Quality and Processing Characteristics of Different Beef Cuts from Male and Female Chaidamu Cattle

Chaidamu cattle are a cattle breed originating from the edge of the Chaidamu Basin in Qinghai Province, which can adapt to severe cold, drought and plateau hypoxia, and their meat is delicious as one of the important local animal husbandry resources. By investigating the general slaughter age and referring to the appropriate slaughtering age, this study selected male and female Chaidamu cattle for slaughter at 2 and 6 years of age, respectively. Seven beef cuts including striploin, rump, shoulder, outside flat, knuckle, tendon and flank were taken from each gender for evaluation of nutritional quality and processing characteristics. The results showed that there were large differences in quality and processing suitability among beef cuts and between genders. The protein content of all beef samples was 14.78%–22.55%, the highest value being observed in cow rump (22.55%) and knuckle (21.81%). The fat content was 1.08%–2.72%, with 0.25 percentage points being observed in cow than bull beef. The hardness of bull outside flat was the highest (6148.28 g), followed by bull rump (5819.53 g), and the hardness of cow knuckle (2110.02 g) and bull flank (2586.41 g) was the lowest. Shear force was highest in bull outside flat (11.17 kg) and lowest in cow striploin (5.70 kg). Cooking loss was highest in bull shoulder (51.37%) and cow shoulder (45.62%), and lowest in cow rump (33.43%) and bull tendon (34.19%). The highest and lowest emulsifying capacity were observed in bull knuckle (14.56 g/mL) and bull flank (6.74 g/mL), respectively. Bull shoulder and rump exhibited the highest (84.24%) and lowest (53.59%) gel water retention, respectively. Other indicators such as pH, moisture content, color difference, thawing loss, and emulsion stability were quite different among beet cuts and between genders, which determines the processing suitability of different beef cuts from cows and bulls. Beef rump is suitable for processing minced meat, sausage, and steamed or boiled products; bull outside flat is suitable for processing beef jerky products; beef flank is suitable for processing quick-frozen pre-fried or pre-roasted products; bull shoulder is suitable for processing emulsified meat products; cow shoulder is suitable for processing fried, roasted or instant boiled products; beef tendon is suitable for processing spiced products.