Influence of cooking conditions on cooking loss and tenderness of raw and marinated chicken breast meat

• Published in: Food science & technology Vol. 38; no. 8; pp. 895 - 901
• Main Authors: Barbanti, Davide, Pasquini, Marina
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01-12-2005; Elsevier
• Subjects: air temperature; Animal productions; Biological and medical sciences; breast muscle; Chicken breast; chicken meat; convection ovens; cooking; Cooking loss; cooking quality; Food industries; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; hot air; hot air-steam mixture; marinating; Meat and meat product industries; meat tenderness; proximate composition; raw meat; shear strength; steaming; tenderizing; Tenderness; Terrestrial animal productions; Texture analysis; Vertebrates; Cooking loss; Texture analysis; Chicken breast; Tenderness; Heat treatment; Farming animal; Cooking; Poultry; Meat product; Chicken meat; Vertebrata; Meat animals; Chicken; Aves
• ISSN: 0023-6438; 1096-1127
• DOI: 10.1016/j.lwt.2004.08.017

The influence of different cooking treatments on tenderness and cooking loss, as main quality characteristics of chicken breast meat, was investigated. Industrial skinless chicken breast meat samples were designated as raw and marinated and cooked in the oven by hot air and hot air-steam mixture at 130, 150 and 170
°C, for 4, 8 and 12
min. Cooking losses were evaluated by weight changes before and after cooking, and tenderness changes were determined on cooked samples by measuring shear force using instrumental texture analysis. Results showed that marination, followed by air-steam cooking is the best combination to obtain the most tender chicken breast slices. The time and temperature of cooking showed similar effects on cooking loss and tenderness: short cooking time (4
min) and temperatures of 130–150
°C resulted in lower cooking losses and best meat tenderness, in both not marinated and marinated meat. Statistically significant correlations between tenderness and cooking loss indicated that the cooking loss correlated better with cooking time than with cooking temperature. An opposite phenomenon was observed for meat tenderness.