title: Breeding and Roasting Temperature as Related to Beef Tenderness and Other Quality Factors
Creators: name: Jenson, Ruth Ann B.
Publisher: name: Utah State University
Year: 1966

description: According to the 1964 census the production and sale of livestock provided a major source of income in the state of Utah. Twenty-three of the state's twenty-nine counties received more than 40 percent of their total farming income from livestock sales in 1959. According to Taylor (1965) this is expected to increase even more. In studying the economic sources within Utah, it becomes evident that many of the state's farmers and ranchers depend heavily on the sale of livestock for their livelihood. Upon observing this fact, Taylor (1965) states that farm income will depend just as heavily on the sale of livestock as in the past. He suggests one reason for this increase is because beef cattle have been replacing dairy herds and sheep since 1945. For example, between 1962-64 dairy cattle decreased by 38,000 head.
The chief agricultural export items in Utah are beef and lamb in carcass form. The meat packing plants process 250 million pounds of red meat annually. Of this 250 million pounds, 209 million pounds are consumed in Utah and about 41 million pounds are exported to other states.
In recent years much study and research have been done on tenderness of beef. The quality and consumption of less tender cuts of beef, which are also less expensive, would be increased if a method of cooking could be used to attain this tenderness. Hiner (1955) points out that "tenderness in beef is a function of many interrelated factors namely: breeding, feeding, management, age, period of aging of raw meat, presence of collagenous and elastic fibers, the method of cooking the meat and probably many others."
Recent studies have shown that low temperature cooking increases the tenderness of beef. Cover (1937 and 1943) reports that roasts cooked at 176 F were "very tender" but dry as compared with those roasted at 257 F. She explains that the "tenderness is due to the longer cooking time rather than the oven temperature."
This may be true with quantity roasts but more work needs to be done on dry-roasting at the standard oven temperature which is from 300 to 325 F. Nielsen and Hall's (1965) study shows that blade roasts were more tender roasted at 225 F than at 325 F and were equally as tender as those braised. Many housewives no longer have time to roast a piece of meat for two or three hours just before dinner. If they could put the meat in the oven at a lower temperature before leaving for work in the morning and take it out in time for dinner at night; having a comparable roast in tenderness, juiciness, and flavor; their cooking problem would be somewhat simplified.
The Animal Science Department of Utah State University has been experimenting with breeding Hereford and Hereford-Shorthorn crosses. One phase of their experiment is concerned with tenderness. The Food and Nutrition Department agreed to conduct tests for tenderness, juiciness, and flavor and acceptability on standing rib roasts cooked at 325 F. Through the courtesy of the Animal Science Department adjacent standing rib roasts and adjacent paired chuck roasts were furnished and were dry-roasted at 225 F and 325 F. This was done to compare tender and less tender cuts of beef roasted at the two different oven temperatures.
The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of genetic background, oven temperature, and dry-roasting of less tender cuts upon tenderness, juiciness, flavor and acceptability and cooking losses of tender and less tender cuts of beef.