The effects of dry or wet aging on the quality of the longissimus muscle from 4-year-old Hanwoo cows and 28-month-old Hanwoo steers

Abstract

This study was conducted to discover the differences in physicochemical and sensory qualities of beef from 4-year-old Hanwoo cows and 2-year-old Hanwoo steers after undergoing different meat aging methods. Additionally, the possibility of using 4-year-old cows as value-added aged meat was investigated. Loins from eight cows (average 51 months old) and eight steers (average 28 months old) of quality grade 2 were aged for 28 days using dry and wet aging. Analyses were conducted to evaluate meat quality, including moisture content, pH, cooking loss, shear force, nucleotides, free amino acids (FAA), and sensory evaluation. After 28 days of aging, the moisture and shear force for loins from steers and cows were reduced compared with those of non-aged meat (P < 0.05). Cooking loss was reduced by dry aging. Regardless of aging method and gender, aging decreased inosine-5'-monophosphate content but increased FAA content (P < 0.05). Dry aging increased glutamic acid content in meat, and aging the meat of steer increased the content of aspartic acid and glutamic acid (P < 0.05). Before aging, sensory scores for juiciness, tenderness, flavour, and overall acceptance between cow and steer were significantly different (P < 0.05), but the differences disappeared after aging. Therefore, the quality of lower grade meat from 4-year-old cows is comparable to that of meat from 2-year-old steers after aging, regardless of the aging method used.