Effects of cooking beef muscles from frozen or thawed states on cooking traits and palatability

Abstract

SummaryWe used an electric belt grill to cook steaks from two muscles; outside round (biceps femoris), and loin strip (longissimus lumborum) from both frozen and thawed states. The color values L* and a*, Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF), juiciness, flavor, connective tissue amount, and overall tenderness did not differ (P>0.05) between steaks cooked from frozen and thawed states. Thawed steaks cooked faster and had less cooking loss. The biceps femoris had higher WBSF than longissimus and was rated less tender by trained panelists. Color values L*, a*, or b* did not differ (P>0.05) among the muscles. The biceps femoris needed more time to cook and had greater cooking loss than longissimus.

Effects on quality attributes of commercial veal pieces under different ageing treatments

“…This is in agreement with other authors (Hunt & Hedrick, 1977; Boles & Shand, 2001; Jeremiah et al. , 2003; Obuz & Dikeman, 2003). We found significant variation among the type of commercial beef muscles for several nutritive and organoleptic characteristics such as tenderness, chemical composition and water‐holding capacity.…”

“…These results are in agreement with those of Farouk & Swan (1998), Hildrum et al. (1999) and Obuz & Dikeman (2003), who also found higher juice losses in meat during the thawing process. As freezing progresses intracellular juice is expelled by osmosis to the extracellular space forming ice crystals, which later cause juice loss in meat during the thawing process.…”

“…Some small abattoirs offer calf slaughtering services and carcass quartering to clients. Furthermore, freezing is a common practice in the meat industry because this preserves meat quality for an extended time and offers several advantages, such as insignificant alterations in product dimensions and minimum deterioration in product colour, flavour and texture (Obuz & Dikeman, 2003).…”

“…Several studies have been published about the effect of freezing on the water‐holding capacity of meat. The increase in water loss during thawing (Farouk & Swan, 1998; Obuz & Dikeman, 2003) has been inversely related to the fat content in the muscle, and affects negatively to the beef juiciness (Hildrum et al. , 1999).…”

“…Several studies have reported low correlation coefficients for several meat characteristics between the longissimus thoracis and other muscles stored either into the fridge (Moreno, 2003) or the freezer (Jeremiah et al. , 2003; Obuz & Dikeman, 2003).…”