Is there a link between organoleptic characteristics and the breed or type of animal?
Apart from colour, it is currently difficult to regard organoleptic characteristics as being connected to a particular breed or type of animal. This is because the flavour of beef depends directly on its fat content. Flavour increases with increasing amounts of lipids up to a specific level, which varies according to the type of muscle. Similarly, although the relationship is not as clear, the juiciness of meat is improved by higher fat content. As for tenderness, we have already seen that this depends on a number of factors, such as what part of the anatomy the muscle is from, how it is prepared (trimming, stamping???, etc), its fat content, the conditions in which the carcass is chilled, how long it is aged for, etc, while the breed or category of the animal only plays a very limited role. However, the colour of the meat does seem to depend more on the breed and/or type of animal, particularly with regard to the age and earliness of the animal. The iron content of all muscles increas
