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A Study In "Cubism"
In the search for new uses for the Round, the Beef Innovations Group (BIG) identified a potential opportunity for single muscle “user-friendly” cube steak material at the retail level. Currently retailers either gather unused pieces of beef material, purchase special trim or process muscle into cube steaks on site.
Three potential cube steak “muscles” were identified. They were:
Top Round Cap -gracilis
Bottom Round Main Body - biceps femoris
Bottom Round Flat Triangle- ishiatic head
The objective was to measure color stability issues within these different muscles of the Round. This study was conducted at Oklahoma State University (OSU), Food & Agricultural Products Center in Stillwater, Oklahoma (a USDA inspected facility).
The three muscles were fabricated, cut into manageable portions for cubing and processed into cube steaks. The samples were then packaged in styrofoam trays and held in light and temperature conditions of a typical meat case. All samples were held for four days. The coloring of each muscle was observed against a control sample of cube steaks that were prepackaged and purchased at a local retail meat department.
The samples were monitored twice daily with subjective observations by the OSU meat science department. To properly score muscle color, a scale was created with “8” being extremely bright cherry red, and “1” being extremely dark red. Surface discoloration was similarly recorded with “7” being total discoloration, and “1” being no visible discoloration.
At the end of the study the observations were complied and ranked. The results show that the Bottom Round Flat Triangle- ishiatic head out-performed the Top Round Cap -gracilis and the Bottom Round Main Body - biceps femoris. Although the study was small and directional in nature BIG will continue to use the Bottom Round Flat Triangle- ishiatic head as a “special-trim” type item along with a user friendly Bottom Round (main body only) log. For more information on this study, please contact Kari Underly at Kari@rangepartners.com.
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