Abstract:
A uniform, portion pre-sliced roast beef product is made without objectionable loss of original muscle and fiber by: trimming a primal cut of beef; vacuum tumbling with water to soften and extract protein binder; forming and placing into a shape-determining cylindrical cook encasement; cooking; crust cooling and removing the encasement; slicing in one pass cross grain through a multi-blade slicer in a manner to exclude air contacting the slices; and vacuum packaging. The product stores well with essentially no blooming and without change in taste.

Description:
This application is a continuation of Ser. No. 473,067, filed Mar. 7, 1983, and now abandoned. 
    
    
     INTRODUCTION 
     A trend in the meat industry is to produce value added products of a quality and convenience that justify their additional price. In this regard there has been a growing desideratum for portion prepared products that permit facile portion control and auditing besides being of good taste and appearance. 
     The present invention is directed to this need and is a process for producing a finely pre-sliced uniform roast beef of controlled weight and size, cooked evenly from end-to-end and prepared and packaged in such a manner as to be essentially free of premature bloom and loss of taste and appearance during storage, shipping and serving. 
     One of the many problems associated with the preparation and shipping of a pre-sliced roast beef product is that the beef slices are invariably exposed to oxygen which induces blooming to the delicate roast beef color desired by the consumer well in advance of the consumer seeing the product which premature blooming is then followed by undesirable browning and drying. Another problem is that it can be quite expensive to portion the roast beef in uniform small quantities or in individual servings for sandwiches or the like. If special shaping techniques are not employed, the roast beef prior to slicing will vary in size from end to end with the consequence that the slices therefrom vary in size and weight, making portion control difficult if not impossible. It has not heretofore been possible to reshape a whole primal cut of beef without destroying or undesirably distorting the connecting tissue which holds the slices when sliced intact, i.e. this tissue maintains the integrity of the primal cut. 
     A further problem has been that in the cooking of the roast beef the seasonings do not permeate the roast beef very well, being too much to the outside and too little on the inside. 
     This invention is addressed to these and related problems in the preparation, storage and delivery of a portion controlled pre-sliced meat product such as roast beef, corned beef, roast pork, and the like. 
     RELATED DISCLOSURES 
     1. &#34;CKE&#39;s New Massage for Frozen Beef&#34;, Meat Industry, March 1982, pp 16 et seq. 
     2. &#34;Vacuum Massaging: A Basic Approach&#34; by Robert Benton, Meat Processing, February 1982, pp 42 et seq. 
     3. U.S. Pat. Nos.: 2,140,162 to McKee, 1938, p. 99-107; 3,753,741 to Stewart, 1973, p. 99-187; 4,356,205 to Richards, 1982, p. 426-578. 
     THIS INVENTION 
     This invention is a uniform, portion pre-sliced roast beef vacuum packaged product made without objectionable loss of original muscle, fiber and tissue. Essentially no objectionable change in taste in the product occurs from preparation to serving and essentially no premature blooming takes place during storage and shipping. 
     In brief compass, the product of this invention is produced by: 
     a. trimming a top round of beef or similar primal cut; 
     b. vacuum tumbling the piece with others with added water, phosphates and flavorings to allow the piece to take up water and soften and to extract protein binder; 
     c. forming the softened piece and placing it into a tight confining shaping cylinder; 
     d. cooking the piece usually rare to medium; 
     e. rapid crust cooling the piece and removing it from the shaping cylinder; 
     f. slicing the cooked piece in sequence with others in one pass cross grain through a multi-blade slicer producing fine slices of uniform thickness while physically restraining the cooked piece on all surfaces in a manner to virtually exclude air from contacting the faces of the slices, and to restore a more natural roast shape; 
     g. weighing the piece so sliced to establish the conformity thereof to a predetermined weight desired for all the roasts in a series, removing or adding slices as need be; 
     h. vacuum packing the sliced meat in an airtight container for shipment and storage. 
     Preferably, the cut is trimmed to be fat and gristle free end-to-end. This trimming might be considered &#34;abnormal&#34; inasmuch as more is trimmed than is &#34;normal&#34; for a roast of this type. This is because if any substantial amounts of fat or gristle are left they may migrate during the forming step and create unsightly fat/gristle pockets. However, sufficient connective tissue is left to bridge the muscle and hold the shape of the cut after forming. Usually 80 or more weight percent of a top round will remain after the trimming. 
     The vacuum tumbling or massaging of the meat as is known softens it considerably besides extracting protein binder and prepares it for the subsequent shape forming step. Additional protein binder can be added during the tumbling step and/or protein binder promoters, e.g. phosphates, can be added. 
     The tumbled piece is formed and placed into a tight cylindrical encasement that holds it in a round shape. Round blocks may be placed at either end of the casing to help set the dimensions of the roast. 
