SUMMARYThe tenderness of meat removed from the carcass in a pre‐rigor condition is highly dependent on the extent of the cold shortening which occurs after excision. The relationship between shortening and tenderness is complex. A decrease of up to 20% of the initial excised length does not exert a significant effect, hut toughness increases rapidly with further shortening beyond this point, reaching a peak of several times its original value (in terms of shear force required) at a shortening of about 40%. With yet further shortening, the meat becomes progressively more tender until, at about 55‐60% shortening, it is cleaved about as easily as meat in which less than 20% shortening has occurred.The presence of intact skeletal attachments does not necessarily overcome the development of shortening‐induced toughness. It is shown that a pre‐rigor muscle which is absolutely fixed in over‐all length is still capable of appreciable shortening in one zone, with compensating lengthening elsewhere, if the application of cold is uneven along its surface.

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SUMMARY As an introduction to a long‐term investigation of meat tenderness, seven series of comparisons were made between sensory and objective evaluations of the tenderness of roasted lamb rib‐loins. Using a tenderometer based on that of Volodkevich, high coefficients of correlation (0.68‐0.94) were found despite the occasional occurrence of large variations in tenderness within single muscles and the detection of slight panel fluctuation in three of the more prolonged series. Sensory assessment of tenderness was shown to be more nearly linearly related to either the reciprocal or the square root of shear force than to shear force itself.