Effect of the Granular Size of Ground Meat on the Sensory Distinction and Physical Properties of Meat Patties.

The effect of granular size on the physical properties and sensory distinction of samples was examined by perparing patties from three kinds of ground meat, i. e., beef, pork, and chicken, which had been passed through one of five plates with orifice diameters of 2.4, 3.4, 4.8, 6.8 and 9.6 mm.<BR>Measurements of the granular size of the raw meat grains and those of the meat grains after cooking indicated a contraction ratio due to cooking in the order of beef>pork>chicken. In addition, it was easiest with beef to distinguish the granular size of patties prepared from meat passed through different orifice diameters, and chicken was found to be the most adhesive.<BR>The juice in thawed meat patties with a large granular size was retained to a greater extent in cooked meat patties than that with a small granular size. There was also a difference in juice retention among the kinds of meat, that is, this being greater in the order of chicken>pork>beef. The shearing-breaking strain and cohesiveness of the cooked meat patties was significantly increased with increasing orifice diameter, beef showing the greatest changes in values from different orifice diameters. This suggests that the physical properties of beef ground through different orifice diameters are easier to distinguish than those of pork and chicken.<BR>The results of the sensory evaluation show that the coarseness of the meat, hardness, elasticity, and nikuryukan (size and amount of meat-like granules) were distinguishable to some extent with each kind of meat patties prepared by using different orifice diameters. It is also shown that there was difference in distinguishability according to the kind of meat, i. e., beef≥pork≥chicken. We thus verified the distinguishability by size measurements of the meat grains and physical measurements of the cooked meat patties.<BR>Nikuryukan, which is a sensory index of meat granular size, is shown to be 98% predictable by two physical properties, namely the ratio of dripping of a meat patty before and after cooking, and the water-holding capacity of a thawed meat patty. The granular size was distinguishable when the volume ratio of the meat grains was larger than 1.2-1.5.