CHAPTER XIX. 



THE BEEF CARCASS AND ITS CUTS. 



The final purpose of the beef animal is to furnish meat 

 for human consumption. This being so, it is important 

 that the animal have a conformation that with suitable 

 feeding will yield cuts of meat of a high degree of excel- 

 lence. No matter what age or stage of development, if 

 of the proper conformation, the live animal as a rule may 

 be so fed as to produce a prime carcass of meat at slaughter. 



The physical and chemical character of meat has an im- 

 portant relationship to animal production. Meat consists 

 of a combination of muscular fibers, more or less asso- 

 ciated with fat. If a piece of lean meat is boiled, it may 

 easily be torn into stringy pieces of muscle fibers. These 

 vary in length, according to the muscle or class of animal, 

 and they also differ in strength or toughness, according to 

 age and use. Age and work tend to make the meat fiber 

 hard and dense. This explains why the meat of the back, 

 where little used, is more tender than that of the thick leg 

 muscle, which is much used. These fibers make up the 

 lean meat of the body. However, they have more or less 

 fine particles of fat distributed among them. When de- 

 veloped to a noticeable extent, these unite into little groups 

 of fat distributed through lean meat, giving it what is 

 called a "marbled" appearance, a condition found in well- 

 fattened animals. Meat that has fat particles well dis- 

 tributed among the fibers, when cooked, should be su- 

 perior in flavor and tenderness, due to the softening effect 

 of the fat. When beef animals are well fattened, they also 

 store layers of pure fat over much of the outer part of 

 the body, just below the skin, especially over the breast, 



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