Meat tenderness
Tenderness is a quality of meat gauging how easily it is chewed or cut. Tenderness is a desirable quality, as tender meat is softer, easier to chew, and generally more palatable than harder meat. Consequently, tender cuts of meat typically command higher prices. The tenderness depends on a number of factors including the meat grain, the amount of connective tissue, and the amount of fat.[1] Tenderness can be increased by a number of processing techniques, generally referred to as tenderizing or tenderization.
Influencing factors[]
Tenderness is perhaps the most important of all factors impacting meat eating quality, with others being flavor, juiciness, and succulence.[2]
Tenderness is a quality complex to obtain and gauge, and it depends on a number of factors. On the basic level, these factors are meat grain, the amount and composition of connective tissue, and the amount of fat.[1] In order to obtain a tender meat, there is a complex interplay between the animal's pasture, age, species, breed, protein intake, calcium status, stress before and at killing, and how the meat is treated after slaughter.[3]
Meat with the fat content deposited within the steak to create a marbled appearance has always been regarded as more tender than steaks where the fat is in a separate layer.[3] Cooking causes melting of the fat, spreading it throughout the meat and increasing the tenderness of the final product.[1]
Testing[]
The meat industry strives to produce meat with standardized and guaranteed tenderness, since these characteristics are sought for by the consumers.[4] For that purpose a number of objective tests of tenderness have been developed, gauging meat resistance to shear force, most commonly used being Slice Shear Force test[5] and Warner–Bratzler Shear Force test.[6]
Tenderising[]
Techniques for breaking down collagens in meat to make it more palatable and tender are referred to as tenderizing or tenderization.
There are a number of ways to tenderize meat:
- Mechanical tenderization, such as pounding[7] or piercing.[7]
- The tenderization that occurs through cooking, such as braising.[8]
- Tenderizers in the form of naturally occurring enzymes, which can be added to food before cooking.[7]
- Marinating the meat with vinegar, wine, lemon juice, buttermilk or yogurt.[7]
- Brining the meat in a salt solution (brine).[7]
- Dry aging of meat at 0 to 2 °C (32 to 36 °F).[8]
- Velveting
- Sodium bicarbonate[9]
Research[]
Efforts have been made since at least 1970 to use explosives to tenderize meat and a company was founded to try to commercialize the process; as of 2011 it was not yet scalable.[10]
References[]
- ^ a b c "Meat processing : Meat Qualities". Britannica. Retrieved 17 March 2016.
- ^ Troy, D.J.; Kerry, J.P. (2010). "Consumer perception and the role of science in the meat industry". Meat Science. 86 (1): 214–226. doi:10.1016/j.meatsci.2010.05.009. PMID 20579814.
- ^ a b "The Meat Tenderness Debate". Natural Hub. Retrieved 17 March 2016.
- ^ Luciano, F. B.; Anton, A.A; Rosa, C.F. (2007). "BIOCHEMICAL ASPECTS OF MEAT TENDERNESS: A BRIEF REVIEW" (PDF). Arch. Zootec. (56 (R): 1–8).
- ^ Shackelford, S. D.; Wheeler, Ph.D., T. L. (2009). "Slice Shear Force" (PDF). Centennial, Colorado: National Cattlemen’s Beef Association USDA-ARS.
- ^ Wheeler, Tommy L.; Shackelford, Steven D.; Koohmaraie USDA-ARS, Mohammad. "Warner-Bratzler Shear Force Protocol" (PDF). U.S. Meat Animal Research Center.
- ^ a b c d e McGee, Harold (2004). ON FOOD AND COOKING, The science and lore of the kitchen. Scribner. p. 155. ISBN 978-0-684-80001-1.
- ^ a b c LAROUSSE Gastronomique. Hamlyn. 2000. p. 1204. ISBN 978-0-600-60235-4.
- ^ "Tenderizing Meat with a Baking Soda Solution | Cook's Illustrated".
- ^ Abrahams, Marc (5 December 2011). "Best way to tenderise meat? An underwater explosion". The Guardian.
External links[]
- Improving Meat Tenderness by John Marchello and Ron Allen PPT (5 MB)
- Culinary terminology
- Meat
- Meat stubs