Ostrich meat, although poultry, is a “red meat” similar in color and taste to beef. It is lower in % fat when compared to white meats like chicken and turkey, but much lower in saturated fat, cholesterol and calories than popular red meat – beef. Most of the meat from an ostrich comes from the leg, thigh and back – an ostrich has no breast meat like the chicken or turkey.
Unlike beef where there is fat marbling in the meat, ostriches have fat, but it collects outside the muscles and therefore is easily removed during processing. Thus the ostrich cuts of meat are very lean, with a very low fat content, but high in protein, calcium and iron. Uncooked ostrich meat is dark red, a little darker than beef.
The ostrich is different from all other birds, and although they have wings, they cannot fly. However, they are the fastest animal on two legs, and if in danger, can sprint upto a speed of 70 km/hour! While they do not fly, their wings are used to balance the ostrich while it runs, and act as rudders to quickly change direction at top speed.
The primary factor determining whether an animal is red or white meat is whether their muscles are made up of mostly fast-twitch or slow-twitch muscle fibers. Slow twitch muscle fibers are used often, for constant activities like walking and standing – they contain a lot of the red pigment, myoglobin, which stores lots of oxygen, to support this long term energy use. Ostrich muscle is mostly the slow-twitch kind and slow-twitch muscle is red meat.
Chickens and turkeys do not use their muscles as much, and thus their muscle mass is largely the fast-twitch kind, used for short bursts of activity. Fast-twitch muscles use more glycogen for energy and there is much less myoglobin – thus pale in colour. Fast-twitch muscle is white meat. However, chicken legs, which get more activity through constant walking, are darker than chicken breast meat, muscle that is hardly used. There is more myoglobin in chicken leg meat than in chicken breast meat – hence the difference in colour!