Payne County Rust Collagen

Let's make our primary example for this little excerpt beef. With the exception of those strange fowl muscles, some dark, some light, most species will adhere to the following facts. Alrighty then, let's dive in; if you're the average shopper in a grocery store, few things dissuade you from buying a good cut of beef more than price. Of course. Who wants to pay $16 for a t-bone that looks the same as a sirloin for $3.99? First off, the meat markets can command those sorts of prices because there is less of the muscle that makes up the t-bone than that which makes the sirloin on each cow--supply and demand thing. Secondly, and of much more relevance to this lecture, SOME MUSCLES ARE INHERENTLY MORE TENDER THAN OTHERS. It's all a function of a commonly used but commonly misunderstood word: Collagen. When a muscle is worked to the point that it is exhausted, some sarcomeres (muscle fibers) are torn down. After the muscle is allowed to rest, it begins to regenerate. When those sarcomeres rebuild, however, they bring reinforcements...more sarcomeres, hence the muscle grows to fit its needs. Most of this is common knowledge, and serves as the basis of why people spend time in the gym. What is not common knowledge, however, is that when these muscle fibers rebuild themselves, a scar tissue-like network of cross-linked collagen fibers is also integrated into the new muscle bundle. This 'scar tissue' serves as a strengthening support system, like guy-lines on a bridge. Through deduction, we can accurately say that if a muscle is not used as much, then it will go through the former process of tearing down and rebuilding less often. If it rebuilds less often, then less collagen cross-links will be present, and, finally, if less of these little guy-lines are present, then we won't have to deal with them...and dealing with them takes skill. You could actually say that the abundance of collagen varies indirectly with the price of the cut of beef.

You see, collagen is very tough, very tenuous, and very hard to break down into a submissive, tender fiber. To break down collagen takes low heat for a long time. The loin muscle on the cow is a flattened cylinder of muscle which lies on either side of the backbone. We might refer to these as lumbar muscles in a human, or back-straps in a deer. These loin muscles in a bipedal animal, such as a human, are taxed all day long for holding our bodies erect. In a quadripedal situation, though, the back muscles are used for VERY little. Copulation and jumping are about the only times the muscles are measurably used, ergo very little collagen, ergo very tender. The ribeye, t-bone, rib steak and porterhouse cuts all stem from this loin muscle in the cow. This is why these cuts take very little cooking time, can be cooked in a dry heat environment, and can even be eaten rare. With so little collagen to contend with, the ways to prepare these cuts is not limited by toughness.

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