Adding surface fats where they are lacking is called barding. Tenderness Marbling separates muscle fibers, making them easier to chew. Flavor Fat is perhaps the main source of flavor in meat. Carbohydrate Meat contains a very small amount of carbohydrate. When you brown meat, you are, in part, caramelizing the carbohydrate.
Lean meat is composed of long, thin muscle fibers bound together in bundles.
These determine the texture or grain of a piece of meat. Fine-grained meat is composed of small fibers bound in small bundles. Coarse-textured meat has larger fibers. Connective tissue Muscle fibers are bound together in a network of proteins called connective tissues. Also, each muscle fiber is covered in a sheath of connective tissue.