     The cooking of the rounds in the shaping cylinder is conventional. Preferably a thermocouple is placed in each round so that cooking is exact to the level desired without a variation of more than 5° F. from any one part to another. 
     Following cooking, the round is immediately crust chilled and allowed to rest for a time to allow the collagens to gel following which the cylindrical casing is removed. Some of the water added during tumbling is removed during cooking and the protein binder will have set up so that the round will reasonably firmly hold its shape. 
     The round is then sliced by passing cross grain through a multi-blade slicer with very fine blades with all of the surfaces of the round preferably being confined as it approaches and enters the blades. The leading and rearward edges of the round are confined by being pressed between the preceding and succeeding rounds. As the blades pass through the meat the meat is temporarily parted and then closes immediately behind the blades so that there is substantially no opportunity for oxygen from the air to contact the faces of the slices and thus induce blooming. While it is possible to carry out this slicing in an inert gas atmosphere, there has so far appeared to be little need to do so if the proper slicing equipment is used and proper handling is observed. 
     A particular advantage of using a multi-blade slicer, which looks like a bread slicer except that the blades are much, much closer together, is that the blades move flavoring from the crust inwardly toward the center of the slices. This flavoring during the subsequent storage and shipment of the round has an opportunity to permeate the meat and enhance its taste. No other portion sliced product is known to do this without objectionable blooming. 
     As the product is of a uniform diameter, preferably in the range of 4 to 6 inches, plus or minus 1/4 inch, from end to end, and as the slices are of uniform thickness, the slices are identical end to end and portion control is assured. For example, a cooked and sliced round of 51/4 inches diameter can have a weight of 71/2 pounds, plus or minus 1 ounce. If the slices are 0.0625 inches thick, the round will yield 115 to 120 slices with over 90% of them weighing 1 ounce, plus or minus 1/4 ounce. This will permit a user to determine a fairly exact sandwich count per roast giving good cost control and greatly discouraging if not eliminating pilferage without full awareness by management. 
     The user is able to avoid the usual messy and labor-consuming slicing of the roast beef and the attendant slicing shrinkage. 
     The roast beef product retains practically all of its original muscle fiber and structure, e.g. at least 90% thereof. The roast and the slices therefrom retain their shape and have the texture, structure and firmness of a conventional roast beef. 
     In a preferred embodiment, the cooked, sliced round thus produced is packaged in a special one-use airtight vacuum pouch container that is rigid enough to be used as a serving container thus eliminating the need to dirty pans or the serving area. This container allows the roast product to remain in its natural juices until the time of serving, giving better serving color and yield. Because of the method of preparation, the sliced product upon serving will bloom to an excellent color and will continue to do so for about three or four days serving time from the opening of the container. 
    
    
     THE DRAWING 
     The drawing attached to and forming a part of the specification is a schematic flow diagram of the steps of the process of this invention. The drawing illustrates the following steps: 
     1. Trimming 
     2. Tumbling/Massaging 
     3. Forming/Encasing 
     4. Cooking 
     5. Crust Cooling 
     6. Slicing 
     7. Weighing 
     8. Vacuum Packing 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION 
     In the first step a selected inside top round of 12-15 pounds is trimmed of fat, gristle, veins and loose flesh but leaving connective tissue. Usually the top round after trimming will be about 85% of the original weight. 
     In the second step batches of 75 to 100 rounds, e.g. 88, are put in a vacuum tumbler with 8 to 12%, e.g. 10% added water and with phosphates and spices or flavorings as desired. A suitable tumbler is manufactured by Globus Manufacturing Company, New York, NY. The product is tumbled for over 45 minutes, e.g. 65 minutes, with a few, e.g. three, rest periods of several minutes each, e.g. 5 minutes, at a vacuum of no less than 17 inches of mercury, e.g. 20 inches. The temperature is preferably less than 40° F. The rounds at this point have taken up substantially all of the water and are soft and gooey with extracted protein which will serve as a binder later. If desired, extra protein binder can be added during the tumbling step as can a binder promoting material. The phosphate is added during tumbling to promote water uptake. 
     In step 3 the thus treated round is passed through a horn that forces it into a shaping cylinder that insures a perfect diameter. The roast is preferably extruded solid muscle end first. The other end is &#34;split&#34; because of some folding over of the sides of the roast at that end during the extrusion. 
     A cylinder block can be placed in the end of the cylindrical form before extrusion and one can be forced onto the end of the extrudate. These can be locked into the ends of the encasement in a known manner. 
