Muscle Fiber Types: Meat Color

Appears in
On Food and Cooking

By Harold McGee

Published 2004

  • About
Why do chickens have both white and dark meat, and why do the two kinds of meat taste different? Why is veal pale and delicate, beef red and robust? The key is the muscle fiber. There are several different kinds of muscle fiber, each designed for a particular kind of work, and each with its own color and flavor.