Post Mortem Factors That Affect Toughness or Tenderness of Meat

The most important factors affecting tenderness are cooking methods and heat.

The heat of cooking affects tenderness in two ways:

• Heat tenderizes connective tissue if moisture is present and cooking is slow.
• It toughens protein. Meat can turns tough and dry if cooked at excessively high heat for too long.

(Wayne Gisslen , 2004)

Because high heat toughen and shrinks protein and causes excessive moisture loss, low heat cooking should be the general practice. Among the cooking method preferred are low heat roasting, broiling and simmering. For this reason, our experiment is done by frying at 150 degree Celsius.

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