BiologyFoodVideo

Dark Meat vs Light Meat (and what kind of meat YOU are made of)

I’m not a big chicken breast fan. Give me thighs, legs, wings any day. In short, I prefer dark meat to light meat. It tends to be juicer and more flavorful (especially when birds are cooked whole, since the two types of meats require different cooking times and temperatures). But I’ve seldom stopped to wonder WHY poultry has these two types of meats.

Over on the YouTubes, SciShow answers this imponderable. The short answer: chickens and turkeys have two types of muscles. For the longer answer, check out the video–and be sure to stick around until the end to learn to answer to the question, “Do humans also have dark meat and light meat?”

Featured photo by me, of Smitten’s Kitchen’s Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic (all dark meat, btw)

Anne S

Anne Sauer is an atheist with an appetite for science, good food, and making connections between the two. She is currently pursuing her MBA in Sustainable Management at Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco. Her favorite foods are salted caramel ice cream and chicken tikka masala. You can find her on twitter @aynsavoy.

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