fun of “those gastronomes who pretend to
have discovered the special flavor of the leg
upon which a sleeping pheasant rests his
weight.”
Fat: The Flavor of the Tribe The machinery
of the red or white muscle fiber is much the
same no matter what the animal, because it
has the specific job of generating movement.
Fat cells, on the other hand, are essentially
storage tissue, and any sort of fat-soluble
material can end up in them. So the contents
of fat tissue vary from species to species, and
are also affected by the animal’s diet and
resident gastrointestinal microbes. It’s largely
the contents of the fat tissue that give beef,
lamb, pork, and chicken their distinctive
flavors, which are composites of many
different kinds of aroma molecules. The fat
molecules themselves can be transformed by
heat and oxygen into molecules that smell
fruity or floral, nutty or “green,” with the