PROVIDING UNIFORM MEAT CORES FOR MECHANICAL SHEAR FORCE MEASUREMENT

SUMMARY: Porcine longissimus dorsi muscle was cut into 5.08 cm sections, heated to an internal temperature of 72°C and chilled to 4°C. Pork muscle cooked to 72°C and chilled to 4°C before boring, was firmer, drier and thus better able to hold its shape during coring than muscle cooked to 60°C and bored warm. Two cores were taken from each pork loin chop. One core was bored by hand, the other by machine. Three different core sizes were used (2.54 cm, 1.90 cm and 1.27 cm). Each core diameter was measured at the same three locations as the core was sheared. A significant (P < 0.005) difference in diameter was observed between the hand and machine cut cores when the 1.90 cm and 1.27 cm bores were used. At these core diameters, there was less variation between the machine bored cores than those removed by hand. There was no significant difference between the core diameters of the two different boring methods when the 2.54 cm bore was used. In all cases machine bored cores were larger in diameter and required a greater shear force than cores removed by hand. Mean shear force values indicated that one cannot double the 1.27 cm core shear value and receive comparable results for the 2.54 cm core shear forces. Copyright © 1969, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved