The effects of the degree of cooking on color, cooking weight loss and shear force of beef supraspinatus muscle was evaluated. The muscles were extracted from eighteen Nellore carcasses sides without trimming. Each muscle was weighed before and after trimming to estimate the yield. The ultimate pH and color were achieved in the fresh cuts. The cuts were individually vacuum packed into cook-in bags and placed in a water bath in order to obtain the rare, medium and welldone final temperatures (coldest point) and pasteurized products. Each treatment was performed on groups of six muscles of similar weight. Data obtained indicated that color of rare product was slightly redder than medium product but welldone product was strongly affected by treatment. As expected, welldone product showed higher cooking loss than rare and medium products (34.07, 24.83 and 21.66%, respectively). Shear force values increased from rare to welldone cooking grade ( 4.71, 5.57 and 6.03kgf, respectively) being rare product classified as tender beef.
beef muscle; cook in bag; rare, medium and welldone products; color; cooking loss; shear force
