Effects of massaging time and drum speed on texture and structure of two beef muscles

Investigations have been done on selected beef muscles: m. biceps femoris and m. semimembranosus including their injecting with curing brine and massaging. It was found that BF is characterized by fibres of a larger mean cross-sectional area as well as a thicker peri- and endomysium and it is also harder and more difficult to chew than SM. Massaging resulted in an increase of mean fibre cross-sectional area, peri- and endomysium changes and in a reduction of hardness and chewiness, however the drum speed and time-dependent changes differed between the muscles. To achieve a significant reduction of hardness and chewiness BF required longer massaging time, compared to SM. At the massaging regime applied in this study, to arrive at comparable textural parameters in the two muscles, BF should be effective massaged for 12 h at 20 rpm drum speed and SM – 8 h at 5 rpm drum speed or 4 h at 20 rpm drum speed.