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In article > ,
Peter Huebner > wrote:

> In article >,
> says...
> > Pastorio,
> >
> > Do you know of any good references that talk about stressing an animal
> > too much ruining it's meat? We are having a discussion on another list
> > about why it's a bad idea to hunt deer using dogs... I tried googling it
> > but could not find anything definitive.
> >
> > Cheers!
> >
>
> I don't know if this is find-able, still: Months and months ago somebody
> on misc.rural posted a link to a site of the Australian ministry for
> agriculture (I think, or maybe it was their meat exporters' umbrella
> organisation) about what makes meat tough, what makes it taste good,
> what makes meat tender. It was certainly interesting reading. You may be
> able to find it with an advanced search on google groups. One
> interesting thing I picked up from there about beef was that apparently
> the Brahmin gene is detrimental to good beef flavour and they need to
> work hard to counteract that.
>
> I've learned one or two things about [non]tough meat:
> Stress is bad. The guy who does the in-the-paddock killing and prepping
> for us tells me he can tell by the colour of the blood straight away if
> the animal was stressed and is going to be tough. (a lighter shade w.
> formyness indicates stress i.i.r.c. whereas dark still blood is a good
> omen <sheesh, I hope I remember this right>).
>
> Hanging the meat into the chiller before the carcasse has cooled off is
> BAD. The muscle fibres contract and the meat goes rubbery and tough.
> The abatoirs get around this by running electric current through the
> carcasse to relax all muscle fibres so they can put the meat into cool
> storage straight after the kill. But if you do your own, leave it
> hanging outside until the meat is relaxed and [cold to the touch].
>
> Not leaving it in the chiller long enough is also bad. I like to have my
> meat hang in the chiller for a couple of weeks before butchering and
> freeing. Some people will go further than that.
>
> -Peter

Thanks!
--
Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." -Jack Nicholson