Objective meat quality and volatile components as a function of cooking temperature in beef longissimus lumborum

The present paper describes the effect of cooking temperature on objective meat qualities and volatile components in beef longissimus lumborum. Twenty samples of lumbar vertebrae longissimus muscle from Australian Black Angus (grain-fed and chiller aged for 29 d) were screened. Samples were cooked at 50, 70 or 90°C in a pre-heated water bath for 1 h and uncooked raw samples were used as control. The results revealed that elevating the heating temperature from 50 to 90°C led to a significant (p<0.05) increase in WB-shear force, total energy required for WB-shear force, cooking loss, pH and soluble collagen content, whereas a significant (p<0.05) linear decrease in protein solubility was observed. The results also revealed that the WB-shear force at 70°C was significantly (p<0.05) lower than that observed at 50°C and 90°C. However, the effect of temperature on cooking loss and protein solubility was notably (p<0.05) higher at 70°C. The detectable volatile components were mostly produced from fat oxidation, and temperature effects on the generation of volatile components were significantly (p<0.05) greater for aldehydes (hexanal, benzaldehyde, nonanal and octanal) than for ketones and hydrocarbons (hexane, benzene, decan, toluene and 3-methylnonane).