Effect of Time and Temperature on Sensory Properties in Low-Temperature Long-Time Sous-Vide Cooking of Beef

Abstract

Slices of beef eye of round were sous-vide cooked for 3, 6, 9, and 12 hours at 56, 58, and 60°C. The results showed that descriptors from a sensory descriptive analysis were divided into two groups based on response to heat treatment. In one group (12 descriptors including juiciness), the intensity of the descriptors increased (or decreased) with both time and temperature. In the other (6 descriptors including tenderness), the intensity increased with temperature but decreased with time (or decreased with temperature but increased with time). The sensory properties of the cooked beef corresponding to the descriptors in the two groups can consequently not be optimized simultaneously, and a compromise between, for example, tenderness and juiciness, is necessary.

Keywords:

• Low-temperature cooking
• sous-vide
• semitendinosus
• LTLT

Acknowledgments

This research was sponsored by the grant “Molecular Gastronomy—The Scientific Study of Deliciousness and Its Physical and Chemical Basis” by The Danish Council for Independent Research | Technology and Production Sciences (FTP). Thanks to Bodil Allesen-Holm, Signe Gadegaard, and Janus Cronquist Mlynek for technical assistance with sensory analysis. Thanks to Frinox ApS, Hillerød, Denmark, for the kind loan of two extra water baths.