Meat, Fish and Poultry
Notes to complete the study sheet
Meat is cooked for four basic
reasons:
A.
B.
C.
D.
To make it safe to eat
Easier to chew
Easier to digest
More favorable
Cooking promotes some flavor changes.
Storing and reheating noticeably changes
the flavor of meat, as does prolonged
refrigeration. Cooking also changes the
texture, which is defined as the touch of
the meat, and the ease or difficulty with
which the physical structure is broken
down by knife or tooth into manageable
pieces. We like meat to be tender and
juicy and not tough and dry. There are
ways to treat meat before and during
cooking to maximize the desired qualities.
Marbling is the small
amounts of fat throughout the
lean meat that provides
tenderness, flavor and
moistness.
Meat is sometimes graded by the
Department of Agriculture as to its
quality. If it has been graded, look
at the shield shaped stamp on
meat to know its quality.
Beef, veal and lamb are graded as
follows:
A. PRIME – the top grade because it contains the
most marbling (mostly sold in restaurants)
B. CHOICE – high quality, high marbling, but not
as much as prime
C. SELECT – has less flavor and more
connective tissue than choice/prime. It is less
expensive and nutritious. It has less marbling.
D. STANDARD
E. COMMERCIAL
Meat can be identified by the shape of the
bones. The bones are the clue as to which
part of the animal the meat comes from, how
tender it is, and how it should be cooked.
Tender cuts can be cooked with dry heat.
Less tender cuts must be cooked with moist
heat. Since meat is generally the most
expensive item in a food budget, it is
important to identify meat cuts to get the best
value for your money.
The more movement a
muscle gets, the more it is
developed and the less
tender it is. Because the
muscle along the backbone
gets very little movement,
meat from that area is more
tender than meat from other
parts.
The label shows:
a. The standard name
of the cut
b. Net weight (how
much it weighs)
c. Price per pound
d. Total price to be paid
TYPES OF MEAT
Meat products vary depending on the
kind of animal and how it is handled.
• BEEF – cattle of 1 year of age with bright,
deep-red color and creamy white fat.
• VEAL – immature cattle, not as tender as
beef because there is very little fat.
•
Lamb – young sheep under 1 year of
age
•
Mutton – older shee over 1 year of age.
It is less tender with stronger flavor than
lamb.
•
Pork – young animal, tender meat,
grayish pink or darker color, and firm with
small amount of marbling.
• Variety Meats – organ meats including:
– Liver
– Kidney
– Heart
– Tongue
– Tripe (stomach)
– Brains
– Sweetbreads (thymus gland)
• Processed Meats – more handling than
merely cutting. Some are ground and
seasoned (sausage), some are cured or
treated with salt, nitrates and sugar and
some are smoked to help preservation and
add flavor.
• Cured Meats – corned beef, chipped beef,
ham, bacon, lunch meat.
STORAGE
•
Meat is best preserved by refrigeration,
freezing, canning, drying (jerky), and curing
with salt and other agents.
•
All fresh meats need to be in the coldest part
of the refrigerator.
•
Don’t defrost meat at room temperature – the
surface will start to spoil before the rest of the
meat has thawed. Thaw in refrigerator, in the
microwave or under (or in) cold water.
SIGNS OF SPOILAGE
• Uncooked meat will change to a dull,
grayish brown
• Usually an off odor
• If an unopened package, it will feel
slippery when opened
COOKING METHODS:
4 VERY IMPORTANT VARIABLES TO
CONSIDER WHEN COOKING MEAT:
a. Heat
b. Temperature
c. Moisture
d. Type or cut of meat
Classifications for methods of
cooking meats:
– Dry Heat – roasting, broiling, deep-fat, stir
frying
–
Moist Heat – braising, simmering or
stewing, steaming, pressure cooking
• Pork should always be cooked to welldone to prevent trichinosis, an illness
caused by a tiny worm/parasite which is
sometimes found in pork.
• Tender cuts can be cooked in dry heat.
Examples this type of cut are: rib, loin,
sirloin
• Less tender cuts can be tenderized by
cooking in liquid or braising at lower
temperatures slowly over long periods of
time.
POULTRY
•
Like beef, poultry is inspected for
wholesomeness and graded for quality. The
inspection mark and grade shield should be on
the package.
•
The two types of grades in poultry:
–
Grade A – fully fleshed, attractive and meaty
–
Grade B – less attractive, not as meaty, not often
found in a grocery store
• The parts with the most meat are generally
the most expensive. The breast has more
meat than the back. Breast of chicken is
light meat, tender, and mild in flavor. The
rest of the chicken is dark meat, a little
stronger in flavor, with a firmer texture and
contains more fat.
• Chicken skin is indigestible and high in fat.
Remove skin to reduce fat content.
• Whole chickens are less expensive to buy,
but must be cut up by the consumer.
SUMMARY:
Knowing the marks of quality, identification
of bone shapes, understanding the meat
labels, forms/types of meat and poultry,
and ways to cook/tenderize meat helps the
consumer to be more satisfied with what
to buy in terms of cost and quality.
Wholesale Cuts
Retail Cuts
Method of Cooking
1. Chuck of Shoulder
Stew meat, blade roast
arm pot roast
Moist Heat
2. Rib
Rib roast, rib steak,
Rib eye roast of steak
Dry Heat
3. Short Loin
T-bone, porterhouse,
tenderloin steak
Dry Heat
4. Sirloin
Pin bone sirloin steak,
flat bone sirloin steak
Dry Heat
5. Rump
Rump Roast
Moist Heat
6. Round
Round Steak, top
round steak, eye of
round
Moist Heat
7. Foreshank
Shank cross cuts, stew
meat
Moist Heat
8. Brisket
Corned brisket, brisket
Moist Heat
9. Short Plate
Short ribs, stew meat,
ground beef
Moist Heat
10. Flank
Ground beef, flank
steak
Moist Heat