Meat : Meat is the consumable part of the muscles of mammals and birds. We can distinguish red meat (lamb, beef, cheval, mouton) and white meat (porc, veal, rabbit, volaille), and we differentiate between “butcher's” meat (offal, beef, cheval, mouton, veal), "charcuterie" (porc), The volaille and  game.
The word "meat", from Latin dwelling "Which is used to live", formerly designated all the foodstuffs, a meaning that it still possessed in the XNUMXth century in the Viandier de Taillevent and in the writings of Montaigne in the XNUMXth century. It was not until the XNUMXth century that it gradually applied to the flesh of animals, then only to that of mammals and birds.
There are many rites and customs concerning meat, slaughter, cutting, consumption and preservation, as for festive meals (Holidays, Easter), they are always associated with festive dishes of cooked meat.
- Diet: The meat is composed of protein fibers surrounded by fine membranes (collagen) and united in bundles forming the muscles (the meat yield of the beef is one third of the live weight empty). On a meat animal, there are approximately 200 consumable muscles; some of them are surrounded by thick connective tissue sheaths, the aponeurosis. The nature of the fibers and the state of the connective tissue determine the culinary destination of the pieces. Thus, in beef, a distinction is made between quick cooking pieces (sautéing, grilling and roasting) and slow cooking pieces (for boiling, braising and stewing). The muscular masses are surrounded by a more or less abundant fat: the " marble "; when this is between the fibers of the muscle, the meat is said to be " marbled ».
In the composition of meats, the level of protein is constant (about 20% in the trimmed and defatted muscle, with amino acids essential for food), while that of lipids is very variable depending on the animal and the piece. Carbohydrates are absent, because muscle glycogen is transformed, after slaughter, into lactic acid. Red meat also contains mineral salts (especially iron, and phosphorus) and vitamins.
The water content of the meat is all the more important as the animal is lean; it fluctuates between 65 and 75%. We generally distinguish lean meats (less than 5% lipids for the fillet); medium-fat meats (from 5 to 10% lipids for the rump); fatty meats (more than 20% fat for the rib dish).
The fats are saturated and monounsaturated in beef, and especially monounsaturated and polyunsaturated in pork.
Meat is an essential protein food because it is rich in amino acids, different from those provided by plants.
Grilled, sautéed or roasted meat retains its mineral salts and vitamins. The flavor raw meat is difficult to specify: it is slightly acidic and reminds of butter, the taste depends mainly on the cooking and the preparations. It is easily digested and assimilated well.
The qualities of the meat: Immediately after slaughter, the still hot meat, called "panting", cannot be eaten: the muscle masses are soft, the water is strongly bound to proteins and there is production of acid. lactic; after several hours, the muscles stiffen: this is rigor mortis. The meat is cooled and consigned by the veterinary services for the possible search for let's pray (bovine spongiform encephalopathy). Then, the quick-cooking pieces are subjected to maturation (7 days at 2 ° C); once "stale", the meat becomes pleasant to eat. Slow cooking or braising pieces can be used more quickly.

We judge meat according to five factors:
- Color: This is the first purchase criterion; the color depends on the rate of myoglobin (red pigment of muscles), sex, race, age and diet: Taurus black meat; bright dark bright red beef, yellow fat; rosé veal and white fat; bright pink lamb and white fat; darker sheep; pink pork.
See here the meats of three different colors used in cooking: White meat, Red meat et Black meat.

- The tenderness : It is the aptitude of the meat to be sliced ​​with a knife, sheared (by the teeth) or crushed (according to the pieces, it varies in a ratio of 1 to 10); tenderness depends on the animal itself (sex, age, breed), the proportion of connective tissue around the muscle fibers, the treatment of the carcass (ventilated storage at the right temperature), the degree of maturation, the type of muscle and cooking conditions: boiling and braising improve tenderness by hydrolysis of collagen (*) in jelly.
(*) Collagen: Fibrous protein of the intercellular substance of connective tissue.

- Water retention capacity: Strength of binding of water to proteins, it is a factor which depends on the pH, both for manufactured products and for fresh meat.
- The success ou juiciness : It designates the ability of meat to render its juice during chewing: succulence is often linked to the presence of intramuscular fat (meat marbled); however, certain young meats (veal raised on the udder, in particular), which are rich in water, can also appear succulent if the water remains in the muscles during cooking.
- The flavor : It comes mainly from fat and especially from the way of cooking. Do not confuse the quality and the category of the piece (for slow cooking or for rapid cooking). For example, a good quality beef cheek makes a delectable stew, while a steak in rump steak is disappointing if it comes from a poor quality animal.