     In step 4 the rounds are placed in a large cook oven, for example one that will hold 200 pieces, with each round preferably having its own thermocouple. Cooking is carried out in a known manner for approximately 8 to 10 hours. The temperature is raised to a temperature that is uniform throughout the roast, preferably plus or minus 21/2° F. end-to-end. The roast can be cooked to any degree specified by the customer. For example, it can be cooked 9 hours raising the internal temperature of the roast to one in the range of 130° to 140° F. plus or minus 21/2° end-to-end. This is the temperature required to achieve a rare to medium roast. 
     After cooking, the product is rapidly crust chilled in step 5 to below 40° F. and is then ready for slicing. The casing and the shape-forming end blocks are removed. 
     In step 6 the roast is examined for the firmest surface and that surface is kept to the rear in the slicing chamber. A suitable slicer is a Slice-N-Tact sold by Bettcher Industries, Vermillion, Ohio, 44089. This slicer looks much like a bread slicer except the blades are set very close together, from 1.5 to 2.5 mm, e.g. 2 mm. As the roast is pushed through the slicer with the firmest surfaces to the rear, breakage is minimized. The next succeeding roast is used to complete the passage of the preceding roast through the slicer. Any breakage or open seam should be put face down in the slicing chamber as this helps to hold the seams closed and to reduce breakage during slicing. The top of the roast slides under and is confined by a surface or platen as it approaches the blades. The ends are similarly confined. 
     As the slices pass the blade they immediately come together again, thus excluding air from contacting the faces of the slices and all but eliminating subsequent blooming of the slices. The blades in passing through the slices draw down from the top juices and flavorings from the crust and smear them across the face of the slices. As the sliced roast is stored and shipped, these juices and flavorings have an opportunity to enhance the taste of the roast. 
     When the roast emerges from the slicer, a person weighs the roast in step 7 to see if it meets the desired weight, e.g., 7.5 pounds. Normally, there will be excess weight and the weigher removes slices from the muscle end of the roast until the desired weight is reached. With a roast having a starting weight of 13 to 14 pounds before trimming, normally enough of the butt will be removed from 2 pieces so that every third roast can be made up of two butts brought together. If the roast has a cylindrical diameter of 51/2 inches, the length of the roast will usually be about 9 inches to give a 71/2 pound weight. If each slice is approximately 0.0625 inches thick and weighs about 1 ounce then the operator will be able to add or remove quite readily the desired number of slices to achieve the target weight. For example, if the roast after removing some of the muscle ends weighs 7.2 pounds then the operator will know that adding five slices from the remaining portion will make the roast weigh about 7.5 pounds. 
     The customer receiving every third roast that contains the two muscle end sections is not likely to complain that the roast is not continuous as it will be obvious to him that he has gotten the two best portions of the two rounds. 
     Following the weighing, the roast is placed in a roll stock vacuum packing machine such as one made by Tirmomat, a European firm whose machine is distributed by Kutter Sales, Randolph, Mass. The packing material may be a trilaminate film such as one made of polyethylene/syrlon/nylon. Preferably the roasts are packaged two to a package with the bottom half of the container being in the shape of two upfacing adjacent half cylinders with closed confining ends to hold the roast shape, over which is placed a flat top sheet heat sealed to the edges of the bottom container. When it comes time to serve the roasts, the container can be used to bring the roasts up to the temperature desired and the top sheet of the container can be peeled back leaving the roasts in the confining two half cylindrical bottoms in their juices ready to serve. This gives a better yield and slices of better color. 
     While the process has been described with particular reference to roast beef, one skilled in the art will appreciate that it can also be applied to other primal cuts used such as of veal, lamb, pork and mutton, which can be fresh or cured, such as a corned beef. While the process is most advantageously applied to a single solid muscle, the meat can be in smaller pieces such that, for example, it takes at least 10 pieces to make up one roast. 
     A particular advantage of this process resides in the fact that it can process range fed beef to good advantage. The consuming public has become used to the consistent flavor and uniformity of commercial grain feed beef. Because of the cost of energy and grain, range fed beef in the future will have a price advantage. Range fed beef, however, varies more widely in taste and texture than grain fed beef. The present process reduces the wide variation in texture and taste of the range fed beef by at least 50% if not more. 
     The uniformity of the size of the roast of this invention and of the slices allows the consumer quite some accuracy in dispensing the roast and in establishing cost control. The product comes to the consumer completely sliced and the consumer may avoid messy and labor-consuming operations and loss due to slicing shrinkage. The slice uniformity allows exact sandwich count per roll and discourages pilferage. By proper trimming of the roast to start, the roast of this invention offers more lean meat per sandwich. 
     Of primary importance is that the roast does not undergo blooming during storage and shipping as a result of the slicing. When its container is opened by the customer the roast beef slices bloom and develop good color and appearance. This good color will remain through 3 or 4 days of serving. 
     The roast beef can of course be cooked to a customer&#39;s specification if a greater or lesser degree of doneness is desired.