EFFECTS OF SAMPLING LOCATION AND CARCASS FATNESS ON TENDERNESS OF STEAKS FROM THE LONGISSIMUS DORSI OF YEARLING SHORTHORN BULLS

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Abstract
Tenderness variations within and between steaks, sides and carcass were examined from the shortloins of three commercial carcasses of unknown history. In a second experiment the influence of carcass and beef fatness on tenderness of rib steaks of 69 Shorthorn bulls was also investigated. For both experiments tenderness was evaluated subjectively by means of a six-member taste panel and objectively with a Warner-Bratzler shearing device. Correlations between the two tenderness evaluation methods ranged from 0.55 to 0.83. For both types of evaluation, steaks in the 11th–12th rib were significantly more tender than steaks further back along the loin. There was considerable within-steak variation which was of a systematic nature, cores from the region of the backbone being significantly more tender than cores located toward the lateral edge of the rib-eye. Between-carcass variation was large relative to that within carcasses, and important differences in tenderness between steaks from bulls of very similar background were established. All measures of fatness, intra- and inter-muscular and subcutaneous, were positively correlated. Correlations with tenderness evaluations were significant for percent intramuscular fat only. These were not large, however, (100 r2 = 9%) for either method of tenderness evaluation.