Is Prolonged Ageing a Necessity for Improving the Quality of Sous-Vide Cooked Beef?

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the effect of wet ageing time (4, 14 and 21 days) on the quality of sous-vide cooked beef products. The research material consisted of longissimus lumborum muscles obtained from the carcasses of Polish Holstein-Friesian bulls (n = 9, average age at slaughter 22 months). The meat was wet-aged at 4 ± 1 °C for 4, 14 and 21 days post-mortem. The analyses were conducted on uncooked samples (colour and pH) and after the sous-vide cooking (60 °C, 4 h) (colour, cooking loss, Warner–Bratzler shear force, texture profile analysis and sensory assessment). It was found that ageing decreased redness, yellowness and chroma (p p p longissimus lumborum muscles should be aged for at least 14 days.

Keywords

• ageing
• <i>longissimus lumborum</i>
• meat quality
• sous-vide cooking
• storage