meat is muscles
I just took a monster practical exam yesterday for my anatomy course. As someone who has not taken a “real” science class for, ohmygod, almost 10 years (Integrative Bio 30: Marine Mammals for Non-Science Majors, challenging as it was, does not count), using flashcards to burn the names of all the muscles and bones of the human body into my memory is quite a task. The most interesting things that I have learned/figured out about muscles have been, of course, food-related (I will attempt to keep it brief, so as not to bore the shit out of you):
Why are those loins so tender?
The tenderloin (a portion of which is the well-known filet mignon of beef) is usually a lean, very soft cut of meat (and therefore expensive). In anatomical terms, it is the psoas major muscle, which runs from the lower part of the spine to the upper part of the thigh. On humans, it’s a muscle that allows us to raise our thighs toward our bodies, like the Captain Morgan pose from those TV commercials. Since cows and pigs don’t really have that range of motion with their thighs, the psoas major is hardly worked and stays tender.
Hamstrings do have something to do with ham
Butchers used to hang hams by the long tendons that connect these thigh muscles to the leg bone.
Fast glycolitic chicken breasts vs. slow oxidative drumsticks
Why is white meat white and dark meat dark? It all comes down to types of muscle fibers. Basically, leg muscles are built for endurance, so they have more myoglobin (a protein containing red pigment) and capillaries to provide a constant supply of oxygen. Chest muscles are built to act quickly and forcefully (think weight lifting) and have less myoglobin and fewer capillaries.
Side note related to chicken: the wings (the flat-ish part, not the drumettes) are analogous to your forearm. There are two bones (the radius and the ulna), and I’m really just bringing this up as an excuse to show you this mind-blowing video that Mike sent me:
