The Flavor of Raw Meat

The Flavor of Raw Meat
Raw meat has very little flavor, effectively tasting of blood.

Heating is required to develop the characteristic flavor through complex chemical reactions between the many nonvolatile components of meat.

A large number of volatile compounds is produced by these reactions, but only a relative few play an important role in determining flavor and aroma.

The precursors are present in raw muscle, being derived primarily from minority components.

Thee are primarily lipids and carbohydrates but also include other water soluble non-protein compounds such as amino acids, peptides, reducing sugars, vitamins and nucleotides.

The relationship between precursors and flavor of the meat is affected by five, possibly interacting, factors:

1. Specific-specific composition of meat
2. Variations due to the individual animal (including breed, age and sex)
3. Variations due to diet
4. Variations due to the course of postmortem glycolysis and condition
5. Variations due to cooking procedures.

Of these variations due to the individual animal and variations due to diet are factors controlled by primarily agriculture.
The Flavor of Raw Meat