The perfect length of time to age lamb for a delicious bite is 14 days according to a new study out of Murdoch University.

Eating quality of seven different cuts of lamb improved when aged from five to 14 days, but there was no additional benefit beyond this time of ageing.

Associate Professor Liselotte Pannier, from Murdoch University’s School of Agricultural Sciences, who led the research, said the study collected responses from untrained consumers.

“We invited members of the public here in WA to participate and rate seven different cuts on the eating quality traits of tenderness, juiciness, flavour and overall liking,” Associate Professor Pannier said.

“The study involved 153 lambs and 40 young mutton, with a total of 64 eating quality sessions conducted with 3840 consumers evaluating a total of 2304 cuts. This resulted in 23,040 consumer responses.

“We found that ageing lamb cuts from five to 14 days significantly improved eating quality of all cuts but extending ageing to 21 days offered no additional benefits.”

Prior to this study limited research had been undertaken in regard to assessing extended ageing on lamb eating quality of a wide range of cuts.

“Optimal ageing times are crucial for ensuring the highest consumer satisfaction with lamb meat,” Associate Professor Pannier said.

“It is interesting to note that comparatively, eating quality of beef has shown to linearly improve up to 20 days ageing, with smaller improvements in eating quality beyond this time point.”

The cuts of lamb involved in the study were eye of rack, eye of shoulder, knuckle, loin, outside, rump and topside.

Each cut was sliced into five 15mm thick steaks, vacuum packed using standard commercial packaging and aged at two degrees Celsius for either five, 14 or 21 days. The untrained consumers assessed eating quality of lamb cuts following Meat Standards Australia protocols.

The full study is available in Meat Science Ageing of Australian lamb beyond 14 days does not further improve eating quality - ScienceDirect

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