Cooking End-Point Temperature and Muscle Fiber Composition Influence the Cooked Meat Quality of Boer Goats

This research aimed to understand the effect of different muscle fiber characteristics and cooking temperature on important quality attributes of goat meat, particularly tenderness and water-holding capacity. To achieve this aim, 3 important muscles, namely longissimus thoracis et. lumborum (LTL), psoas major (PM), and semimembranosus (SM), were obtained from 10 castrated 1 y old Boer goats (live weight of 43 ± 2.95 kg). The muscles were measured for quality (cooking loss and Warner-Bratzler shear force [WBSF]), structural (shrinkage measured using caliper), and protein conformation changes (differential scanning calorimetry [DSC]) during heating up to 80°C, using a consistent heating rate across cooking and DSC (10°C/min). Two staining procedures were conducted: determination of the oxidative or glycolytic metabolism of the muscle by nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide tetrazolium reductase staining and acidic staining for acidic myosin adenosine triphosphatase at pH 4.35. The PM muscle had the highest number percentage of type I fibers (P < .001), while the LTL muscle had the lowest percentage of type I fibers. The LTL muscle had a higher (P < .05) number precentage of type IIB fibers than the other 2 muscles, with PM having the lowest. The PM had the lowest (P < .01) number percentage of type IIA fibers, followed by LTL and SM. Ageing and cooking temperature increased (P < .001) cooking loss in both LTL and SM, while muscle type had no significant effect on cooking loss. The WBSF and hue (h) values were negatively correlated (P < .05) with the percentage of type I fibers. Cooking temperature plays a critical role, with higher temperatures leading to increased toughness and shrinkage. DSC results suggested that cooking goat meat to below 60°C may help retain tenderness.