins in the neighborhood of the heart. Here it is mixed with the
venous blood (which is black and impure) returning from every part of the body,
and then it supplies the waste which is occasioned in the circulating stream by
the arterial (or pure) blood having furnished matter for the substance of the
animal. The blood of the animal having completed its course through all parts,
and having had its waste recruited by the digested food is now received into
the heart, and by the action of that organ, it is urged through the lungs, there
to receive its purification from the air which the animal inhales. Again
returning to the heart, it is forced through the arteries, and thence
distributed, by innumerable ramifications, called capillaries, bestowing to
every part of the animal, life, and nutriment. The other principle the
innutritive portion passes from the intestines and is thus got rid of. It will
now be readily understood how flesh is affected for bad if an animal is
slaughtered when the circulation of its blood has been increased by
over-driving, ill-usage, or other causes of excitement, to such a degree of
rapidity as to be too great for the capillaries to perform their functions, and
causing the blood to be congealed in its minuter vessels. Where this has been
the case, the meat will be dark-colored, and become rapidly putrid; so that
self-interest and humanity alike dictate the kind and gentle treatment of all
animals destined to serve as food for man.
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