The Science of Electrostimulation
At Tenderbuck, we have spent years researching commercial electrostimulation in science journals and trade publications to identify the most important aspects and essential practices of the electrostimulation process. I've provided links to some of these independent data sources for your review:
What better place to start than Wikipedia? They get it mostly right in their discussion on Rigor Mortis, with the exception of their suggestion that carcasses are stimulated with alternating current. Most industrial research suggests that a pulsed DC current be used to stimulate the carcass. At Tenderbuck, we have developed our device to provide the industry-standard frequency and duty-cycle, with the added benefit of polarity reversal to increase the overall effectiveness of the process.
The Journal of Meat Science issued what we consider to be the grand-daddy of all papers on electrostimulation. The paper addresses all the nuts-and-bolts, including pulse width, duration after slaughter, voltage level, length of stimulation time and carcass temperature, among other things. Supplementary research on the benefits of electrostimulation can be found here.
Here is an interesting read on Benjamin Franklin, meat coloration and a little bit of bio-chemistry explaining why electrostimulated meat is more tender.
Texas A&M University has done extensive work on Electrostimulation, including this early paper addressing benefits of electrostimulation on beef, pork, lamb and goat meat.
And this Paper on low-voltage electrostimulation of Lamb really gets into the biochemistry weeds, but confirms that electrical stimulation improves tenderness through both biochemical changes (accelerated pH decline) and muscle fiber rupture (physical tearing of the musculature).
At Tenderbuck, we believe that nothing succeeds like success, and the fact that our product is the only field-tested large-game portable electrostimulation device, and Tenderbuck stimulated meat is served by top-tier chefs in the finest restaurants in the country, is proof enough that this should be standard equipment for every serious meat-hunter.