At-home methods for tenderizing meat using blade tenderization, lime juice and pineapple puree

Area of Science:

• Food Science
• Meat Science
• Culinary Arts

Background:

• Flank steak is a popular but often tough cut of beef.
• Consumers seek convenient, at-home methods to improve meat tenderness.
• Traditional tenderization techniques can be time-consuming or require specialized equipment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the efficacy of at-home tenderization methods for flank steaks.
• To compare the effects of blade tenderization, lime juice, and pineapple puree on beef tenderness.
• To determine the optimal combination of treatments for reducing Warner-Bratzler Shear Force (WBSF).

Main Methods:

• Flank steaks were aged for 28 days postmortem.
• Treatments included blade tenderization (BT) parallel and perpendicular to muscle fibers, and marination with lime juice (LJ) and/or pineapple puree (PP) at 25% of sample weight.
• Tenderness was quantified using Warner-Bratzler Shear Force (WBSF) and analyzed with mixed models.

Main Results:

• Blade tenderization (BT) reduced WBSF by 2.40 N (P=0.03).
• Pineapple puree (PP) significantly reduced WBSF by 4.50 N (P<0.01).
• Treatment combinations of LJ, BT, or PP reduced WBSF by 7.3% to 24%.

Conclusions:

• Blade tenderization and pineapple puree are effective at-home methods for tenderizing flank steaks.
• Lime juice and pineapple puree combinations showed a tendency to alter WBSF, indicating potential synergistic effects.
• These findings provide practical strategies for consumers to enhance the palatability of flank steak at home.