Before taste panel evaluation, all frozen joints were
allowed to thaw for 72 h at 3 C. After thawing, the
joints were weighed and sealed into cooking bags. All
joints were cooked at a maximum of 200 C in a fanassisted
electric oven, fitted with external temperature
controllers, until an internal temperature of 75 C was
reached. Temperature was monitored by a probe, inserted
periodically into the centre of each joint. Cooking
time of each sample was estimated to be 50 min per kg
plus 25 min. Following cooking, the cooking bag was
removed and each joint was re-weighed, wrapped in
aluminium foil and placed in a warming cabinet (55 C).
Thereafter, joints were removed from the warming
cabinet and treated similarly to chops in strict rotation
to reflect the order that they were placed in the cabinet.
Lean cubes, 222 cm in size, subject to panel taste
evaluation were cut from M. adductor (n=9), M.
femoris (n=5) and M. semitendinosus (n=6). These
muscles were trimmed of exterior fat and cut into cubes
that were subsequently foil wrapped and kept warm
prior to serving for taste panel evaluation.