Beef customer satisfaction: Cooking method and degree of doneness effects on the top sirloin steak

The objective of this research was to evaluate the consumer-controlled fact ors of cooking method and degree of doneness on Top Choice, Low Choice, Hig h Select, and Low Select top sirloin steaks. The in-home product test was c onducted in Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. Consumers (n = 2,212) evaluated each top sirloin steak for overall like (OLIKE), tender ness (TEND), juiciness (JUIC), flavor desirability (DFLAV), and flavor inte nsity (IFLAV) using 23-point hedonic scales. Top sirloin steaks, regardless of city, were consistently cooked to well done or higher degrees of donene ss. Dry-heat methods such as outdoor grilling, broiling, and indoor grillin g were the most frequent cooking methods used. Four significant interaction s existed for OLIKE: USDA quality grade x cooking method (P = .02), city x cooking method (P = .0001), city x degree of doneness (P = .01), and cookin g method x degree of doneness (P = .009). Greater differences were found be tween cooking methods within USDA quality grade than between USDA quality g rades within cooking method. Consumers in Houston rated steaks cooked by ou tdoor grilling higher than those from the other cities, and steaks cooked b y indoor grilling were rated the highest among all cooking methods by consu mers in Chicago. In Chicago, steaks cooked to more advanced degrees of done ness tended to receive higher ratings, but few differences between degrees of doneness in the other three cities were detected. For outdoor grilling, broiling, and pan-frying, the trend was for OLIKE ratings to decline as deg ree of doneness increased. The lowest customer satisfaction ratings tended to be given to top sirloin steaks cooked to more advanced degrees of donene ss, and consumers most frequently cooked steaks to at least the well done s tage. Consumer information programs or the development of postmortem techni ques that would ensure acceptable palatability of top sirloin steaks may ne ed to be developed.