EFFECT OF DRY AND MOIST HEAT TREATMENTS ON SELECTED BEEF QUALITY FACTORS

Abstract
SUMMARY: Pieces of beef semimembranosus muscle, relatively uniform in weight and shape, were deep‐fat fried (DF), oven‐roasted (OR), oven‐braised (OB) and pressure‐braised (PB) at 10 psig to an internal temperature of 70°C to investigate he effects of dry and moist heat on selected characteristics of beef. Rate of heat penetration, cooking time, cooking losses, total moisture, press fluid, water‐holding capacity and juiciness varied (P < 0.01) and apparent degree of doneness varied (P < 0.05) among the 4 heat treatments. Warner‐Bratzler shear, color‐difference, flavor, tenderness and over‐all acceptability were not affected significantly by treatment. OR pieces had the slowest rate of heat penetration and the longest cooking time, highest values for total moisture, press fluid, water‐holding capacity and juiciness. For those measurements, OB pieces always ranked next to OR pieces, followed by DF and PB pieces. OR pieces appeared less well‐done than meat given the other treatments. For every heat treatment, there was an excellent relationship between rate of heat penetration and cooking time. For PB pieces, rate of heat penetration was moderately related to total moisture, press fluid, juiciness and apparent degree of doneness, and highly related to cooking losses. It appeared that tenderness and flavor influenced over‐all acceptability scores more than juiciness or apparent degree of doneness. Differences between values for selected characteristics of raw muscle and of muscle subjected to each treatment were not significantly different from each other.