Enzyme Activity Levels in Beef: Effect of Postmortem Aging and End‐point Cooking Temperature

Abstract

While it is known that meat flavor varies as a function of end-point cooking temperature, storage time, and activity of endogenous hydrolytic enzymes, little is known about the interrelationship of these three factors with flavor. Several endogenous enzymes and proteins with potential involvement in meat flavor were investigated. The data indicate two main observations: (1) enzymes are redistributed to new intracellular compartments during postmortem aging. (2) enzyme activity is temperature dependent over the range examined (20-80°C) with some enzymes such as cathepsins, B & L retaining a high level of activity (>20% of that at 20°C) at temperatures above 70°C. Thus, the combined effect of postmortem aging and cooking, via enzyme redistribution and enzyme activity, respectively, influence the production of flavor compounds and precursors.

Influence of heat treatment on carnosine, anserine and free amino acid composition of beef broth and its role in flavour development

“…This suggests that cooking temperature is more important than heating time in determining the concentrations of these dipeptides. These results could be due to the solubilization and liberation of these compounds at higher cooking temperatures, a variable which has a more pronounced effect than cooking time on the structural changes of meat [1,47].…”

“…These include free amino acids (FAAs), peptides, some organic acids, sugars, nucleotides and their metabolites [1][2][3][4][5][6].…”

Effect of Cooking Conditions on the Flavor Formation and Adulteration Detection by Cluster Analysis of the Traditional Chinese Chicken Soup

“…Furthermore, Sasaki et al [8] has already validated that the total free amino acid only leached from the muscles into cooking juice during wetheating cooking. Therefore, the increase in amount of total free amino acid at a higher ratio of SH broiler/C-hen might be due to a larger fiber density in C-hen muscle that facilitated a narrow space for proteinases to contact the binding site of protein hydrolyzation [12]. [8], who found that wet-heat cooking of pork muscles containing 1.0% NaCl had a lower amount of total free amino acid than those without NaCl supplementation.…”

Imidazole Dipeptides in Meat from Different Animal Species and Effect of Cooking Method on their Contents in Beef and Turkey Meat

“…These results could be due to the solubilization and liberation of these compounds at higher cooking temperatures, a variable which has a 5. MEATS more pronounced effect than cooking time on the structural changes of meat (Spanier et al, 1990).…”