The different ways of cooking meat are nowadays divided into two main methods and several techniques: fast cooking and slow cooking.
Quick cooking : It is based on three techniques.

- To jump tender slices in a very hot fat.
- Grillers tender slices on embers or on the grill (which eliminates a good part of the fat).
- To roast in the oven, on a spit or in a dish, with little or no fat, with frequent watering of the room.

Slow cooking : It groups together three kinds of operations.
- To fry (browning, then cook covered in a wetting short and aromatic).
- Braise and cook in stew in broth, wine, sometimes also beer, cider or Milk,  tenderize meat.
- pocher in a liquid more abundant (water), with some vegetables and aromates.

Meat is most often eaten cooked and hot, but also cold, and sometimes raw (carpaccio, steak tartare); it is then accompanied by herbs, spices and aromatics, which enhances the taste. Rare meat is perfectly digestible and retains all its qualities. Boiled meat undergoes much more important transformations (while the broth is loaded with nutrients); roasted or grilled meat, more fragrant and more palatable, is, for some amateurs, more appetizing than boiled meat.
- Minced meat : It is chopped in front of the consumer, at his request, or, under certain conditions, prepared in advance. It is also found frozen.
The flavor of minced meat depends largely on the mincing; if the meat is crushed, it loses some of its juice. Ground meat can contain a certain amount of fat. The name "tartare" is reserved for minced meats made up only of muscles completely ready. Besides the steak Tartare and  chopped steak jumped up (bitoke, hamburger), the jobs of the minced meat (beef, mouton ou veal) are many : meatballs, stuffings, sweets, fricadelles, fricots, mince, breads, etc.

Preserving meat :
- The freezing and, to a lesser extent, refrigeration are effective preservation methods. Cooking in fat and refrigerating are also good methods as with goose, duck and pork confits.
- The salting, practiced since Antiquity, concerns raw meats: pork (salted, cured meats) and beef (scarlet tongue, beef in brine).
- The smoking applies to pork and cold cuts, as well as to volaille ; some cuts of beef were also traditionally treated in this way, although this meat was less tolerant of taste changes due to smoke.
- The drying meat is a process practiced in areas with dry and clean air (brazil from Jura, Graubünden meat ou Bundnerfleisch Swiss, jerky in South America, pasterma in the East, biltong in South Africa) ; the Indians used it to preserve bison meat (pemmican).
- The freeze-drying or freeze-drying, is a recent process for preparing dried meats: laid out in thin layers, they are frozen, then dried by sublimation (direct passage of their water of constitution from the solid state to the gaseous state).
- Theappertization (heat sterilization) is now commonly used for the preservation of cooked or cooked meats: beef in jelly, corned beef, But also bourguignon, blanquette, stew, etc.

Quote from the English writer Tomas Deloney (1543-1600), French writer: " God sends the meat; the Devil, the cooks ”.

See Cooking meat.
See also under Mouth slang: Meat ; Meat synonyms slang ; Meat bag ; Meat carrier ; Envy  Meat ; Meat ; Meaty ; Meaty  ; Of meat.

Poultry : "Poultry" is a generic term designating all the birds bred for their chair or their eggs, or both (duck, cockerel, turkey, goose, pigeon, guinea fowl, hen, chicken). For convenience of distribution, some poultry houses sometimes add the rabbit domesticated. The meat these with animals  has a good content of protein, from 20 to 23 g per 100 g, it also contains lipids (from 3 to 6 g per 100 g) and fer (from 1 to 2 mg per 100 g). It is at the origin of simple and economical dishes, great regional classics and more refined preparations. More and more "charcuteries»Industrial products are made from poultry. Poultry are often cut into parts for collective catering.
En Food, we reserve the term "poultry" for chair de chicken or hen, when used in preparations basic.
- Average production in France. We produce 900 thousand tonnes (in equivalent carcass) of chickens, 620 of turkeys, 300 of ducks, 120 of rabbits, 60 of hens, 38 of guinea fowl and 3 ofgeese. France is the world's leading producer of guinea fowl. The breeding of duck has developed there, particularly in the southwest, for the production of foie gras and duck breasts. France is also the world's second largest producer of rabbits, after China.
Poultry are sold eviscerated (or ready to cook), tapered (only the abdominal viscera are removed by the cloaca) or not emptied (subject bled and plucked). A poultry packaged for sale must bear a number from 1 to 4, indicating the "size" of the animal (weight, taking into account its presentation: eviscerated, emptied, etc.); the 1 corresponds to a young bird, weighing at most 850 g, ready to cook. In addition, a letter, A, B or C, indicates the "class" of the poultry (degree of fattening, development of muscles, feathers, defects). Finally, the animal can carry a tag or a label (around 250 currently), which specifies its origin.