The day before the separation of lean and fat trim, primalswere tempered
at 4 °C. Lean and fat trims were separated by dissection, and the
lipid content of each fat and lean trim was measured by gravimetric
chloroform:methanol lipid extraction (Folch, Lees, & Stanley, 1957).
Lean and fat trims were combined to contain 10, 20, or 30% total fat,
coarse ground (1.27 cm), vacuum packaged and stored at −20 °C. A
final grind (0.32 cm) was performed and patties were formed into
136 g patties, vacuum packaged and stored at −20 °C until further
testing, typically less than 14 d after sample collection. The ground
beef preparation was divided into 5 production days.