HAVE WE LOST SOME FLAVOUR?!!

Flavour, smell, sight, as anyone in the food industry will tell you are very important. However, over the last few years I have noticed that we may have lost some flavour regarding meat. Have our tastes changed over a period of time? What has modern methods done to the taste of meat?

Flavour results from the combination of basic tastes, which are;

·         Sweet

·         Sour

·         Bitter

·         Salty

·         Umami (savoury, brothy or beefy)

The flavours and aromas associated with beef are generally those that develop during heating.

Marbling i.e. Intra muscular fat, has a big impact on the flavour of beef. Marbling occurs because of the increased amount of fat available for formation of flavour compounds. Traditionally it has been considered to have a significant impact on beef flavour.

It is important to understand what role diet, processing and cooking have on flavour. Beef flavour can be affected by the breed of cattle from which meat is derived.

High energy grain diets produce a more intense flavour in red meats than low energy forage or grass fed diets. Grain feeding generally increases carcass weight and intramuscular fat content, compared with forage feeding.

Ageing improves tenderness but questions remain concerning the effect of ageing on flavour. Ageing alters the aroma and flavour, and can affect the sensory characteristic of the cooked product. Un aged beef has a weak, bland flavour while aged beef has a strong, savoury, roasted flavour.

Dry ageing increases beef flavour more than ageing in a vacuum pack or carbon dioxide (wet ageing).

Beef flavour also results from many compounds present in various proportions.

These are as follows;

·         the breed of the cattle and their diet

·         post mortem changes (enzyme activity or ageing)

·         the muscles in which changes are occurring

·         addition of ingredients (enhancements and marination)

·         storage conditions (time, temperature and atmosphere)

·         heat treatment and post heating storage.

The resulting flavour requires control of all of the above.

Also, an important factor in flavour is what I would call the “nose to tail butchery”. The flavour from oxtail, beef cheeks, bavett, onglet and beef on the bone is a lot more intense than wet aged vac packed boneless beef. We have all seen the old photos of butchers with sides of beef, lamb and pork. I think sometimes we have to look back to go forward.