Theses and Dissertations Collection

An American regional specialty, finger steaks are traditionally made with loin meat which commands a higher value than other beef primals. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate objective tenderness using Warner-Bratzler Shear Force (WBSF) and sensory characteristics of finger steaks made from the loin and lower valued cuts from the chuck, sirloin, and round. Beef strip loins (NAMI #180), top rounds (NAMI #169A), clod hearts (NAMI #114E) and top sirloins (NAMI #184B) from USDA Choice carcasses (n = 12) were aged for 21 d. Following the aging period, all subprimals were fabricated into strips (1.27 cm x 1.27 cm x 7.62 cm). Finger steaks were systemically assigned to WBSF or sensory taste panels. A batter was formulated within guidelines commonly applied to meat products. Batter pick-up percentage and product yield were assessed for all muscles in the cooking process. Pick-up percentage refers to the amount of coating material adhering to the product based on final fried weight. Consumer sensory panelists (N = 120) and trained sensory panelists (N = 7) assessed each muscle based on the following traits: appearance, flavor, tenderness, and overall product acceptability. Significance was determined at P < 0.05. The top round had the highest batter pick-up percentage (P = 0.001). Objective tenderness differed (P = 0.002) in tenderness between treatments with strip loin and top sirloin being the most tender. All treatments were considered “very tender” based on USDA thresholds (≤ 3.9 kg WBSF). Consumer sensory panels indicated a difference in acceptability (P = 0.001), tenderness (P = 0.001), juiciness (P = 0.001) and flavor (P = 0.006) between treatments. Trained panelists indicated a difference in tenderness (P = 0.001) and ranked the clod heart and strip loin superior for juiciness (P = 0.02). There was not significance difference for coating appearance (P = 0.46), batter adhesion (P = 0. 34), crispiness (P = 0.23), and beef flavor intensity (P = 0.12) in the trained taste panel. The strip loin outperformed the other muscles in most categories. However, based on their tender WBSF values and sensory panel scores meat from the chuck and round were determined to be acceptable alternatives to the current traditional strip steaks commonly used for finger steak production.