Correlation between Tenderness and Other Carcass Characteristics of Hanwoo (Korean Native) Steers

This experiment was carried out to evaluate the tenderness of meat and it''s correlation with other carcass traits of Hanwoo steers. The significantly (p<0.01) higher mastication and shearing were observed in boiled meat than in the raw meat but the coefficient of variations were greater in raw meat than in boiled meat. The correlation between raw and boiled meat for shearing and penetration were positive and significant (p<0.01). Negative and significant correlations were observed between mastication and eye muscle area (p<0.05) and also between shearing and cooking loss (p<0.01) in raw meat whereas, penetration in raw meat was positively and significantly (p<0.05) correlated with age of the steers. Shearing in boiled meat negatively and significantly correlated with age (p<0.05), carcass weight (p<0.01), back fat thickness (p<0.01) as well as muscle score (p<0.01). The pH was not significantly correlated with tenderness in both raw and boiled meat. There were possibilities that the tenderness of boiled meat could be predicted from the raw meat.