Effect of aging, cooking and freezing on tenderness, yield and microbial counts of “solomo” (outside) meat cuts.

Abstract

A total of 115 outside cuts with a medium weight of 2.9 kg

were used. Five samples were used for the estimation of the

internal variation of the cut force and 10 samples for chemical

composition evaluation. Eighty cuts were vacuum-packed and

then aged for seven days at 7 ºC. After aging, four subgroups

of 20 units were established. The first was frozen at -25 ºC for

a month. The second and the third subgroups were cooked by

immersion in hot water until the internal temperature reached

70 ºC. At the end of the cooking process, the third group was

frozen as described above. The fourth group only underwent

aging (seven days/7 °C). Twenty fresh cuts were used as a

control group. The “cut force” of the 100 treated cuts was

evaluated by the methods of the American Meat Science

Association. Microbiological quality and weight losses of

every treatment, and the pH values for fresh and aged cuts

were evaluated. Fresh cuts showed high variability in

tenderness, expressed as a function of the cut force estimated

in 7.45 kg/cm2, and exhibited slightly higher proportion of

connective tissue (2.9%). Outside fractions, both fresh and

aged, showed low pH values, but did not show statistically

significant differences among each other. Microbiological

evaluations showed that all treatments were sanitarily

executed. All treatments improved outside tenderness. The

treatments composed by cooking and by freezing showed the

least improvement. The best results were obtained under

aging during seven days at a temperature of 7 ºC.