Abstract
This study was conducted to examine the physical and chemical characteristics of Japanese Shorthorn beef after immersion in juice of four varieties of Iwateyamanashi. Samples of biceps femoris muscle from four Japanese Shorthorn steers were immersed in Juice-1, Juice-2, Juice-3, or Juice-4 for 0 (control), 12, 96, or 192 h, and then, the drip loss, cooking loss, total loss, color values before and after cooking, and texture profiles of the muscle samples were analyzed. The variety of Iwateyamanashi had no effect on the muscle texture properties. The pH of Juice-4 was significantly higher than that of the other juices. The cooking loss of muscle samples immersed in Juice-2 and Juice-3 were significantly higher after 192 h of immersion as compared with the control. The a* value before cooking of the muscle sample immersed in Juice-4 was significantly higher than that of the muscle samples immersed in the other juices after 96 h of immersion. These results suggested that immersion in Iwateyamanashi juice sustained the color of muscle samples, and that a high pH of Iwateyamanashi juice sustained the water holding capacity of muscles.
