Thread: Cold shortening in meat

I came accross the above term and having never heard it before, did a bit of googling. The following article is worth sharing I think;
http://www.meatupdate.csiro.au/data/...PDATE_11-4.pdf

Sweet I think my process should be fine, dress, chiller, butcher, freezer.

Thats what I got out of the 3 lines I read

I will stick with my tried and true method of boning out and separating muscle groups quickly and then chilling for a week before steaking.

My understanding is that I'm most likely to strike toughening from cold shortening if the meat is cut into steaks within the first 24-36 hours during rigor mortis. I think Rushy & Gibo have it right. Separating into muscle groups, followed by chilling for whatever aging period is preferred, then cross-cutting into steaks prior to freezing. Practically for meat shot by hunters the faster the meat (carcass core in whole carcass) can be brought to under 10 degrees the better - I think this still holds as I don't see folk typically having the facilities to chill fast enough to cause cold shortening by excessive chilling rate.