and cook it. It will taste like pork, not like beef.

Lean meat is also tougher because the lubricating fat is missing. In a sensory panel test at

the University of Georgia, broiled ground beef made up of 25 percent fat received consistently

higher scores than the same ground beef containing only 15 percent fat.

Fat in meat may be obvious as thick coating over the surface, or it may be hidden in tiny

pods, sheets or pockets of varying thickness within the muscle. Some fat is so small they are

hardly visible. Others are coarser, giving the meat marbling and a delight to a true meat

connoisseur.

As you chew a lean bite of meat, after a few moments it begins to feel dry in your mouth

and that's why a good cook plans to prepare any lean meat with some added fat. The best

cooking method for veal, which is naturally lean, for instance, is either frying (wienerschnitzel),

serving with a rich sauce (veal scallopini) or stuffing with high-fat ingredients (cheese or ham).

The fat you add supplies the pleasing mouthfeel.

In developing countries consumers don't differentiate between muscle and fat. They

consider all parts of the meat of equal value. They not only tolerate high-fat meats but often

prefer is. Because people in these countries work physically harder, the higher fat intake causes

no real concern or harm as it does to people of a more sedentary life style.

Connective tissues

Connective tissues are tough, strong organic material. They are proteins and there are

three types—collagen, elastin and reticulin. All three are tough as tires, barely chewable, thus

the more connective tissue you find in your meat, the tougher the cut is. Of the three proteins,

collagen is the most common and, fortunately, it slowly converts to a soft gelatin over heat if you

use the right cooking method. The other two, elastin and reticulin remain tough no matter how

long you leave them in the pot or over the grill.

Meet your Butcher

It is odd that in America we eat a huge amount of meat, yet we choose only a few

familiar cuts. Even knowledgeable cooks have problem when browsing at the meat counter. This

is not surprising when you consider the enormous number of names of meat cuts in the butcher’s

case. No government or private agency regulated names prior to the 1970s. Butchers and

wholesalers gave their own names that were acceptable regionally and within the local ethnic

communities. The same meat cut may have had an entirely different name as you traveled to

different regions.

We have some 300 different fresh cuts of beef, pork, lamb and veal in butcher shops,

with over a thousand names in Canada and the U.S. The same cut could have had a dozen

different names in different locations. Finally some relief came in 1972 when the U.S. meat

industry coordinated a major effort to come up with a system of country-wide uniform names

they called the Uniform Retail Meat Identification Standard. Processors, wholesalers, retailers

and butchers accepted the recommended 314 names that we still use today. The Canadian Meat

Council introduced a very similar system.

This is still a huge number of names for the average consumer. When you have questions,

butchers are singularly unhelpful. They know the common cuts within their areas. How many

times have you asked for a particular cut specified in a new recipe, but the butcher just smiles

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