fibers and connective tissue are groups of fat
cells, which store fat as a source of energy for
the muscle fibers. The qualities of meat — its
texture, color, and flavor — are determined to
a large extent by the arrangement and relative
proportions of the muscle fibers, connective
tissue, and fat tissue.
Muscle Tissues
and Meat Texture
Muscle Fibers When we look at a piece of
meat, most of what we see are bundles of
muscle cells, the fibers that do the moving. A
single fiber is very thin, around the thickness
of a human hair (a tenth to a hundredth of a
millimeter in diameter), but it can be as long
as the whole muscle. The muscle fibers are
organized in bundles, the larger fibers that we
can easily see and tease apart in well-cooked
meat.
The basic texture of meat, dense and firm,