AbstractQuantitative relationships have been established between pre‐rigor shortening in beef sternomandibularis muscle and cooking shrinkage and weight loss. Shortening induced by cold increases cooking weight loss and shrinkage across the meat grain, but reduces shrinkage along the fibre direction. The mechanism of fluid discharge from meat on cooking is determined by the degree of pre‐rigor shortening. In unshortened meat, cooking shrinkage along the fibre precedes discharge and transverse swelling occurs to accommodate entrapped fluids. During the cooking of highly shortened meat, fluid discharge occurs mainly across the fibres, the sarcolemmas of which presumably have been split during shortening. Consequently early swelling on cooking does nc
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