| dc.description.abstract | Beef ribeyes, strip loins, and top sirloin butts were selected over two different replicates from Top Choice (Modest and Moderate marbling; n = 26), Choice (Small marbling; n = 26), and Select (Slight marbling; n = 26) carcasses to determine if today’s more tender beef requires as many days of postmortem aging to ensure acceptable tenderness as in the past. Steaks were obtained from each subprimal and were allocated to 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, or 21 days of aging under refrigeration temperatures. At each aging period, steaks were cooked on flat-top grills for Warner-Bratzler Shear Force (WBSF) determinations. During the second set of steak tenderness assessments, a severe winter storm prevented the cooking of steaks from days 6 and 8, which were frozen, thawed, and evaluated later. Data were analyzed into include/exclude the day 6 and 8 frozen steaks or to only use the sampling period from the first replication of the study (replicate 1). For ribeye steaks, there were no (P > 0.05) grade x postmortem age interactions for any of the subprimals. Grade only impacted (P < 0.05) WBSF for ribeye steaks from Replicate 1 (Top Choice < Select;), strip loin steaks from fresh + frozen and without frozen (Choice < Top Choice and Select). Postmortem aging did impact (P < 0.0001) WBSF values for all subprimals with most of the differences occurring at day 10. Tenderness thresholds for percentages of steaks that were “Very Tender” or “Tender” support that most of the improvement in tenderness had occurred by day 10. Beef ribeyes, strip loins, and top sirloin butts from Top Choice, Choice, and Select beef carcasses require at least 10 days of postmortem aging to ensure acceptable tenderness, which is fewer days than most foodservice operators use for customer specifications. | en |
