Kangaroo meat, naturally tender
New research recently released by Sydney University has provided another reason for Australians to tuck into kangaroo meat. The researchers have described a unique physiological phenomenon which may help explain why kangaroo is so tender and delivers great shelf life.
One of the most important considerations controlling tenderness and shelf life in meat is its ultimate pH and how quickly following slaughter the meat reaches it. The cattle industry has invested millions of dollars in electrical stimulation of carcasses for the sole reason of reducing pH quickly to achieve a more tender product. Well it appears kangaroo has an in-built system which does the same thing, only better.
The Sydney University researchers have found kangaroo meat has an almost instantaneous drop in pH following death as shown in the graph below. This is quite different to beef in which pH drops steadily over a 36 hour period. The researchers as yet have no idea why this is the case, but regardless it explains why kangaroo is 'naturally tender'. It must be said however that the results are still only preliminary but sound enough to generate excitement, they may even uncover a causal agent which will help deliver the same result in other species.
Another interesting finding concerns the amount of moisture loss on cooking in kangaroo meat. Chefs commonly call this 'shrinkage' since the size of the piece of meat shrinks as it loses moisture, and they often claim kangaroo has more shrinkage than eg beef. Wrong! The values for cooking loss obtained for kangaroo by the Sydney University researchers were "not that different to typical values obtained for beef and other domestic meat mammals".
For more information contact:
Development
Manager
Kangaroo Industries Association of Australia
ph 0363 26 8639, or 0417 585 163