Heat Gelation Properties and Protein Extractability of Beef Myofibrils

At a heating rate of 1 o C/min suspensions (pH 6.0) of isolated beef myofibrils were found to start forming gels at 43‐56 o C, as detected by dynamic rheological measurements. The increase in gel storage modulus levelled off at temperatures > 65 o C. At medium to high (0.3‐0.6M) concentrations of sodium chloride, addition of pyrophosphate (plus magnesium chloride) had the following effects: (1) both the protein extractability of non‐heated myofibrils and the storage moduli of heat‐induced gels were markedly increased; (2) the apparent activation energy for gel formation was decreased. Increasing concentrations of sodium chloride, up to 0.5‐0.6M, increased the protein concentration of the liquid phase of the gels.