The Effects of Freezing, Frozen Storage Conditions and Degree of Doneness on Lamb Palatability Characteristics

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Abstract
SUMMARY— Comparisons involving fresh versus frozen chops and roasts from 190 lamb carcasses indicated significant though nonconformable treatment effects on cooked‐sample palatability characteristics. Freezing resulted in a highly significant increase in shear force values for loin chops and highly significant decreases in flavor, tenderness and overall satisfaction scores for leg roasts. Freezing rib chops, in contrast to the results for loin chops and leg roasts, resulted in a highly significant decrease in shear force values indicating an increase in tenderness as the result of freezing. Several possible explanations concerning these contradictory findings are suggested and discussed. In other paired‐chop comparisons, higher final cooking temperatures resulted in increased shear force values for rib chops; wrapping samples prior to freezing appeared to have little effect on chop tenderness comparisons. In all comparisons, variance ratios between chops treated differently were not significantly altered.