Meat Flavor Flashcards
L26 - 4/18/25
_________, ________, and ________ are the primary beef palatability attributes
- Tenderness
- Juiciness
- Flavor*
Taste vs Flavor
Taste: saltiness, sourness, sweetness, bitterness and/or umami*
Flavor: combination of taste, odor/aroma, and sensations within mouth
What is Saltiness linked to?
- inorganic salts
- sodium salts (glutamate and aspartate)
What is Sourness linked to?
- amino acids
- organic acids
What is Sweetness linked to?
- Sugars
- amino acids
- organic acids
What is Bitterness linked to?
- hypoxanthine
- anserine
- carnosine
- amino acids
What is Umami linked to?
- glutamate
Odor/Aroma detects _____
volatile compounds within the olfactory system
Aroma = in air proximate to food
Flavor = released when consumed
Flavor compounds stimulate _________ and _______
olfactory (nasal) and taste receptors (oral)
The development of flavor during cooking is the result of ___________
thermal breakdown and interactions of precursor compounds
Cooking Pathways that Alter Flavor
- Maillard reaction (amino acids with reducing sugars)
- Lipid oxidation (thermally induced)
- Interaction between maillard reaction and lipid oxidation products
- Thiamin degradation (during cooking)
Flavor precursors
- Free amino acids
- Peptides
- Reducing sugars
- Fats/lipids
- Vitamins
- Nucleotides
Cooked meat flavor = ________ + __________
- volatile compounds
- Other taste related compounds
Factors affecting meat flavor
- Cooking
- Diet
- Marbling
- Age
- Sex/Castration
How can diet alter meat flavor?
can alter muscle fatness and fatty acid (lipid) composition
high-concentrate diets have high both
PUFA
polyunsaturated fatty acid
grass finishing increases PUFA by 25%
What terms have been used to define grass-fed beef
- Grassy
- Milky
- Gamey
- Fishy
Feeding non-ruminants high oleate can increase its content in ________ and _______
muscle and adipose tissue
Marbling associated with
Tenderness and juiciness
How does age affect meat flavor?
Older cows are described as cowy/gamey, bloody/serumy, and metallic from high myoglobin
How does sex affect beef flavor?
- Bulls have higher myoglobin and less fat (livery, cowy/grainy, metallic flavor)
- Bulls more susceptible to long-term pre-slaughter stress which leads to DFD meat and high pH (musty/moldy, beefy, cowy/grainy, serumy/bloody flavor)
How does sex affect pork flavor?
- high skatole levels (product of testosterone)
- gives a urine-like, sweaty aromatic/odor that develops when boar fat is heated
- eliminated by immunocastrating entire male pigs during finisher phase of production
When myoglobin is denatured, the flavor turns from _________ to _________
serumy/bloody to beefy/brothy
Cooking at lower temperatures (<165F) results in __________
differences in the concentration of volatile compounds
