Juichiro J. Matsumoto

On the Estimation of the Fineness of Chopped Meat

If there is an objective method to determine the grade of fineness of chopped meat, it will be useful for improving the mechanism of chopper. Two methods proposed by the authors were based on a phenomenon that, if the shark meat was shaken vigorously with 1 per cent formalin solution, it gave rise, after thirty minutes standing, to a characteristic pattern composed of three layers: thus a cloudy suspension settled down in the bottom; a mass of tissues floating up near the surface; and a slightly opaque solution looked, as it were the intermediary layer (Fig. 1). Upon examination, the floating one seemed to be made of the structural tissues which have escaped from smashing. In the first methcd, measurement of coarseness of tissue, the upper layer was spread over in a Petris dish, and the number of tissue fibers larger than 5mm. was reckoned by the aid of a section-paper of 5mm. unit. In the second of the tests, suspending method, it has been made use of the fact that the finer the meat is chopped, the less the tissues would float on the surface just as the thicker the sediment became (Fig. 1) To confirm the validity of these estimations, various kinds of chopping con ition were applied independently and/or in combination (Tables 1 and 3). Thus the second method proved to agree with the first one which has come from direct inspection of the tissue and it was found that the volume of bottom would be better chosen for the criterion (Fig. 2). The suspending method, though it was conducted on nothing but an empirical basis, was found to have advantage of the other because of its simplicity. When the same method was applied to minced squid meat, it brought forth a different pattern from hat of shark meat, though a similar treatment with some modifications may be successful. (Table 4).