Why is cow meat red and bloody and chicken meat is not bloody? Does the chicken muscles not have blood?
In: Biology
As others have said, there isn’t blood in any properly butchered meat product. The thing that makes “red meat”, like cow or ostrich, different from “white meat”, like chicken or pork, is not the presence of blood or the type of animal. Chickens and ostrich are both birds and cows and pigs are both mammals and all of them have blood.
The “red meat” effect is a compound called heme. This is a common organic compound, even some plants produce it. Lots of heme = red meat; less heme = white meat. The vegetable meat substitute people use plant heme to make “impossible” fake ground beef.
That’s not blood coming out of the beef. It’s myoglobin, helps deliver oxygen to the muscles. nearly all the blood is drained before it’s packaged, and since meat is about 70% water… it’s pretty much just “meat juice”
Also, store bought poultry are raised in tight confined areas, so the chickens muscles don’t get much use. Most commercial poultry are Cornish crosses, who finish out in just eight weeks. Beef on the other hand, are usually around 9 months to maybe a year depending on how efficiently they can put on weight. Much more time for the muscles to be active and need more oxygen.
If you’re not buying your meat from a local farmer, and are instead getting it from a supermarket (in the USA), chances are high it’s not actual blood in your steaks. Beef is hung and dry aged for 10-20 days for most cuts before it gets processed/packaged, and this removes all the actual blood from the meat. What you’re seeing instead is usually a saline solution added in, and sometimes it even has colorants added if the meat wasn’t red enough after aging. If you purchase WOG( whole without guts) chickens at the store you may have small amounts of blood left in the cavity.
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