Palatability of bison semimembranosus and effects of marination

The present study was conducted to investigate the palatability of bison semimembranosus muscle (SM) and the effects of injection with sodium chloride and sodium tripolyphosphate on cooking yield, colour, shear force and consumer acceptability. Twenty paired SM were obtained from 10 intact male bison (aged 24-30 months); each of these muscles was divided longitudinally into two sections. One section was injected to 110% of its original weight to contain 0.5% sodium chloride and 0.3% sodium tripolyphosphate, while the other was kept as a non-injected control. HunterLab a* (redness) and b* (yellowness) values did not differ (P>0.05) between injection treatments; however, injected steaks had lower L* values (darker) compared to controls. Control samples from bison SM were very lean and high in protein but not very tender. Marination by injection was able to significantly reduce shear force values of SM; that is, injected steaks/roasts had significantly (P<0.001) lower shear force values (63.9 N) compared to control samples (102.3 N). Cooking yields for the steaks/roasts from the injected sections were significantly (P<0.001) higher compared to those from control non-injected sections when cooked to either 71 or 77 °C. Bison samples cooked by moist-heat had significantly (P<0.001) lower cooking losses and shear force values compared to those cooked by dry-heat. As expected, steaks/roasts were more tender and had higher cooking yields when cooked to a medium level of doneness (71 °C) compared to an internal temperature of 77 °C (well done). A panel of 80 consumers preferred injected steaks cooked to 77 °C endpoint over other combinations, followed by non-injected steaks cooked to 71 °C, whereas injected steaks cooked to 71 °C and non-injected steaks cooked to 77 °C were equally but least preferred. Hence, injection seems to be protecting against moisture loss at high end-point cooking temperatures.