Science: Tenderized Beef

A new, cheap process for making all kinds and grades of beef more tender was announced last week by Pittsburgh’s Mellon Institute of Industrial Research. The process, sponsored and financed by Kroger Grocery & Baking Co., involves “hanging” the meat so that its enzymes may weaken and break-down the fibres and connective tissues that make meat tough. Ordinarily such hanging (to obtain a few very choice steaks) requires four to eight weeks under expensive cold-storage conditions. In the Mellon-Kroger process it is done in a few days at a temperature of 60°, a relative humidity of 90%. Molds and bacteria, which would spoil such warm, damp meat if left to themselves, are put out of action by ultraviolet light from a Westinghouse lamp.