FROM OLD BOOTS TO JUICY STEAKS

MEAT TENDERISING: Now even the toughest piece of meat can be made tender and delicious. Tests in Denmark show that meat which is marinated with a little salt, sugar and sodium bicarbonate becomes as tender as a sirloin steak.

Hey presto!. . . From a worn out milking cow to delicious, tender and juicy steaks. Tests conducted at the Danish Meat Research Institute have shown that meat from dairy cattle, which is not always the most suitable for eating, can be turned into the finest steak by marinating. The tests, carried out in collaboration with the Institute’s Swedish and Norwegian colleagues, indicate the substantial added value of marinated meat in both the wholesale and retail sectors.

The experiments on tenderising and determining the quality of meat from dairy cattle are probably the most comprehensive and systematic so far in the international slaughterhouse industry. The project has been led by Katja Rosenvold of the Danish Meat Research Institute in Roskilde, Denmark. The Institute, which is the largest privately owned research institute of its kind in the world, conducts research for both Danish and foreign meat and slaughterhouse industries. Its work covers everything from basic research in food safety to robot technology and individual projects of many different kinds.

Higher quality
“Danish dairy cattle are the root stock of the vast majority of Danish livestock, and the reason why Danish dairy products are so widespread around the world,” says Katja Rosenvold. “But at some point in time, normally after 5-7 years, the dairy cattle are sent to the slaughterhouse. Although the meat is nutritionally excellent, it is rarely tender. So we investigated how we could tenderise the meat and increase its quality level.”

For the experiment, the research group used primarily dairy cattle from the Holstein Friesian breed, which is the most widespread milking breed in the world. The group concentrated on two cuts: the loin and the quadriceps femoris muscle. The latter was separated into the round part and the flat part. The three pieces of meat were then exposed to mechanical tenderising with T shaped needles, multineedle injection with a marinade of salt and sugar, and a multi-needle injection with a marinade of salt, sugar and sodium bicarbonate.

Added value
“Loins and quadriceps femoris muscles from 45 Danish dairy cattle were used in the experiment,” says Katja Rosenvold. “7 days after slaughter the meat was treated and then cut into steaks and retail packed. After a further 7 days’ refrigerated storage the eating quality was assessed by qualified tasters.”

The tasters were mightily impressed. Especially after treatment with the marinade of salt, sugar and sodium bicarbonate, the cheaper quadriceps femoris muscle steak was just as tender as the untreated and expensive loin, without affecting the taste quality.

“The tests naturally showed a large number of variables depending on which part of the meat we treated and how,” says Katja Rosenvold. “But the overall result was unequivocal: marinating less valuable cuts of beef can give significant added value in the shape of better eating quality.”

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