Review for AAS

Vocabulary Palatability: how a food appeals to the palate (smell, sight, taste, texture, etc.) Retail Cuts: small cuts of meat customers purchase at grocery stores Antemortem: before death Wholesale Cuts: large sections of carcass ( half a hog or quarter of a beef) that are sold to stores who cut them into retail cuts Rigor Mortis: a physiological process where muscles stiffen and lock into place Exsanguination: removal of an animal’s blood Postmortem: after death

Mastication: chewing Meat (muscle?): any edible tissue from animals Chine: the backbone of an animal Kosher: any food prepared according to Jewish dietary law Immobilization: to render an animal oblivious to pain Aging: to let a carcass hang in a cool environment for a period of time to let enzymes break down meats

4 Categories of Meats Red Poultry Seafood/Fish Game Red: beef, veal, lamb, pork (?) Poultry: chicken, turkey, duck (?) Fish: trout, crab, salmon, lobster, tilapia Game: bear, turkey, duck, antelope, grouse, deer, moose, pheasant

Meat Names Poultry Beef Meat Veal Mutton Lamb Pork Chevon Cabrito

History of the Meat Industry Uncle Sam: – Sam Wilson a pork producer Cincinatti was called –Porkopolis Wall Street: –actually a wall erected in Manhattan to prevent pigs from entering town, kept the name ever since

History of the Meat Industry Packing Industry: went from an art to a science (why?) The Packing Industry: – meats were salted and packed into barrels Used to be one animal at a time, now: –Beef = 4,000/line/day – Pork = 8,000/line/day – Chickens = 70-80,000/line/day

History of the Meat Industry No federal inspection Upton Sinclair’s book “The Jungle” Meat Inspection Act of 1906 Humane Slaughter Act of 1957

Meat Industry Seven areas of inspection Sanitation, antemortem, postmortem, control and restriction of condemned materials, product, laboratory inspection, marketing and labeling

The slaughter process Live inspection Immobilization Humane slaughter act Bolt, electricity, gas No pain Heart must continue pumping

Kosher Slaughter: ~ Any food prepared according to Jewish dietary law ~Are exempt from stunning the animal but must be done as humanely as possible ~Must be from religiously acceptable animals ~Meats are undesirable if improperly slaughtered, are not cloven hooved, etc. called non kosher ~Kosher foods have a mark (Circle U) ~Area must be blessed by a rabbi, only the forequarters can be used because sciatic nerve in hindquarters

Continuation of Slaughter Process Exsanguination Slit the throat, done quickly to prevent hemorrhaging or spots in the meat from ruptured blood vessels Gut the animal, save edible organs (liver is the most common edible organ) Internal organs are inspected for health problems, each carcass for consumption has to be inspected

Processing the Carcass Carcasses are split Cooler rigor mortis (6-12 hours for beef and lamb, 30m-3hours for pork) Enzymes and microorganisms break down tissue Rigor – Relax = Meat

When does Meat become Muscle? After the rigor/relax process!!! Why hang a carcass? –Over a week –Enzymes and microorganisms break down meats –Increase palatability and flavor and tenderness

Meats are Good! Meats taste good because of intramuscular fat –marbling This is fat within the meats, not globs that you can cut off

Antimortem Effects that can affect meat quality: A. Feed B. Genetics C. Sex/Age D. Stress E. Disease ***Porcine Stress Syndrome (PSS) is a stress that actually ruins the meat of an animal and causes the meat to be (PSE) pale, soft and excudative (watery) *** DDF or dry, dark and firm is a stress condition in cattle causing “dark cutters”

Postmortem effects that can affect meat quality: ~heating and cooling is the main one! ~cleanliness Where do steaks and chops come from? ~the loin of the animal