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STUDIES IN MEAT TENDERNESS. 9. The Tenderness of Various Lamb Muscles in Relation to Their Skeletal Restraint and Delay Before Freezing
Author(s) -
McCRAE SUZANNE E.,
SECCOMBE CHERIE G.,
MARSH B. B.,
CARSE W. A.
Publication year - 1971
Publication title -
journal of food science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1750-3841
pISSN - 0022-1147
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2621.1971.tb15130.x
Subject(s) - tenderness , meat tenderness , significant difference , anatomy , zoology , biology , chemistry , medicine
SUMMARY Lamb muscles vary widely in their response to pre‐rigor freezing of the carcass. Three of the eight muscles examined were toughened very considerably by this treatment; increasing the delay before freezer‐entry produced a great improvement in their tenderness, particularly when the holding period at 18°C was lengthened from 10 to 16 hr. At the other extreme, three muscles were very acceptably tender despite early freezing; when the carcasses were delayed for 10 hr at 18° before entering the freezer, these muscles were slightly though significantly tougher than those from carcasses frozen either earlier (0–5 hr) or later (16–24 hr). The reactions of the two remaining muscles were between those of the extreme categories and differed appreciably from each other. All three members of the tender class and both those of intermediate behavior toughened very significantly when their skeletal attachments were severed at one end just before chilling, whereas the two members of the tough class which were severed in this way were not greatly affected by the treatment. It was possible to study the tenderness of five of the muscles as a direct function of shortening during pre‐rigor chilling; the relationship closely resembled that observed earlier in excised bovine muscle. There thus appears to be no intrinsic difference among the muscles of the lamb carcass in their potential to shorten and toughen. The difference lies rather in the degree of stretch or slack imposed on them by their attachments, for this determines the extent to which shortening can proceed before skeletal restraint is encountered.