THE EFFECT OF CONDITIONING ON THE STRENGTH OF PERIMYSIAL CONNECTIVE-TISSUE DISSECTED FROM COOKED MEAT

Tensile tests were carried out on ribbons of perimysial connective tissue dissected from slices of bovine semitendinosus muscles that had been conditioned or not conditioned and then cooked to a range of temperatures. A consistent reduction in the strength of the perimysia was seen in the conditioned samples, both in the raw meat and meat cooked to 50-degrees-C. At higher cooking temperatures (60-80-degrees-C), no effect of conditioning was seen. The content of collagen or total protein of mechanically extracted perimysia and the collagen content of the test pieces from conditioned and unconditioned muscles was not significantly different. It was concluded that conditioning decreases the breaking strength of the perimysial connective tissue in raw meat or in meat which is subsequently cooked to 50-degrees-C, but not in meat cooked to the temperatures normally employed by consumers. The tenderization observed in conditioned meat cooked to 60-degrees-C and above is, therefore, due to the weakening of muscle fibres within the fibre bundles.