On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 329

Brain 4–6
The wordmeat is used most commonly to
mean the limb-movingskeletal muscles of
animals. But skeletal muscle only accounts
forabouthalfoftheanimalbody.Thevarious
other organs and tissues are also nutritious
andoffertheirowndiverse,oftenpronounced
flavorsandtextures.Thenonskeletalmuscles
— stomach, intestines, heart, tongue —
generally contain much more connective
tissuethanordinarymeats—upto3timesas
much — and benefit from slow, moist
cooking to dissolve the collagen. The liver
contains relatively little collagen: it is an
agglomeration of specialized cells held
together by a network of connective tissue
that, because it experiences little mechanical
stress,isunusuallyfineanddelicate.Liveris
thustenderifminimallycooked,crumblyand
dryifovercooked.
Unlikestandardmeatscutfromdiscrete


andlargelysterileskeletalmuscles,many
organmeatscarryextraneousmatter.Before
cooking,they’reoftentrimmedandcleaned,
then“blanched,”orcoveredwithcoldwater
thatisslowlybroughttoasimmer.Theslow
heatingfirstwashesproteinsandmicrobesoff
themeat,thencoagulatesthemandfloats
themtothewatersurfacewheretheycanbe

skimmedoff.Blanchingalsomoderates
strongodorsonthemeatsurface.
Liver

Theliveristhebiochemicalpowerhouseof
theanimalbody.Mostofthenutrientsthatthe
bodyabsorbsfromfoodgoherefirstandare
eitherstoredorprocessedfordistributionto
otherorgans.Allthisworktakesalotof
energy,andthisiswhytheliverisdarkred
withfat-burningmitochondriaandtheir
cytochromepigments.Italsorequiresdirect
accessofthelivercellstotheblood,and