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What is Meat? The Biological, Cultural, and Controversial Truth

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Most people take the word “meat” for granted, but the moment you try to define it, things get complicated. Is it a biological term, a culinary category, or a cultural boundary? Is plant-based meat actually meat? And, why is fish or fowl different than beef or pork? Not all definitions are based on the “eating.” Some quite ancient definitions are religious. These are based on ingrained traditions regarding the safety of certain animal-based foods. The definition of meat is far from universal. In this article, I’ll break down what constitutes meat from a technical, historical, and culinary standpoint.

At least we can all agree that the lemon, lime, and peppercorns are not meat.

Addressing the “Test-Tube” Controversy

Meat Has a Mouth and Face: This is one of the most “interesting” definitions for meat I’ve ever seen. In other words, meat comes from an animal and can’t be grown in a lab. This leaves a lot of ground open!

As the curious definition mentioned above shows, for many, the definition of meat is inseparable from the animal it came from. This is why lab-grown or ‘cultivated’ meat remains so controversial; even if it is biologically identical to a steak from a cow, the lack of a ‘mouth and face’ makes it, in the eyes of many consumers, something else entirely.

This psychological barrier, the ‘mouth and face’ requirement, is the primary hurdle for the future of cultivated protein.

💡 Seasoning vs. Flavoring Defining meat is just the start; how you prepare it is where the real art begins. Do you know the technical difference between seasonings and flavorings? It’s a distinction every cook should master.

Traditional Words for Meat

This begs the question, then, of how poultry and fish are not meat! The first thing to recognize is that our words for meat do not always correspond with our words for the animal the meat comes from. I’ve already mentioned this in my article about the curious case of beeves, the plural of beef.

It may seem that an animal being domesticated is responsible for certain meats having their own word, but it seems that the more popular certain animals are for eating, the more likely our name for their meat will differ from our name for the animal.

In general, then, we are more likely to have “meat-words” for the flesh of herbivorous grazing animals. Here are some examples:

  • Meat from cows: beef
  • Meat from pigs: pork
  • Meat from sheep: mutton
  • Meat from deer: venison

Some may theorize, then, that our various names for the meat of different animals are based on squeamishness. Yet, there are no hard and fast rules and we have no problem with forthright naming for chicken, turkey, etc. The meat from chickens and turkeys is sometimes called poultry but poultry is just an umbrella term. We use chicken or turkey to describe the individual foods. 

🔥 The Definition of Meat and Not Meat” is Confusing: But at least it doesn’t cause us trouble in the kitchen. Words like poaching and simmering are a different story! Learn the straightforward and clear differences between boiling, simmering, and poaching.

Is poultry meat?

Some people consider meat to be restricted to the flesh of mammals. Birds, they say, don’t count as meat. As well, many food science or meat processing books and experts will describe poultry as if it is a separate category from meat. The same thing goes for seafood or fish.

Others will consider poultry as meat, but may further qualify it as “poultry meat.” We will often hear people talking about “meat and poultry.” Poultry is only used to describe domesticated birds, not any birds hunted from the wild, called game birds.

If you consider meat to be the edible muscle tissue of an animal, then the muscles of cows, pigs, chickens, or fish are all meat. But this is not the only definition of meat. Some define meat much more broadly. For example, meat is sometimes defined, as by the Culinary Institute of America’s Guide to Meat Identification, Fabrication, and Utilization, as “the parts of animals fit for human consumption.”

This broad definition means that edible internal organs like sweetbreads, tongues, etc. can all be considered meat. It also means that what is meat from one animal is inedible from another. For example, we don’t always remove the skin from pork, and it is considered edible if cooked thoroughly, but the skin of cattle, lambs, and goats is always removed. Therefore, the definition of meat can vary from species to species.

Whether you consider poultry a separate category or ‘white meat,’ cooking it effectively requires understanding its response to temperature, a key component of mastering the Air Fryer Stovetop Method.

What about Fish?

The broadest definition of meat is that it is the edible parts of various animals such as mammals and birds. This category may or may not include fish, depending on your viewpoint. But, why shouldn’t fish be meat? Ask around and I’ll bet you don’t get a satisfactory answer.

One possible reason that fish is not considered meat is that, in the Catholic tradition, the abstinence from meat on Friday or during Lent did not include fish and eggs. Other than this, most explanations are, in a word, convenient. Fish is not meat “just because.”

Some vegetarians eat fish for this reason. I don’t eat meat, they say. “But you eat fish?” Fish is not meat. “Why not?” Because I don’t eat meat!

Many people who won’t eat “meat” will eat fish because, culturally, we’ve categorized cold-blooded creatures differently for centuries. It’s not just a traditional distinction, but a biological one; the unique muscle structure of aquatic animals is why fish has a fundamentally softer texture than the dense muscle of land animals.

🍋 Sour vs. Tart We often use citrus to brighten the flavor of fish, but we wouldn’t call the result “tart.” Is there a difference? Learn how to easily solve this linguistic food puzzle and why, like the word cuisson, it’s more of a fancy-pants chef problem than a real one.

Read More: What is the Difference Between Sour and Tart Tastes?

Origin of the Word Meat

If you think the above definitions of meat are a bit broad, the original meaning of the word was even broader. Up until the 13th century, meat referred to all food. It may have derived from the Old English word for food, mete or maet.

Deep Dives & Foundational Science