Feasibility of water immersion cooking of beef joints: Effect on product quality and yield

The effect of water immersion cooking (85 °C) on beef joints quality and yield was compared to dry heat oven cooking (120 °C) and moist heat oven cooking (85 °C), with the aim to improve cooked meat properties before the cooling step. Air blast cooling was used to cool all meat samples to core temperature of 4 °C. Data on mass losses and yield, cooking and cooling time, nutritional content and physical properties (water-holding capacity, tenderness, hardness and cohesiveness) of samples were compared. Cooking in water produced similar cook loss, cooking time and nutritional content when compared to the other two methods. Still, beef samples cooked in water were significantly tenderer than dry heat oven cooked samples. There were no significant differences in yield or quality of water-cooked samples and moist heat oven cooked samples. Cooking in water could result in an advantageous method to improve meat quality at the cooking stage to be combined with vacuum cooling to render a safe and high quality meat product.