Restructured Whole-Tissue Meats 407to force the pieces of meat into close contact
to enable the protein matrix on the surface of
the meat pieces to cross - link or bind upon the
application of heat. Shaping can be done by
forcing the meat pieces into a casing or a
mold. The mold could be a simple vacuum
bag in which the meat pieces are stuffed and
then shaped manually by hand, or a more
rigid container made of plastic or metal.
Pressure can be applied to the meat pieces
during shaping using different press methods,
including evacuating the air in the mold
using a vacuum machine or by using a
hydraulic press in order to improve the
contact between meat pieces and the overall
binding. Farouk et al. (2005c) used a steel
mold and a 240 × 300 mm plastic vacuum bag
to shape strips of beef into round and steak -
shaped restructured logs, respectively. An
important consideration during shaping, par-
ticularly when restructuring strips of meat or
intact muscles/cuts, is to ensure that the fi bers
in the meat strips/cuts are aligned in the
direction that gives the fi nal product the
desired look and texture when portioned. In
shaping and deciding on the size of a restruc-
tured log, consideration should be given to
the method to be used in portioning the fi nal
products in order to minimize off - cuts. For
instance, the shape and size of a restructured
block to be ultimately diced into cubes should
refl ect the type and the dimensions of the
dicer; otherwise, a signifi cant proportion of
off - cuts could be generated that may be
unable to be reworked.Hot - Setting/Binding
Heating the protein matrix created on the
surface of the meat pieces will coagulate/
cross - link the proteins and thereby bind the
meat pieces together. The meat pieces should
be heated to a fi nal internal temperature of
57 ° to 68 ° C to achieve proper binding
(Pearson and Gillett 1999 ). Restructured logs
can be hot - set either in their mold or after
portioning. To bind the meat pieces togetherlength into 2 cm^2 strips; a portion of the
mixed strips was minced twice through a
3 - mm plate to form a homogenate; the meat
strips and homogenate (2.4 kg) were mixed
together for one minute and stuffed into a
pressure mold with the muscles fi bers running
along the length of the mold to obtain 12
treatment combinations [3 pressures (1380,
4137, and 6895 kPa) × 4 homogenates (0%,
2.5%, 5%, and 10% wt of meat strips)]. A
manual hydraulic press machine was used to
apply the required pressures to the mixture of
meat homogenate and strips in the mold, and
the whole setup was transferred to a − 30 ° C
freezer for 3 hours to freeze the molded
mixture of meat and homogenate, with the
pressure in the mold maintained during the
freezing process. The frozen molded meat
(logs) were then removed from the mold and
sliced into 1 - cm thick steaks and 2 - cm^3 cubes
(sliced to maintain fi ber length in one direc-
tion) using a band saw. Results obtained
using the process indicate that binding of
meat pieces for hot - setting could be obtained
when pressure ≥ 1,380 kPa alone was used
without binders in restructuring strips of
100 VL beef, which were then sliced into
steaks or frozen free - fl ow cubes; and that the
use of meat homogenate using pressure
tended to increase bind strength in restruc-
tured steaks and cubes.
Regardless of whether the surface protein
matrix is inherent to the meat or added from
outside sources, suffi cient amounts of the
binding protein in its optimum functionality
should be present at the bind junctions of the
meat pieces to provide the binding strength
needed to prevent the bound pieces from
pulling apart during subsequent processing
steps.
Molding or Shaping
Once the surface protein matrix has been
created, the meat to be restructured is molded
or shaped. The main function of molding is
to give the fi nal product its desired shape and