Consumer Eating Quality, Cooking Traits, and Compositional Assessment of Smoked Briskets From MSA and USDA Graded Beef Carcasses

The objective of this study was to determine consumer eating quality of smoked briskets based on the following factors: combined treatment (carcass grade, diet, country origin), muscle portion (pectoralis profundus = flat vs. pectoralis superficialis = point), serving form (chopped, sliced, pulled), and serving time (hot/fresh or reheated). Subprimals were collected from the combined treatments based on country of origin, diet, and grade of Australian grass-fed (Company grades 2, 3, 4, 5, and cull cow derived from Meat Standards Australia [MSA] predicted muscle composite eating quality [MQ4] scores), Australian grain-fed (Company Graded 2, 3, 4, or 5), or US (USDA Prime, Choice, and Select) carcasses. All briskets were trimmed, seasoned, and smoked whole to a common endpoint temperature (93°C). There was an interaction between combined treatment and muscle portion that influenced consumer scores (P < 0.05) for juiciness, tenderness, flavor liking, overall liking, and the MQ4 score. Consumers had difficulty distinguishing between US and Australian grain-fed or between grain-fed and grass-fed samples for tenderness and juiciness, regardless of muscle portion; however, consumers could differentiate grain-fed from grass-fed for flavor and overall liking within certain quality grade tiers. The samples that were served hot on their original cooking day were scored greater for all traits (P < 0.05) compared to reheated brisket samples. Serving form influenced (P < 0.05) all palatability traits, in which sliced and chopped brisket generally scored greater than pulled brisket samples. These results suggest that consumers have distinct preferences for hot/fresh products and can differentiate different serving forms. Moreover, carcass-combined treatment and muscle interacted, suggesting carcass quality grade may not be a straightforward predictor of smoked brisket eating quality.