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c. Full leg

3. Eight-Part Cut

a. Wing

b. Breast half

c. Thigh

d. Drumstick

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Anyone who has been asked, as the bird is being carved, “White or dark?” knows that chicken and turkey meat comes in two colors. The breast is paler, drier, and leaner; the legs are darker, moister, and richer; and the wings lie somewhere in between. But have you ever wondered why?

Although animal behavior is diverse, the movement of animals can be divided simply into two broad categories: fast, sudden movement, as when a bird is startled, and deliberate, persistent movement, as when a chicken pecks for food in the yard or cattle stand grazing in a field.

Two types of muscle fibers are associated with these two forms of movement. White muscle fibers are used for quick, sudden movements, and darker-pigmented red muscle fibers control slower and more prolonged movement. Each type of fiber uses a different energy supply, which accounts largely for the difference in color.

White muscle fibers are fueled by glycogen, a small supply of carbohydrate stored directly in the muscle fiber. When an animal gets a sudden urge to bolt, the glycogen can be rapidly converted into energy by enzymes right in the muscle cells, delivering energy to a muscle almost instantaneously. Normally, white muscle cells use oxygen to help metabolize glycogen. But when energy is needed faster than oxygen can be delivered by the blood, these cells have the capability to use glycogen without the presence of oxygen. When that happens, a waste product, lactic acid, builds up in the muscle cells, which limits the muscle’s endurance. Eventually, the excess lactic acid is removed and the glycogen is replaced, but that requires rest. That is why white muscle fibers are used for short bursts of energy followed by a period of recuperation.

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Red muscle fibers are fueled by fat, which definitely needs oxygen in order to be metabolized. Red fibers are fairly thin, allowing them easy access to oxygen and fat (in the form of fatty acids) from the blood circulating around them. They also contain their own supply of fat and the ability to break that fat down into energy. In order to function properly, this mechanism is dependent on myoglobin, a pigment that gives red muscle fibers their color. Myoglobin receives oxygen from the blood and passes it on to fat-oxidizing proteins in the muscle fiber, similar to the way its relative, hemoglobin, carries oxygen through the blood. Both myoglobin and hemoglobin are red due to the presence of iron. The more a red muscle fiber is exercised, the greater its oxygen needs will be, and the more myoglobin it will contain.

Because most of the muscles in an animal perform a mixture of rapid and slow movements, they are built from both white and red muscle fibers. The ratio of white to red depends on the muscle’s genetic design and how it is used during the animal’s life. So chickens and turkeys, which tend to flap their wings rapidly for short periods of time when agitated, will have a predominance of white muscle fibers in their breasts and wings, while their legs, which are used for prolonged periods of walking and standing, will have a higher concentration of red muscle fibers, giving the muscles in those parts a darker hue. Cattle, which rarely startle and bolt, are red-meated throughout, and game birds that fly steadily for long distances tend to have wing and breast meat that is quite dark.

02. Fat and Skin

Unlike four-legged livestock, poultry is sold with its skin on. This helps to keep the meat moist while cooking, both by forming a protective layer that inhibits drying and by sheathing it in a layer of fat that melts into the meat as it grills. For that reason, it’s a good idea to grill poultry with the skin on, even if you are planning to serve it without the skin.

If you want to decrease the amount of fat, cut away all visible pockets before cooking. When preparing particularly fatty poultry, like duck and goose, for grilling, you need to melt the fat, either by scalding the bird under a stream