Taste test.

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The Highland ranks 10 out of 14 for the Initial yeild but more importantly 10th for Peak shear test. How could the steer test poor on on the shear test yet get a rating of 1 in tenderness?

Further down the scale a Devon ranked 1 on the peak shear test (which is best) yet scored 14 on tenderness????

Sound fishy to you? Maybe the Warner- Bratzler shear test is valueless?

Someone please enlighten me.
 
What I found interesting was the disparity in scores within breed, noticably simbeef and devon
 
bward":kxg6omuw said:
The Highland ranks 10 out of 14 for the Initial yeild but more importantly 10th for Peak shear test. How could the steer test poor on on the shear test yet get a rating of 1 in tenderness?

Further down the scale a Devon ranked 1 on the peak shear test (which is best) yet scored 14 on tenderness????

Sound fishy to you? Maybe the Warner- Bratzler shear test is valueless?

Someone please enlighten me.

I have no idea :? . I e-mailed them this morning. We will see what they say.
 
bward":3h72kjom said:
The Highland ranks 10 out of 14 for the Initial yeild but more importantly 10th for Peak shear test. How could the steer test poor on on the shear test yet get a rating of 1 in tenderness?

Further down the scale a Devon ranked 1 on the peak shear test (which is best) yet scored 14 on tenderness????

Sound fishy to you? Maybe the Warner- Bratzler shear test is valueless?

Someone please enlighten me.

Here is the e-mail I recieved back.

The article is as stated a reprint from the Australian Highland Cattle
Society Newsletter. Our website is designed to publish articles of interest
to the Highland breeder which I believe we do. We present the articles as
they are and are not really in a position to defend or explain others points
of view.

However, your question is valid, but I think if you read the article you
will glean a number of points which may help ...

Firstly ...

"Samples from champion steers are sent to the CSIRO Meat Research Laboratory
in Brisbane for assessment by the taste test panel." The CSIRO is a top
research laboratory here in Australia see http://www.csiro.au/ and gives a
certain credibility to the testing. I thought it was worth mentioning just
in case you thought CSIRO was some fly by night panel.

Secondly, this was a competition ...

"The Highland carcass had the lowest cooking loss, and was ranked most
tender and most acceptable by the taste test panel."

You will note from the article that ranking from only certain traits (not
all) were used for the competition points ranking. Those used are "marked
with a BOLD/Shaded R" in the table and it is noted as such above and below
the table.

If you count the points in these columns only, then the Highland totals 18.
The "taste panel" obviously ranked the Highland most Tender, scoring it at
1, Juicy, scoring it at 2, Flavour scoring it at 4 and Acceptable 1. On a
points basis this brought the score down despite the high score of 10 for
PF, a mechanical measurement.

Overall the Highland had the lowest total points out of all the breeds
represented. Perhaps this is where you are "reading it wrong" ... Are you
adding all the ranking scores along the table instead of just the ones in
Bold/Shaded?

It appears that pH is not used in the competition points ranking and
therefore the high score was irrelevant in this "competition". You will
note the explanation in the article ... "There are two pH peaks for maximum
tenderness, 5.4 & 6.4. CSIRO prefer the lower value." so that explains the
poor pH scoring.

In summary, this was a "Royal Agricultural Society and Meat Industry
Authority Taste Test Competition" and on the day the Highland won it on
points. Just like any competition it is open to conjecture. When cattle are
paraded in a ring a human judge makes their pick on what they see. In this
case it was the human "senses" (or organoleptic acceptability as stated in
the article) that gave the good scores ... The closest to consumer
preferences ... Just like wine or whisky tasting!!

My own thoughts ... As a Highland breeder I know the meat is good ... Don't
you agree. PF and IY mechanically measure "across & with the grain" and it
would be fair to expect that a high score would equal toughness. However,
the panel had no idea of which meat was which and ranked as they found ...
Which just goes to show that the human taste buds and perception of
tenderness outweigh any mechanical tests. So, not scientific but
impressive none the less! ... And hopefully of interest to other Highland
breeders.

Regards,
Bill.
 

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